If one reads the life of Abraham Lincoln they are thoroughly convinced
that the possibilities of our country are indeed very great. He was born
in Hardin county, Kentucky, on the 14th day of February, 1809, of very
poor parents, who lived in a log cabin.
Scarcely a boy in the country will read these lines but has tenfold the
opportunity to succeed in the world as had Abraham Lincoln. When he was
still a little boy his parents moved to Indiana, which was then a
wilderness. Here, in a log cabin, he learned to read under the tuition
of his mother and afterward received nearly a year's schooling at
another log cabin a mile away,--nearly a year's schooling and all the
schooling he ever received from a tutor!
But he loved books, he craved knowledge and eagerly did he study the few
books which fell in his way. He kept a scrap-book into which he copied
the striking passages and this practice enabled him to gain an
education. Here he grew up, becoming famous for his great strength and
agility; he was six foot four inches in his stockings and was noted as
the most skillful wrestler in the country. When he was about twenty
years old the Lincoln family moved to Illinois, settling ten miles from
Decatur, where they cleared about fifteen acres and built a log cabin.
Here is where Lincoln gained his great reputation as a rail-splitter. He
had kept up his original system of reading and sketching, and from this
period in his life he became a marked man--he was noted for his
information. It makes little difference whether knowledge is gained in
college or by the side of a pile of rails, as Lincoln was wont to study
after his day's work was done.
In 1830 he took a trip on a flat-boat to New Orleans. It was on this
trip that he first saw slaves chained together and whipped. Ever after,
he detested the institution of slavery. Upon his return he received a
challenge from a famous wrestler; he accepted and threw his antagonist.
About this time he became a clerk in a country store, where his honesty
and square dealing made him a universal favorite, and earned for him the
sobriquet of 'Honest Abe.' He next entered the Black Hawk war, and was
chosen captain of his company. Jefferson Davis also served as an
officer in this war. In the fall of 1832 he was a candidate for the
legislature, but was defeated. He then opened a store with a partner
named Berry. Lincoln was made postmaster, but Berry proved a drunkard
and spendthrift, bringing the concern to bankruptcy, and soon after
died, to fill a drunkard's grave, leaving Lincoln to pay all the debts.
But during all this time Lincoln had been improving his spare moments
learning surveying, and for the next few years he earned good wages
surveying.
He now decided to become a lawyer, and devoted his attention, so far as
possible, to the accumulation of a thorough knowledge. At one period
during his studies he walked, every Saturday, to Springfield, some eight
miles away, to borrow and return books pertaining to his studies. These
books he studied nights, and early in the morning, out of working hours.
In 1834 he was once more a candidate for the legislature, and was
triumphantly elected, being re-elected in 1836, 1838, and 1840. In 1837,
when he had arrived at the age of twenty-eight, he was admitted to the
bar, where he soon became noted as a very successful pleader before a
jury. He was a Whig of the Henry Clay school, a splendid lawyer, and a
ready speaker at public gatherings.
In 1836 he first met Stephen A. Douglas who was destined to be his
adversary in the political arena for the next twenty years. Stephen A.
Douglas was, or soon became the leader of the Democracy in Illinois and
Lincoln spoke for the Whigs as against Douglas. In 1847 Lincoln was sent
to Congress, being chosen over the renowned Peter Cartwright, who was
the Democratic candidate. In Congress he vigorously opposed President
Polk and the Mexican war, and proposed a bill to abolish slavery in the
District of Columbia, provided the inhabitants would vote for it. In
1855 he withdrew from the contest for the United States Senatorship in
favor of Mr. Trumbull, whom he knew would draw away many Democratic
votes and to Lincoln was due Trumbull's election. During the canvass he
met Stephen A. Douglas in debate at Springfield, where he exploded the
theory of 'Squatter Sovereignty' in one sentence, namely: "I admit that
the emigrant to Kansas and Nebraska is competent to govern himself, but
I deny his right to govern any other person without that person's
consent."
In 1858 he had his great contest for the United States Senatorship with
Douglas. At that time Judge Douglas was renowned throughout the nation
as one of the ablest, if not the ablest of American speakers. Horace
Greeley well said, "The man who stumps a State with Stephen A. Douglas
and meets him day after day before the people has got to be no fool."
