continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in
a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so
conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great
battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that
field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives
that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that
we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot
consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and
dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to
add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we
say here; but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us,
the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which
they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for
us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that
from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for
which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation,
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of
the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from
the earth.
LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS
MARCH 4, 1865
FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN:--At this second appearing to take the oath of the
Presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address
than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of
a course to be pursued seemed very fitting and proper. Now, at the
expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been
constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest
which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the
nation, little that is new could be presented.
The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as
well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably
satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no
prediction in regard to it is ventured.
On the occasion corresponding to this, four years ago, all thoughts
were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it;
all sought to avoid it. While the inaugural address was being
delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union
without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it
without war--seeking to dissolve the Union and divide the effects by
negotiation. 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.
One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed
generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it.
These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew
that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen,
perpetuate, and extend this interest, was the object for which the
insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government
claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial
enlargement of it.
Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which
it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the
conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should
cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental
and astounding.
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 men 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 prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has
been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. “Woe unto the
world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come; but
woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shall suppose that
American slavery is one of these offenses, which in the providence of
God must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed
time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South
this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came,
shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes
which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we
hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may soon
pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth
piled by the bondman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil
shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall
be paid with another drawn with the sword; as was said three thousand
years ago, so still it must be said, “The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether.”
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the
right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to 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 orphans, to do
all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among
ourselves and with all nations.
PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION
JANUARY 1, 1863
Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by
the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the
following, to wit:
“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any
State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be
in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward,
and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States,
including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and
maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to
repress such persons or any of them, in any efforts they may make for
their actual freedom.
“That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by
proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in
which the people thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion
against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people
thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress
of the United States, by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a
majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated,
shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed
conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not
then in rebellion against the United States.”
Now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, by
virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the army and
navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against
the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and
necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first
day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly
proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the day first
above mentioned, order and designate, as the States and parts of States
wherein the people thereof respectively are this day in rebellion
against the United States, the following, to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard,
Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension,
Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Marie, St. Martin, and
Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama,
Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia
(except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and
also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City,
York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk
and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left
precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And, by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order
and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated
States and parts of States are and henceforth shall be free; and that
the Executive Government of the United States, including the military
and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom
of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free, to abstain
from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend
to them that in all cases, when allowed, they labor faithfully for
reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable
condition will be received into the armed service of the United States,
to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man
vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice,
warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the
considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, and caused the seal
of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this first day of January, in the
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and
of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.
[L. S.]
By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, _Secretary of State_.
STEPHEN ARNOLD DOUGLAS
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
STEPHEN ARNOLD DOUGLAS was born at Brandon, Vermont, on the 23d of
April, 1813.
When a child he lived on a farm, working in the fields in the summer
and attending the district school during the winter months. At the age
of fifteen young Douglas realized his condition in life,--that his
widowed mother was not in circumstances to give him an education, so
he suppressed his ambition for college for the time, and apprenticed
himself to a cabinet-maker in Middlebury. Here he worked with
enthusiasm for two years. The following year he spent in Brandon, his
native town, attending the academy. At the close of that year he moved
with his mother to Canandaigua, N. Y., at once becoming a student at
the fine academy located there. He remained in Canandaigua three years,
applying himself diligently to his academic studies, also finding time
to follow a course in the study of law.
In 1833 the young man of twenty-three years removed to Winchester,
Ill., to earn for himself a livelihood. For a few months he taught
school and continued his law studies. The next year he was admitted to
the bar in Jacksonville, where he had stopped for a short time, before
reaching Winchester.
Mr. Douglas was elected State’s Attorney of the First Judicial
District in 1835. In 1836 he was elected to the Illinois legislature.
The following year he was appointed Register of Public Lands at
Springfield, to which place he removed. In 1841 he was appointed
Secretary of State; but soon resigned, to accept the office of Judge
of the Supreme Court of the State. In 1843 Mr. Douglas was elected to
Congress, where he served for two terms; he was re-elected to the House
for the third term, but at the following session of the legislature,
December, 1846, he was chosen for the United States Senate, of which he
remained a member until his death.
Senator Douglas died on the 3d of June, 1861. [Illustration: STEPHEN
A. DOUGLAS]
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE
FIRST JOINT DEBATE, DELIVERED AT OTTAWA, ILL., AUGUST 21, 1858
_Douglas’s Opening Speech_
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--I appear before you to-day for the purpose of
discussing the leading political topics which now agitate the public
mind. By an arrangement between Mr. Lincoln and myself, we are present
here to-day for the purpose of having a joint discussion, as the
representatives of the two great political parties of the State and
Union, upon the principles in issue between those parties; and this
vast concourse of people shows the deep feeling which pervades the
public mind in regard to the questions dividing us.
