Books: The Life of Abraham Lincoln

H >> Henry Ketcham >> The Life of Abraham Lincoln

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20

Twelve days later, on October 16, Lincoln had promised to speak in
Peoria. To that place Douglas followed, or preceded him. Douglas made
his speech in the afternoon, and Lincoln followed in the evening. It
was the same line of argument as in the other speech. Lincoln later
consented to write it out for publication. We thus have the Springfield
and Peoria speech, _minus_ the glow of extemporaneous address, the
inspiration of the orator. These are important factors which not even
the man himself could reproduce. But we have his own report, which is
therefore authentic. The most salient point in his speech is his reply
to Douglas's plausible representation that the people of any locality
were competent to govern themselves. "I admit," said Lincoln, "that the
emigrant to Kansas and Nebraska is competent to govern himself, but I
deny his right to govern any other person without that other person's
consent." This is the kernel of the entire question of human slavery.

The result of this speech at Peoria was less dramatic than that at
Springfield, but it was no less instructive. Douglas secured from
Lincoln an agreement that neither of them should again speak during
that campaign. It was quite evident that he had learned to fear his
antagonist and did not wish again to risk meeting him on the rostrum.
Lincoln kept the agreement. Douglas did not. Before he got home in
Chicago, he stopped off to make another speech.

These speeches were made in 1854. It is now worth while to skip over
two years to record another epoch-making speech, one which in spirit
and temper belongs here. For it shows to what intensity Lincoln was
aroused on this vast and ever-encroaching subject of slavery. This was
at the convention which was held in Bloomington for the purpose of
organizing the Republican party. The date of the convention was May 29,
1856. The center of interest was Lincoln's speech. The reporters were
there in sufficient force, and we would surely have had a verbatim
report--except for one thing. The reporters did not report. Let Joseph
Medill, of the Chicago _Tribune_, tell why:

"It was my journalistic duty, though a delegate to the convention, to
make a 'long-hand' report of the speeches delivered for the Chicago
_Tribune_. I did make a few paragraphs of what Lincoln said in the
first eight or ten minutes, but I became so absorbed in his magnetic
oratory, that I forgot myself and ceased to take notes, and joined with
the convention in cheering and stamping and clapping to the end of his
speech.

I well remember that after Lincoln had sat down and calm had succeeded
the tempest, I waked out of a sort of hypnotic trance, and then thought
of my report for the _Tribune_. There was nothing written but an
abbreviated introduction.

It was some sort of satisfaction to find that I had not been 'scooped,'
as all the newspaper men present had been equally carried away by the
excitement caused by the wonderful oration, and had made no report or
sketch of the speech."

Mr. Herndon, who was Lincoln's law partner, and who knew him so
intimately that he might be trusted to keep his coolness during the
enthusiasm of the hour, and who had the mechanical habit of taking
notes for him, because he was his partner, said: "I attempted for about
fifteen minutes, as was usual with me then, to take notes, but at the
end of that time I threw pen and paper away and lived only in the
inspiration of the hour."

There is no doubt that the audience was generally, if not unanimously,
affected in the same way. The hearers went home and told about this
wonderful speech. Journalists wrote flaming editorials about it. The
fame of it went everywhere, but there was no report of it. It therefore
came to be known as "Lincoln's lost speech."

Precisely forty years afterwards one H. C. Whitney published in one of
the magazines an account of it. He says that he made notes of the
speech, went home and wrote them out. Why he withheld this report from
the public for so many years, especially in view of the general demand
for it, does not precisely appear. The report, however, is interesting.

But after the lapse of nearly half a century, it is a matter of minor
importance whether Mr. Whitney's report be accurate or not. To us the
value of the three speeches mentioned in this chapter is found largely
in the impression they produced upon the hearers. The three taken
together show that Lincoln had waked to a new life. The lion in him was
thoroughly roused, he was clothed with a tremendous power, which up to
this point had not been suspected by antagonists nor dreamed of by
admiring friends. This new and mighty power he held and wielded until
his life's end. Thenceforth he was an important factor in national
history.

