Part 17

This announcement of political principles appeared in the Sangamon Journal, at that time the only newspaper published in Springfield. The present text, which differs in some details from that found in the various editions of Lincoln's works, follows the original, except in changing the spelling of Sangamo to Sangamon.

PERPETUATION OF OUR POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS.

On the close of the address resolutions were passed requesting the author to furnish a copy to the press, but for some unexplained reason it was not published until a year later. The present text is taken from the Sangamon Journal. Lincoln was one of the organizers of the Lyceum.

All through his life Lincoln showed a marked respect for the law, and the present warning against the consequences of lawlessness, so rhetorically sounded by the young orator of twenty-eight, was a perfectly sincere expression of a profound conviction.

"The gates of hell." Matthew xvi. 18. This quotation was repeated in a speech delivered at Indianapolis twenty-four years later, when civil war was threatening.

THE SPRINGFIELD SPEECH

During the summer of 1858 Lincoln delivered two important anti-slavery speeches at Springfield. The first and more important of these was made June 16,[*] at the close of the Republican State Convention, at which Lincoln was declared the party candidate for the United States Senate. The second, delivered a month later, is in part a defence and explanation of the earlier speech, which had been severely criticised by Lincoln's old opponent Judge Douglas. The first Springfield speech was very carefully prepared and the MS. was submitted to several of Lincoln's friends, all of whom objected to the opening statement as being impolitic and sure to lose the speaker the position for which he was a candidate. Lincoln refused to make any change, however, saying that he preferred to go down linked with truth, if that was necessary.

"A house divided against itself." Suggested by Matthew xii. 25, and Mark iii. 25. This quotation had already been used in 1843 in a Whig circular signed by Lincoln and two others, and in a letter written in 1863 Lincoln speaks of the government as a house divided against itself.

Nebraska doctrine. The doctrine of "squatter sovereignty" was recognized in the bill, introduced in the Senate January 4, 1854, by Douglas, to give territorial government to the district west of Missouri and Iowa known as Nebraska. A similar bill had been introduced the year before by Douglas. In its original form the bill contained no reference to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, but in the form in which it was passed it declared the Missouri Compromise to be null and void. Under the terms of this compromise slavery had been restricted to the territory south of 36 degrees 30 minutes.

Dred Scott decision. This decision was rendered March 6, 1857.

Silliman letter. A statement on the situation in Kansas by the electors of Connecticut, which received its name from Professor Silliman of Yale College, by whom it was in the main drawn up.

Lecompton Constitution. In 1857 a convention was held at Lecompton, Kan., to draw up a state constitution. In this convention the advocates of slavery were in the majority and the instrument was so prepared as not to interfere with slavery wherever it already existed in the territory. The free-soil advocates refused to accept this constitution. When the question of admitting Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution was presented before Congress, Douglas, in accordance with his principles of popular sovereignty, broke with his party and opposed the effort. From our present point of view Lincoln does not seem to do Douglas justice.

Stephen, Franklin, etc. The reference is to Stephen A. Douglas, President Franklin Pierce, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, and James Buchanan. Lincoln's perfectly sincere belief in a deliberate conspiracy among these men to perpetuate slavery, which was shared by many Republicans of that time, is not sustained by the impartial investigations of later historians.

McLean or Curtis. John McLean and Benjamin R. Curtis were the only justices who were strongly opposed to the Dred Scott decision. Curtis, who was a Whig from Massachusetts and who resigned the same year, wrote a minority decision.

Chase and Mace. Salmon P. Chase was at that time Senator from Ohio. Daniel Mace was a Democrat representative, who was opposed to the Nebraska Bill.

Judge Nelson. Samuel Nelson, a justice of the Supreme Court.

"A living dog is better than a dead lion." Ecclesiastes ix. 4.

THE FREEPORT DEBATE.

The Lincoln-Douglas Joint Debates took place in seven towns in various parts of Illinois between August 21 and October 15, 1858. The proposal for these meetings was made by Lincoln in a note addressed to Douglas. The length of each debate and the division of time between the speakers are stated in the opening sentence of the speech given in the text. The speeches, which were all extempore, as far as the actual form is concerned, were later collected from the newspaper reports, and after some slight revision by the authors were published in 1860 in Columbus, Ohio. This volume, from which the present text is taken, contained in addition a number of speeches delivered by Lincoln and Douglas earlier in 1858 and two speeches made by Lincoln in Ohio in 1859. Lincoln's statement at the close of a letter to the publishers, accompanying the copy for the book, is characteristic and interesting: "I wish the reprint to be precisely as the copies I send, without any comment whatever." This Columbus issue was used as a Republican campaign document and large numbers were sold.

The Freeport Debate, the second in the series, was held on the afternoon of August 27. With the exception of the Galesburg Debate, it was the most largely attended of the seven meetings, and in its effect upon the campaign it is now regarded as the most important.

Judge Douglas and myself. In the informal speeches Lincoln frequently committed errors of speech like this. Even during the presidential period he shows a marked tendency to use the cleft infinitive. But in the carefully written addresses the language is almost always correct.

Fugitive Slave law. This statute was passed in 1850 for the stricter regulation of the return of escaped slaves to their owners. In his answer to this question Lincoln showed clearly that he was not an Abolitionist, as that term was then understood.

Question 2. Douglas' reply to this question was as follows: "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." It is claimed that this question was put by Lincoln in spite of the protests of several of his friends, who believed that it would give Douglas an advantage. But here, as in the equally feared Springfield Speech, Lincoln proved his superior sagacity. Douglas' affirmative answer probably gained him the senatorship, but it certainly lost him the presidency two years later.

First Republican State Convention. The reference is to a meeting held in Springfield, which was addressed by Owen Lovejoy. Lincoln was not present on this occasion. Recent investigation seems to show that there was no foundation for the charge that this was exclusively a meeting of Abolitionists, but that it included many men who held the same political views as Lincoln. Douglas honestly believed that the resolutions read by him at the Ottawa meeting were genuine and he was greatly chagrined at the mistake.

By an amendment. This amendment was offered by Douglas.

THE COOPER INSTITUTE ADDRESS.

This address, Lincoln's first important direct message to the people of the East, was very carefully prepared. The text in this volume is taken from The Tribune Tract, issued as a campaign document.

The Northwestern Territory. The district comprising the present States of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, had been ceded to the national government by the original States.