Prior to 1854, this country was divided into two great political
parties, known as the Whig and Democratic parties. Both were national
and patriotic, advocating principles that were universal in their
application. An old-line Whig could proclaim his principles in
Louisiana and Massachusetts alike. Whig principles had no boundary
sectional line; they were not limited by the Ohio river, nor by the
Potomac, nor by the line of the free and slave States, but applied and
were proclaimed wherever the Constitution ruled or the American flag
waved over the American soil. So it was and so it is with the great
Democratic party, which from the days of Jefferson until this period
has proven itself to be the historic party of this nation. While the
Whig and Democratic parties differed in regard to a bank, the tariff,
distribution, the specie circular, and the sub-treasury, they agreed
on the great slavery question which now agitates the Union. I say that
the Whig party and the Democratic party agreed on the slavery question,
while they differed on those matters of expediency to which I have
referred. The Whig party and the Democratic party jointly adopted the
compromise measures of 1850 as the basis of a proper and just solution
of the slavery question in all its forms. Clay was the great leader,
with Webster on his right and Cass on his left and sustained by the
patriots in the Whig and Democratic ranks, who had devised and enacted
the compromise measures of 1850.
* * * * *
During the session of Congress of 1853-54, I introduced into the Senate
of the United States a bill to organize the Territories of Kansas and
Nebraska on that principle which had been adopted in the compromise
measures of 1850, approved by the Whig party and the Democratic party
in Illinois in 1851, and indorsed by the Whig party and the Democratic
party in national convention in 1852. In order that there might be no
misunderstanding in relation to the principle involved in the Kansas
and Nebraska bill, I put forth the true intent and meaning of the act
in these words: “It is the true intent and meaning of this act not
to legislate slavery into any State or Territory, or to exclude it
therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and
regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only
to the Federal Constitution.” Thus you see that up to 1854, when the
Kansas and Nebraska bill was brought into Congress for the purpose of
carrying out the principles which both parties had up to that time
indorsed and approved, there had been no division in this country in
regard to that principle, except the opposition of the Abolitionists....
In 1854 Mr. Abraham Lincoln and Mr. Lyman Trumbull entered into an
arrangement, one with the other, and each with his respective friends,
to dissolve the old Whig party on the one hand, and to dissolve the
old Democratic party on the other, and to connect the members of both
into an Abolition party, under the name and disguise of a Republican
party. The terms of that arrangement between Lincoln and Trumbull have
been published by Lincoln’s special friend, James H. Matheny, Esq.;
and they were that Lincoln should have General Shields’ place in the
United States Senate, which was then about to become vacant, and that
Trumbull should have my seat when my term expired. Lincoln went to
work to Abolitionize the old Whig party all over the State, pretending
that he was then as good a Whig as ever; and Trumbull went to work in
his part of the State preaching Abolitionism in its milder and lighter
form, and trying to Abolitionize the Democratic party and bring old
Democrats handcuffed and bound hand and foot into the Abolition camp.
In pursuance of the arrangement, the parties met at Springfield in
October, 1854, and proclaimed their new platform. Lincoln was to bring
into the Abolition camp the old-line Whigs and transfer them over to
Giddings, Chase, Fred Douglass, and Parson Lovejoy, who were ready to
receive them and christen them in their new faith. They laid down on
that occasion a platform for their new Republican party, which was thus
to be constructed. I have the resolutions of the State convention then
held, which was the first mass State convention ever held in Illinois
by the Black Republican party; and I now hold them in my hands and will
read a part of them, and cause the others to be printed. Here are the
most important and material resolutions of this Abolition platform:--
_Resolved_, “That we believe this truth to be self-evident, that
when parties become subversive of the ends for which they are
established, or incapable of restoring the government to the true
principles of the Constitution, it is the right and duty of the
people to dissolve the political bands by which they may have
been connected therewith, and to organize new parties upon such
principles and with such views as the circumstances and exigencies
of the nation may demand.
_Resolved_, “That the times imperatively demand the reorganization
of parties, and, repudiating all previous party attachments,
names, and predilections, we unite ourselves together in defense
of the liberty and Constitution of the country, and will hereafter
co-operate as the Republican party, pledged to the accomplishment
of the following purposes: to bring the administration of the
government back to the control of first principles; to restore
Nebraska and Kansas to the position of free Territories; that, as
the Constitution of the United States vests in the States and not
in Congress the power to legislate for the extradition of fugitives
from labor, to repeal and entirely abrogate the fugitive-slave law;
to restrict slavery to those States in which it exists; to prohibit
the admission of any more slave States into the Union; to abolish
slavery in the District of Columbia; to exclude slavery from all
the Territories over which the general government has exclusive
jurisdiction; and to resist the acquirement of any more Territories
unless the practice of slavery therein forever shall have been
prohibited.