CHAPTER XIII.

TWO THINGS THAT LINCOLN MISSED.

Lincoln's intimate friends have noted that he seemed to be under the
impression that he was a man of destiny. This phrase was a favorite
with Napoleon, who often used it of himself. But the two men were so
widely different in character and career, that it is with reluctance
that one joins their names even for the moment that this phrase is
used. Napoleon was eager to sacrifice the whole of Europe to satisfy
the claims of his personal ambition; Lincoln was always ready to stand
aside and sacrifice himself for the country. The one was selfishness
incarnate; the other was a noble example of a man who never hesitated
to subordinate his own welfare to the general good, and whose career
came to its climax in his martyrdom. Whether the presidency was or was
not, Lincoln's destiny, it was certainly his destination. Had anything
occurred to thrust him one side in this career, it would have prevented
his complete development, and would have been an irreparable calamity
to his country and to the world.

Twice in his life he earnestly desired certain offices and failed to
get them. Had he succeeded in either case, it is not at all probable
that he would ever have become President. One therefore rejoices in the
knowledge that he missed them.

After his term in congress he was, in a measure, out of employment.
Political life is like to destroy one's taste for the legitimate
practise of the law, as well as to scatter one's clients. Lincoln was
not a candidate for reelection. Upon the election of General Taylor it
was generally understood that the democrats would be turned out of
office and their places supplied by whigs. The office of Land
Commissioner was expected to go to Illinois. At the solicitation of
friends he applied for it, but so fearful was he that he might stand in
the way of others, or impede the welfare of the state, that he did not
urge his application until too late. The President offered him the
governorship of the territory of Oregon, which he declined. Had he been
successful in his application, it would have kept him permanently out
of the study and practise of the law. It would have kept his residence
in Washington so that it would not have been possible for him to hold
himself in touch with his neighbors. So far as concerned his
illustrious career, it would have side-tracked him. He himself
recognized this later, and was glad that he had failed in this, his
first and only application for a government appointment.

About six years later he again missed an office to which he aspired.
This was in 1854, the year of the speeches at Springfield and Peoria
described in the last chapter. Shields, the man of the duel with broad-
swords, was United States senator. His term of office was about to
expire and the legislature would elect his successor. The state of
Illinois had been democratic,--both the senators, Shields and Douglas,
were democrats,--but owing to the new phases of the slavery question,
the anti-slavery men were able to carry the legislature, though by a
narrow margin.

Lincoln had been very useful to the party during the campaign and had
been elected to the legislature from his own district. He wanted to be
senator. He was unquestionably the choice of nearly all the whigs. Had
an election taken place then, he would undoubtedly have been elected.

But a curious obstacle intervened. There was a provision in the
constitution of Illinois which disqualified members of the legislature
from holding the office of United States senator. Lincoln was therefore
not eligible. He could only become so by resigning his seat. There
appeared to be no risk in this, for he had a safe majority of 605. It
seemed as though he could name his successor. But there are many
uncertainties in politics.

The campaign had been one of unusual excitement and it was followed by
that apathy which is the common sequel to all excessive activity. The
democrats kept quiet. They put up no candidate. They fostered the
impression that they would take no part in the special election. Only
one democrat was casually named as a possible victim to be sacrificed
to the triumph of the whigs. He was not a popular nor an able man, and
was not to be feared as a candidate for this office.

But the unusual quietness of the democrats was the most dangerous sign.
They had organized a "still hunt." This was an adroit move, but it was
perfectly fair. It is not difficult to guess whose shrewdness planned
this, seeing that the question was vital to the career of Douglas. The
democratic party preserved their organization. The trusted lieutenants
held the rank and file in readiness for action. When the polls were
opened on election day, the democrats were there, and the whigs were
not. At every election precinct appeared democratic workers to
electioneer for the man of their choice. Carriages were provided for
the aged, the infirm, and the indifferent who were driven to the polls
so that their votes were saved to the party.

