cannot say so logically if he admits that slavery is wrong. He cannot say that he would as soon see a wrong voted up as voted down. When Judge Douglas says that whoever or whatever community wants slaves, they have a right to have them, he is 5 perfectly logical if there is nothing wrong in the institution; but if you admit that it is wrong, he cannot logically say that anybody has a right to do wrong. When he says that slave property and horse and hog property are alike to be allowed to go into the territories, upon the principles of equality, he is reason10 ing truly if there is no difference between them as property; but if the one is property, held rightfully, and the other is wrong, then there is no equality between the right and wrong; so that, turn it in any way you can, in all the arguments sustaining the Democratic policy, and in that policy itself, there is a careful, 15 studied exclusion of the idea that there is anything wrong in slavery. Let us understand this. I am not, just here, trying to prove that we are right and they are wrong. I have been stating where we and they stand, and trying to show what is the real difference between us; and I now say that whenever 20 we can get the question distinctly stated, can get all these men who believe that slavery is in some of these respects wrong, to stand and act with us in treating it as a wrong, -- - then, and not till then, I think, will we in some way come to an end of this slavery agitation. LINCOLN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY J. W. FELL, Esq. My dear Sir. (Written for campaign purposes) Springfield, December 20, 1859 Herewith is a little sketch, as you requested. There is not much of it, for the reason, I suppose, that there is not much of me. If anything be made out of it, I wish it to be modest, and not to go beyond the material. If it were thought necessary to incorporate anything from any of my speeches, I suppose there 5 would be no objection. Of course it must not appear to have been written by myself. Yours very truly A. LINCOLN I was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, 10 who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams, and others in Macon County, Illinois. My paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham County, Virginia, to Kentucky about 1781 or 1782, where a year or two later he was killed 15 by the Indians, not in battle, but by stealth, when he was laboring to open a farm in the forest. His ancestors, who were Quakers, went to Virginia from Berks County, Pennsylvania. An effort to identify them with the New England family of the same name ended in nothing more definite than a similarity of 20 Christian names in both families, such as Enoch, Levi, Mordecai, Solomon, Abraham, and the like. My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age, and he grew up literally without education. He removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer County, Indiana, in 25 my eighth year. We reached our new home about the time the state came into the Union. It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up. There were some schools, so called, but no qualification 5 was ever required of a teacher beyond "readin', writin', and cipherin'" to the rule of three. If a straggler supposed to understand Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course, when I came of age 10 I did not know much. Still, somehow, I could read, write, and 15 cipher to the rule of three, but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little advance I now have upon this store of education, I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity. I was raised to farm work, which I continued till I was twenty-two. At twenty-one I came to Illinois, Macon County. Then I got to New Salem, at that time in Sangamon, now in Menard County, where I remained a year as a sort of clerk in a store. Then came the Black Hawk War; and I was elected 20 a captain of volunteers, a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since. I went the campaign, was elated, ran for the legislature the same year (1832), and was beatenthe only time I ever have been beaten by the people. The next and three succeeding biennial elections I was elected to the 25 legislature. I was not a candidate afterward. During this legislative period I had studied law, and removed to Springfield to practice it. In 1846 I was once elected to the lower House of Congress. Was not a candidate for reëlection. From 1849 to 1854, both inclusive, practiced law more assiduously than ever 30 before. Always a Whig in politics; and generally on the Whig electoral tickets, making active canvasses. I was losing interest in politics when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known. If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be said I am, in height, six feet four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing on an average one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with coarse black hair and gray eyes. No other marks or brands recollected. I History Yours truly A. LINCOLN SLAVERY AS THE FATHERS VIEWED IT (Address at Cooper Union, New York, February 27, 1860) 5 Mr. President and Fellow Citizens of New York: The facts with which I shall deal this evening are mainly old and familiar; nor is there anything new in the general use I shall make of them. If there shall be any novelty, it will be in the mode of presenting the facts, and the inferences and observations 10 following that presentation." his speech last autumn at Columbus, Ohio, as reported in the New York Times, Senator Douglas said: Yur Sur fathers, when they framed the government under which we live, understood this question just as well, and even better, than we 15 do now. fully indorse this, and I adopt it as a text for this discourse. ing-point for a discussion between Republicans and that wing What is the frame of government under which we live? The answer must be, The Constitution of the United States." That Constitution consists of the original, framed in 1787, and 25 under which the present government first went into operation, and twelve subsequently framed amendments, the first ten of which were framed in 1789. B sup Who were our fathers that framed the Constitution pose the “thirty-nine" who signed the original instrument may be fairly called our fathers who framed that part of the present government. It is almost exactly true to say they framed it, 5 and it is altogether true to say they fairly represented the opinion and sentiment of the whole nation at that time. Their names, being familiar to nearly all, and accessible to quite all, need not now be repeated. I take these "thirty-nine," for the present, as being "our Io fathers who framed the government under which we live." What is the question which, according to the text, those fathers understood, "just as well, and even better, than we do now is this: Does the proper division of local from federal fors not authority, or anything in the Constitution, forbid our federal 15 government to control as to slavery in our federal territories? Upon this, Senator Douglas holds the affirmative, and Republicans the negative. This affirmation and denial form an Issue; and this issue this question is precisely what the text declares our fathers understood "better than we." Let us 20 now inquire whether the "thirty-nine," or any of them, ever acted upon this question; and if they did, how they acted upon it-how they expressed that better understanding. 1784, three years before the Constitution, the United States then owning the Northwestern Territory, and no other, the 25 Congress of the Confederation had before them the question of prohibiting slavery in that territory;* and four of the thirty-nine" who afterward framed the Constitution were in that Congress, and voted on that question. Of these, Roger Sherman, Thomas Mifflin, and Hugh Williamson voted for the 30 prohibition, thus showing that, in their understanding, no line dividing local from federal authority, nor anything else, properly ९९ *The bill was reported by Thomas Jefferson. It prohibited slavery after 1800 above the parallel of 31° north latitude. It failed to pass by one vote. |