_Resolved_, “That in furtherance of these principles we will use
such constitutional and lawful means as shall seem best adapted to
their accomplishment, and that we will support no man for office,
under the general or State government, who is not positively and
fully committed to the support of these principles, and whose
personal character and conduct is not a guarantee that he is
reliable, and who shall not have abjured old party allegiance and
ties.”
Now, gentlemen, your Black Republicans have cheered every one of those
propositions, and yet I venture to say that you cannot get Mr. Lincoln
to come out and say that he is now in favor of each one of them. That
these propositions, one and all, constitute the platform of the Black
Republican party of this day, I have no doubt; and when you were not
aware for what purpose I was reading them, your Black Republicans
cheered them as good Black Republican doctrines.
My object in reading these resolutions was to put the question to
Abraham Lincoln this day, whether he now stands and will stand by
each article in that creed, and carry it out. [1] I desire to know
whether Mr. Lincoln to-day stands as he did in 1854, in favor of the
unconditional repeal of the fugitive-slave law. [2] I desire him to
answer whether he stands pledged to-day, as he did in 1854, against
the admission of any more slave States into the Union, even if the
people want them. [3] I want to know whether he stands pledged against
the admission of a new State into the Union with such a constitution
as the people of that State may see fit to make. [4] I want to know
whether he stands to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery in the
District of Columbia. [5] I desire him to answer whether he stands
pledged to the prohibition of the slave-trade between the different
States. [6] I desire to know whether he stands pledged to prohibit
slavery in all the Territories of the United States, north as well
as south of the Missouri Compromise line. [7] I desire him to answer
whether he is opposed to the acquisition of any more territory unless
slavery is prohibited therein. I want his answer to these questions.
Your affirmative cheers in favor of this Abolition platform are not
satisfactory. I ask Abraham Lincoln to answer these questions, in order
that, when I trot him down to lower Egypt [Southernmost Illinois] I may
put the same questions to him. My principles are the same everywhere.
I can proclaim them alike in the North, the South, the East, and the
West. My principles will apply wherever the Constitution prevails
and the American flag waves. I desire to know whether Mr. Lincoln’s
principles will bear transplanting from Ottawa to Jonesboro? I put
these questions to him to-day distinctly, and ask an answer. I have a
right to an answer; for I quote from the platform of the Republican
party, made by himself and others at the time that party was formed,
and the bargain made by Lincoln to dissolve and kill the old Whig party
and transfer its members, bound hand and foot, to the Abolition party
under the direction of Giddings and Fred Douglass.
In the remarks I have made on this platform, and the position of Mr.
Lincoln upon it, I mean nothing personally disrespectful or unkind to
that gentleman. I have known him for nearly twenty-five years. There
were many points of sympathy between us when we first got acquainted.
We were both comparatively boys, and both struggling with poverty in
a strange land. I was a school-teacher in the town of Winchester,
and he a flourishing grocery-keeper in the town of Salem. He was
more successful in his occupation than I was in mine, and hence more
fortunate in this world’s goods. Lincoln is one of those peculiar men
who perform with admirable skill everything which they undertake. I
made as good a school-teacher as I could, and, when a cabinet-maker, I
made a good bedstead and tables, although my old boss said I succeeded
better with bureaus and secretaries than with anything else; but I
believe that Lincoln was always more successful in business than I, for
his business enabled him to get into the legislature. I met him there,
however, and had sympathy with him, because of the up-hill struggle we
both had in life. He was then just as good at telling an anecdote as
now. He could beat any of the boys wrestling or running a footrace,
in pitching quoits or tossing a copper; could ruin more liquor than
all the boys together; and the dignity and impartiality with which
he presided at a horse-race or fist-fight excited the admiration
and won the praise of everybody that was present and participated.
I sympathized with him because he was struggling with difficulties,
and so was I. Mr. Lincoln served with me in the legislature in 1836,
when we both retired; and he subsided or became submerged, and he was
lost sight of as a public man for some years. In 1846, when Wilmot
introduced his celebrated proviso, and the Abolition tornado swept
over the country, Lincoln again turned up as a member of Congress
from the Sangamon district. I was then in the Senate of the United
States, and was glad to welcome my old friend and companion. Whilst
in Congress, he distinguished himself by his opposition to the Mexican
War, taking the side of the common enemy against his own country; and
when he returned home he found that the indignation of the people
followed him everywhere, and he was again submerged or obliged to
retire into private life, forgotten by his former friends. He came up
again in 1854, just in time to make this Abolition or Black Republican
platform,--in company with Giddings, Lovejoy, Chase, and Fred
Douglass,--for the Republican party to stand upon.
* * * * *
Having formed this new party for the benefit of deserters from Whiggery
and deserters from Democracy, and having laid down the Abolition
platform which I have read, Lincoln now takes his stand and proclaims
his Abolition doctrines. Let me read a part of them. In his speech at
Springfield to the convention which nominated him for the Senate he
said: