THE DAWN OF NATIONAL LEADERSHIP
In anticipation of his nomination as Senator, Lincoln had carefully
prepared an address of acceptance. It was delivered on the 17th of June,
1858, in the presence of an immense audience at Springfield. At the
time, it was perhaps the most radical speech that had yet burst forth
from a Republican statesman. It is not strange that it astounded his
friends. It baffled their comprehension to find him at a single stride
in the front rank of the radicals. Herndon, the aggressive abolitionist,
was alike bewildered, saying of the first paragraph that it was true;
but asking if it was entirely _politic_ to read or speak it as it was
written. Lincoln said that it made no difference; that it was a truth of
all human experience; that he wanted to use some universally known
figure, expressed in simple language as universally known that might
strike home to the minds of men, in order to rouse them to the peril of
the times; that he would rather be _defeated with that expression_ in
the speech, and have it held up and discussed before the people, than to
be _victorious without it_.[346]
[346] Lamon, 397.
Lamon questioned whether Lincoln had a clear right to indulge in such a
venture, as a representative party man in a close contest, having other
interests than his own in charge, and bound to respect the opinions, and
secure the success of his party. Lamon states that at the Bloomington
Convention he uttered the same ideas in almost the same words; and
their recognition of a state of incipient civil war in a country for the
most part profoundly peaceful,--these, and the bloody work which might
come of their acceptance by a great party, had filled the minds of some
of his hearers with the most painful apprehensions; the theory was
equally shocking to them, whether as partisans or as patriots. Begged to
suppress such speech in the future, he vindicated his utterance, but
after much persuasion, promised at length not to repeat it.[347]
[347] Lamon, 397-398.
The night before its delivery, at a gathering of his close friends,
Lincoln slowly read the first paragraph. No uncertain, unsparing
criticisms followed. It was called "a fool utterance," ahead of the
time, a statement that would frighten many voters.[348] Only one
auditor, his partner, approved the far-reaching statement, saying,
"Lincoln, deliver it just as it reads. It is in advance of the times,
let us--you and I, if no one else--lift the people to the level of this
speech now, higher hereafter. The speech is true, wise and politic, and
will succeed now or in the future. Nay, it will aid you, if it will not
make you President of the United States."
[348] Herndon, 2, 68.
Then Lincoln rose from his chair, walked backwards and forwards in the
hall, stopped and said that he had thought about the matter a great
deal, had weighed the question from all corners, and was thoroughly
convinced the time had come when it should be uttered; and that if he
must go down because of that speech, he would go down linked to truth,
and would say again and again that the nation could not live on
injustice.[349]
[349] Lamon, 399.
This speech stands alone among American orations. Captivating in its
logic, marvellous in its directness, condensed in utterance, it is as
true to Lincoln as the reply to Hayne was to Webster. It is one of the
most momentous addresses in American history. It became the angry battle
ground of local and general campaigns. It directed the issues of
national parties. In a transitional period with the hand of genius it
peerlessly traced party demarcation lines. For the moment in advance of
the national progress it soon became the very gospel of multitudes, the
war cry of the friends of the Union. Plainer to the average man than the
fine phrase of Seward as to "the irrepressible conflict," it brought
home to the daily worker the issues of the hour, put him face to face
with the deep meaning of the whole struggle going on in his very
presence. Its strength was in this--that it put in clear speech the
question that was agitating the common mind and thus gave it form and
being before other men. With prophetic solemnity he indulged in the
philosophic utterance that the slavery agitation would not cease until a
crisis should be reached and passed, saying: "'A house divided against
itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure
permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be
dissolved,--I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect that it
will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the
other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of
it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it
is the course of ultimate distinction, or its advocates will push it
forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the states,--old as
well as new, North as well as South."[350]
[350] Lincoln's Speeches, 1, 240.