The tremendous political excitement growing out of the 'Kansas-Nebraska
Act,' and the agitation of the slavery question, in its relation to the
vast territory of Kansas and Nebraska, convulsed the nation. The
interest was greatly heightened from the fact that these two great
gladiators, Stephen A. Douglas, the great mouth-piece of the Democratic
party and champion of 'Squatter Sovereignty,' and Abraham Lincoln, a
prominent lawyer, but otherwise comparatively unknown, the opponent of
that popular measure and the coming champion of the anti-slavery party.
The question at issue was immense--permanent, not transient--universal,
not local, and the debate attracted profound attention on the part of
the people, whether Democratic or Free Soil, from the Kennebec to the
Rio Grande. Mr. Douglas held that the vote of the majority of the
people of a territory should decide this as well as all other questions
concerning their domestic or internal affairs. Mr. Lincoln, on the
contrary, urged the necessity of an organic enactment, excluding slavery
in any form--this last to be the condition of its admission into the
Union as a State. The public mind was divided and the utterances and
movements of every public man were closely scanned. Finally, after the
true western style, a joint discussion, face to face, between Lincoln
and Douglas, as the two representative leaders, was proposed and agreed
upon. It was arranged that they should have seven great debates, one
each at Ottawa, Freeport, Charleston, Jonesboro, Galesburg, Quincy, and
Alton.
Processions and cavalcades, bands of music and cannon-firing made every
day a day of excitement. But the excitement was greatly intensified from
the fact that the oratorical contests were between two such skilled
debaters, before mixed audiences of friends and foes, to rejoice over
every keen thrust at the adversary, and again to be cast down by each
failure to 'give back as good,' or to parry the thrust so aimed.
In personal appearance, voice, gesture and general platform style,
nothing could exceed the dissimilarity of these two speakers. Mr.
Douglas possessed a frame or build particularly attractive; a natural
presence which would have gained for him access to the highest circles,
however courtly, in any land; a thickset, finely built, courageous man,
with an air as natural to him as breath, of self-confidence that did not
a little to inspire his supporters with hope. That he was every inch a
man no friend or foe ever questioned. Ready, forceful, animated, keen,
playful, by turns, and thoroughly artificial; he was one of the most
admirable platform speakers that ever appeared before an American
audience, his personal geniality, too, being so abounding that,
excepting in a political sense, no antagonism existed between him and
his opponent.
Look at Lincoln. In personal appearance, what a contrast to his renowned
opponent. Six feet and four inches high, long, lean and wiry in motion;
he had a good deal of the elasticity and awkwardness which indicated the
rough training of his early life; his face genial looking, with good
humor lurking in every corner of its innumerable angles. Judge Douglas
once said, "I regard Lincoln as a kind, amiable and intelligent
gentleman, a good citizen and an honorable opponent." As a speaker he
was ready, precise, fluent and his manner before a popular assembly was
just as he pleased to make it; being either superlatively ludicrous or
very impressive. He employed but little gesticulation but when he
desired to make a point produced a shrug of the shoulders, an elevation
of the eyebrows, a depression of his mouth and a general malformation of
countenance so comically awkward that it scarcely ever failed to 'bring
down the house.' His enunciation was slow and distinct, and his voice
though sharp and piercing at times had a tendency to dwindle into a
shrill and unpleasant tone. In this matter of voice and commanding
attitude, the odds were decidedly in favor of Judge Douglas.
Arrangements having been consummated, the first debate took place at
Ottawa, in Lasalle county, and a strong Republican district. The crowd
in attendance was a large one, and about equally divided--the enthusiasm
of the Democracy having brought more than a due proportion of their
numbers to hear and see their favorite leader. The thrilling tones of
Douglas, his manly defiance against the principles he believed to be
wrong assured his friends, if any assurance were wanting, that he was
the same unconquered and unconquerable Democrat that he had proved to be
for the previous twenty-five years.
Douglas opened the discussion and spoke one hour; Lincoln followed, the
time assigned him being an hour and a half, though he yielded a portion
of it. It was not until the second meeting, however, that the speakers
grappled with those profound public questions that had thus brought them
together, and in which the nation was intensely interested. The debates
were a wonderful exhibition of power and eloquence.
In the first debate Mr. Douglas arraigned his opponent for the
expression in a former speech of a "House divided against itself,"
etc.,--referring to the slavery and anti-slavery sections of the
country; and Mr. Lincoln defended those ideas as set forth in the speech
referred to. As Mr. Lincoln's position in relation to one or two points
growing out of the former speech referred to, had attracted great
attention throughout the country, he availed himself of the opportunity
of this preliminary meeting to reply to what he regarded as common
misconceptions. "Anything," he said, "that argues me into the idea of
perfect social and political equality with the negro is but a specious
and fantastic arrangement of words, by which a man can prove a
horse-chestnut to be a chestnut horse. I will say here, while upon this
subject, that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere
with the institution of slavery in the States where it now exists. I
believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do
so. I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between
the white and black races. There is a physical difference between the
two which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living
together upon a footing of perfect equality, and inasmuch as it becomes
a matter of necessity that there must be a difference I, as well as
Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong, having the
superior position. I have never said anything to the contrary, but I
hold that notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why
the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the
Declaration of Independence--the right to life, liberty, and the
pursuits of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as
the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many
respects--certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral and intellectual
endowment. But in the right to eat the bread without the leave of any
one else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal, and the equal of
Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man."
Touching the question of respect or weight of opinion due to deliverance
of the United States Supreme Court--an element which entered largely
into this national contest, Mr. Lincoln said: "This man--Douglas--sticks
to a decision which forbids the people of a territory from excluding
slavery, and he does so, not because he says it is right in itself--he
does not give any opinion on that, but because it has been decided by
the Court, and being decided by the Court, he is, and you are bound to
take it in your political action as law; not that he judges at all of
its merits, but because a decision of the Court is to him a 'Thus saith
the Lord.' He places it on that ground alone, and you will bear in mind
that thus committing himself unreservedly to this decision, commits him
to the next one just as firmly as to this. He did not commit himself on
account of the merit or demerit of the decision, but is a 'Thus saith
the Lord.' The next decision, as much as this, will be a 'Thus saith the
Lord.' There is nothing that can divert or turn him away from this
decision. It is nothing that I point out to him that his great
prototype, General Jackson, did not believe in the binding force of
decisions--it is nothing to him that Jefferson did not so believe. I
have said that I have often heard him approve of Jackson's course in
disregarding the decision of the Supreme Court, pronouncing a national
bank unconstitutional. He says: I did not hear him say so; he denies the
accuracy of my recollection. I say he ought to know better than I, but I
will make no question about this thing, though it still seems to me I
heard him say it twenty times. I will tell him, though, that he now
claims to stand on the Cincinnati platform which affirms that Congress
_cannot_ charter a national bank, in the teeth of that old standing
decision that Congress _can_ charter a bank. And I remind him of another
piece of history on the question of respect for judicial decisions, and
it is a piece of Illinois history belonging to a time when the large
party to which Judge Douglas belonged were displeased with a decision of
the Supreme Court of Illinois, because they had decided that a Governor
could not remove a Secretary of State. I know that Judge Douglas will
not deny that he was then in favor of oversloughing that decision by the
mode of adding five new judges, so as to vote down the four old ones.
Not only so, but it ended in the judge's sitting down on that very
bench, as one of the five new judges so as to break down the four old
ones." In this strain Mr. Lincoln occupied most of his time. But the
debate was a very equal thing, and the contest did not prove a 'walk
over' either way.
At the meeting in Ottawa Mr. Lincoln propounded certain questions to
which Judge Douglas promptly answered. Judge Douglas spoke in something
of the following strain: "He desires to know if the people of Kansas
shall form a constitution by means entirely proper and unobjectionable,
and ask admission into the Union as a State before they have the
requisite population for a member of Congress, whether I will vote for
that admission? Well, now, I regret exceedingly that he did not answer
that interrogatory himself before he put it to me, in order that we
might understand and not be left to infer on which side he is. Mr.
Trumbull during the last session of Congress voted from the beginning to
the end against the admission of Oregon, although a free State, because
she had not the requisite population. As Mr. Trumbull is in the field
fighting for Mr. Lincoln, I would like to have Mr. Lincoln answer his
own question and tell me whether he is fighting Trumbull on that issue
or not. But I will answer his question. In reference to Kansas it is my
opinion that as she has population enough to constitute a slave State,
she has people enough for a free State. I will not make Kansas an
exceptional case to the other States of the Union. I made that
proposition in the Senate in 1856, and I renewed it during the last
session in a bill providing that no territory of the United States
should form a constitution and apply for admission until it had the
requisite population. On another occasion I proposed that neither Kansas
nor any other territory should be admitted until it had the requisite
population. Congress did not adopt any of my propositions containing
this general rule, but did make an exception of Kansas. I will stand by
that exception. Either Kansas must come in as a free State, with
whatever population she may have, or the rule must be applied to all the
other territories alike."
Mr. Douglas next proceeded to answer another question proposed by Mr.
Lincoln, namely: Whether the people of a territory can, in any lawful
way, against the wishes of any citizen of the United States, exclude
slavery from their limits prior to the formation of a State
constitution. Said Judge Douglas: "I answer emphatically, as Mr. Lincoln
has heard me answer a hundred times from every stump in Illinois, that
in my opinion the people of a territory can, by lawful means, exclude
slavery from their limits prior to the formation of a State
constitution. Mr. Lincoln knew that I had answered that question over
and over again. He heard me argue the Nebraska Bill on that principle
all over the State in 1854, in 1855 and in 1856, and he has no excuse
for pretending to be in doubt as to my position. It matters not what way
the Supreme Court may hereafter decide as to the abstract question,
whether slavery may or may not go into a territory under the
constitution, the people have the lawful means to introduce it or
exclude it as they please, for the reason that slavery cannot exist a
day or an hour unless it is supported by local police regulations. Those
police regulations can only be established by the local legislature, and
if the people are opposed to slavery they will elect representatives to
that body who will, by unfriendly legislation, effectually prevent the
introduction of it into their midst. If, on the contrary, they are for
it their legislation will favor its extension. Hence, no matter what the
decision of the Supreme Court may be on that abstract question, still
the right of the people to make a slave territory or free territory is
perfect and complete under the Nebraska Bill."
It was with great vigor and adroitness that the two great combatants
went over the ground at the remaining five places of debate, all of
which were attended and listened to by immense concourses. On both sides
the speeches were able, eloquent, exhaustive. It was admitted by
Lincoln's friends that on several occasions he was partly foiled, or at
least badly bothered, while on the other hand the admirers of Douglas
allowed that in more than one instance he was flatly and fairly floored
by Lincoln. It was altogether about an equal match in respect to
ability, logic, and eloquence. Both of them were self-made men; both of
them were able lawyers and politicians; both sprang from obscurity to
distinction; both belonged to the common people; and both were strong
and popular with the masses.
Though defeated by an unfair apportionment of the legislative districts
for the senatorship, yet Lincoln so ably fought the great Douglas with
such wonderful power as to surprise the nation. Heretofore but little
known out of his native State; this debate made him one of the two most
conspicuous men in the nation, and the excitement was intensified from
the fact that both from that hour were the chosen opponents for the
coming presidential contest.
At the ensuing presidential contest Lincoln was elected to the
presidency, and the gory front of secession was raised. Forgetting past
differences, Douglas magnanimously stood shoulder to shoulder with
Lincoln in behalf of the Union. It was the olive branch of genuine
patriotism. But while proudly holding aloft the banner of his nation in
the nation councils, and while yet the blood of his countrymen had not
blended together and drenched the land, the great senator was suddenly
snatched from among the living in the hour of the country's greatest
need; while the brave Lincoln was allowed to see the end--the cause
triumphant, when he was also called from death unto life.
Lincoln elected, though he was, and admitted to have received his
election fairly and triumphantly, was yet of necessity compelled to
enter Washington, like a thief in the night, to assume his place at the
head of the nation. Lincoln met the crisis calmly but firmly. He had
watched the coming storm and he asked, as he bade adieu to his friends
and fellow-citizens, their earnest prayers to Almighty God that he might
have wisdom and help to see the right path and pursue it. Those prayers
were answered. He guided the ship of State safely through the most angry
storm that ever demanded a brave and good pilot. We can only gaze in awe
on the memory of this man. He seemingly knew in a moment, when placed in
a trying position that would have baffled an inferior mind, just what to
do for the best interest of the nation.
Mr. Lincoln had unsurpassed fitness for the task he had to execute.