Lincoln in the loneliness of his soul passed upon the solemn issue that
the hour for speech and action had come; that the time of compromise was
over; that justice would no longer be trifled with; that the law of
humanity spurned further outrage. He gave voice to the hitherto silent
sentiments of many. The period for the judicious utterance of radical
truth had come. In a few years what then seemed the outburst of a
perverted attitude became the common thought of the multitude.
And so again Lincoln showed his keen sense of the drift of events. In
this he was wiser than the pure politicians. When events justified his
foresight, some were found who cherished the notion that Lincoln was
guided by self-seeking motives in his radical advocacy. Two biographers
think that Lincoln was quietly dreaming of the Presidency, and edging
himself to a place in advance, where the tide might take him up in 1860;
that as sectional animosities, far from subsiding, were growing deeper
and stronger with time, Lincoln knew that the next nominee of the
exclusively Northern party must be a man of radical views, and so the
speech was intended to take the wind out of Seward's sails.[351]
[351] Lamon, 406.
The biographer who sees a plotting, scheming Lincoln in all this is far
from understanding the real man. For mingled with his political sagacity
was a sublime communion with the mighty spirit of world justice. Elated
at the approaching clash of freedom and slavery, believing that out of
the conflict would come a better humanity, he rejoicingly dwelt in the
pure realm of the unfettered utterance of a truth, far above the
stifling valley of commonplace diplomacy. To him it was a rare moment of
utter freedom without calculation, moving through regions of unclouded
justice and righteous outlook.
Criticism bitter and biting of political friends did not shake his
serenity or his belief in his diagnosis of the national disease. He
lived so long with the solution, that he showed the calmness of a
historian in judging passing events. Slow to value highly his own
service, he was proudly aware of the intrinsic worth of this utterance.
To a friend who said that the foolish speech would kill him, Lincoln
replied that if he had to draw a pen across, and erase his whole life
from existence, and he had one poor gift or choice left, as to what he
would save from the wreck, he would choose that speech, and leave it to
the world unerased.[352]
[352] Lamon, 407.
Withal, the speech was wisely framed. It aroused the fear of the
Northerners with the statement that they would lie down pleasantly
dreaming that the people of Missouri were on the verge of making their
State free, and they would awake to the reality instead that the Supreme
Court had made Illinois a slave state.[353] The dread that slavery might
invade the free States of the North, as it ceased to be something more
than a possibility, haunted and horrified the North. Some who bore with
complacency the servitude of the black men in the distance fumed with
anger as they contemplated even a prospect of a closer relation of the
institution. Thus the self interest of the North was played upon. This
practical danger more than all abstract arguments awakened free
communities. Douglas saw the danger of this appeal. He could no longer
hold North and South. It put him on the defensive. Lincoln forced the
fighting. It became necessary for Douglas to make the speech of Lincoln
the basis of his discussion.
[353] Lincoln's Speeches, 1, 244.
Lincoln weighed his speech at its soul value, and measured its truth and
worth in lonely struggle. No counsel could stay his purpose. He had come
upon another crisis in his career. He could no longer compromise with
himself in safety, the hour of decision could not be delayed. He faced
defeat in all its darkness but afar he saw the star of simple duty. If
he had faltered or cringed he might have become Senator, but that
distinction only would have crowned him. He had the rare perception of
knowing when to be firm as the earth beneath, of distinguishing between
policy and principle, of ever keeping his integrity unsullied by barter
or bargain. It is noteworthy that the very speech politicians deemed the
graveyard of his career in reality became his apotheosis. The politician
of Illinois became a national leader. From that time, he loomed large in
the history of the Republican party and was regarded as wise in counsel
and brave in speech. Before Seward, he put in concrete utterance the
very philosophy of Republicanism. And that party had reason to regard
him with favor as a possible guide in the gathering contest.
This speech gave Lincoln a prominence that led to the dramatic debates
with Douglas and that fastened the attention of the nation on the
combat. The Lincoln-Douglas controversy was the fruition of this
Springfield speech. This address is the most fitting line of demarcation
between Lincoln the Citizen of Illinois and Lincoln the Citizen of the
United States.