Without anything like brilliancy of genius, without breadth of learning
or literary accomplishments, he had that perfect balance of thoroughly
sound faculties which gave him the reputation of an almost infallible
judgment. This, combined with great calmness of temper, inflexible
firmness of will, supreme moral purpose, and intense patriotism made up
just that character which fitted him, as the same qualities fitted
Washington, for the salvation of his country in a period of stupendous
responsibility and eminent peril.
Although far advanced on the question of slavery, personally, he was
exceedingly careful about pushing measures upon a country he knew was
hardly prepared as yet to receive such sweeping legislation. An
acquaintance once said: 'It is hard to believe that very nearly one-half
of the Republican party were opposed to the issue of the proclamation of
emancipation.' Thus Lincoln avoided all extremes, and this quality alone
made him eminently fit to govern. Yet, when necessary, he was stern and
unrelenting. When the British minister desired to submit instructions
from his government, stating that that government intended to sustain a
neutral relation, he refused to receive it officially. When France
demanded recognition by the United States of the government of
Maximilian, in Mexico, he steadily refused. He was firm as a rock; he
would ride post haste twenty miles to pardon a deserter, but under no
consideration could he be induced to suspend hostilities against a
people who were trying to destroy the Union. All sorts of political
machinery was invented to manufacture public opinion and sentiment
against him, but he was triumphantly re-elected in 1864.
The morning of Lincoln's second inauguration was very stormy, but the
sky cleared just before noon, and the sun shone brightly as he appeared
before an immense audience in front of the capitol, and took the oath
and delivered an address, alike striking for its forcible expressions
and conciliatory spirit. He spoke something as follows:
"On the occasion corresponding to this, four years ago, all thoughts
were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. * * * Both parties
deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the
nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it
perish; and the war came. * * * Both read the same Bible, and pray to
the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem
strange that any man should dare to ask a just God's assistance in
wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us
judge not that we be not judged. The prayer of both could not be
answered. That of neither has been fully. * * * With malice toward none,
with charity for all, with the firmness in the right, as God gives us
light to see the right, let us finish the work we are in to bind up the
nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and
for his widow and his orphans, to all which may achieve and cherish a
just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
He hated slavery from the beginning, but was not an abolitionist until
it was constitutional to be so. At the head of the nation, when
precedents were useless, he was governed by justice only. He was
singularly fortunate in the selection of his cabinet officers, and the
reason was he never allowed prejudice to prevent his placing a rival in
high office.
Yes, Mr. Lincoln is probably the most remarkable example on the pages of
history, showing the possibilities of our country. From the poverty in
which he was born, through the rowdyism of a frontier town, the rudeness
of frontier society, the discouragement of early bankruptcy, and the
fluctuations of popular politics, he rose to the championship of Union
and freedom when the two seemed utterly an impossibility; never lost
his faith when both seemed hopeless, and was suddenly snatched from
earth when both were secured. He was the least pretentious of men, and
when, with the speed of electricity, it flashed over the Union that the
great Lincoln--shot by an assassin--was no more, the excitement was
tremendous. The very heart of the republic throbbed with pain and
lamentation. Then the immortal President was borne to his last
resting-place in Springfield, Illinois. All along the journey to the
grave, over one thousand miles, a continual wail went up from friends
innumerable, and they would not be comforted. Never was there a grander,
yet more solemn funeral accorded to any, ancient or modern. He was a
statesman without a statesman's craftiness, politician without a
politician's meanness, a great man without a great man's vices, a
philanthropist without a philanthropist's dreams, a christian without
pretensions, a ruler without the pride of place or power, an ambitious
man without selfishness, and a successful man without vanity. Humble man
of the backwoods, boatman, axman, hired laborer, clerk, surveyor,
captain, legislator, lawyer, debater, orator, politician, statesman.
President, savior of the republic, emancipator of a race, true
christian, true man.
Gaze on such a character; does it not thrill your very soul and cause
your very heart to bleed that such a man should be shot by a dastardly
assassin? Yet on the 14th of April, 1865, J. Wilkes Booth entered the
private box of the President, and creeping stealthily from behind, as
become the dark deed which he contemplated, deliberately shot Abraham
Lincoln through the head, and the country lost the pilot in the hours
when she needed him so much.