The whigs were completely taken by surprise. It was too late to talk up
their candidate. They had no provision and no time to get the absent
and indifferent to the polls. The result was disastrous to them.
Lincoln's "safe" majority was wiped out and a Douglas democrat was
chosen to succeed him.

It may be surmised that this did not tend to fill the whigs with
enthusiasm, nor to unite the party. From all over the state there arose
grumblings that the Sangamon contingent of the party had been so
ignobly outwitted. Lincoln had to bear the brunt of this discontent.
This was not unnatural nor unreasonable, for he was the party manager
for that district. When the legislature went into joint session Lincoln
had manifestly lost some of his prestige. It may be said by way of
palliation that the "still hunt" was then new in politics. And it was
the only time that Lincoln was caught napping.

Even with the loss to the whigs of this seat, the Douglas democrats
were in a minority. Lincoln had a plurality but not a majority. The
balance of power was held by five anti-Nebraska democrats, who would
not under any circumstances vote for Lincoln or any other whig. Their
candidate was Lyman Trumbull. After a long and weary deadlock, the
democrats dropped their candidate Shields and took up the governor of
the state. The governor has presumably a strong influence with the
legislature, and this move of the partisans was a real menace to the
anti-slavery men. Lincoln recognized the danger, at once withdrew his
candidacy, and persuaded all the anti-slavery men to unite on Trumbull.
This was no ordinary conciliation, for upon every subject except the
Nebraska question alone, Trumbull was an uncompromising democrat. The
whig votes gave him the necessary majority. The man who started in with
five votes won the prize. Lincoln not only failed to get into the
senate, but he was out of the legislature.

In commenting on this defeat of Lincoln for the United States senate,
the present writer wishes first of all to disavow all superstitions and
all belief in signs. But there is one fact which is worthy of mention,
and for which different persons will propose different explanations. It
is a fact that in all the history of the United States no person has
been elected direct from the senate to the presidency. This is the more
interesting because the prominent senator wields a very powerful
influence, an influence second only to that of the President himself.
When one considers the power of a leading senator, one would suppose
that that was the natural stepping-stone to the presidency. But history
does not support this supposition. It teaches the opposite.

Many prominent senators have greatly desired to be president, but no
one has succeeded unless he first retired from the senate. Among the
more widely known aspirants to the presidency who have been
unsuccessful, are Jackson (his first candidacy), Clay, Webster,
Douglas, Morton, Seward, Sherman, and Blaine. So many failures may be a
mere coincidence. On the other hand there may be a reason for them.
They seem to teach that the senate is not the best start for the
presidential race, but the worst.

The history of ethics teaches that the most determined hostility
against the best is the good, not the bad. So it may be that in the
politics of this country, the greatest obstacle to the highest position
may be the next highest.

These facts, of course, do not prove that if Lincoln had been elected
senator in 1854, or in 1858 when he was the opposing candidate to
Douglas, he would therefore have failed of election to the presidency.
He may have been an exception. He may have been the only one to break
this rule in over a hundred years. But the sequel proved that he was
best where he was. He remained among his people. He moused about the
state library, enduring criticism but mastering the history of slavery.
He kept a watchful eye on the progress of events. He was always alert
to seize an opportunity and proclaim in trumpet tones the voice of
conscience, the demands of eternal righteousness. But he waited. His
hour had not yet come. He bided his time. It was not a listless
waiting, it was intensely earnest and active. Far more than he could
realize, he was in training for the stupendous responsibilities which
should in due time fall upon him. It is fortunate for all that he did
not learn to limit his powers to the arena of the senate, which, though
great, is limited. He kept near to the people. When his hour struck, he
was ready.

For this reason we call his two failures escapes. He did not get the
government land office, he did not get the senatorship. He did get the
presidency, and that in the crisis of the history of the nation. What
is more, when he got that he was thoroughly furnished unto every good
work.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE BIRTH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

In the course of history there sometimes arises a man who has a
marvelous power of attaching others to himself. He commands a measure
of devotion and enthusiasm which it is impossible fully to understand.
Such a man was Henry Clay. Under the fascination of his qualities
Lincoln lived. From childhood to maturity Clay had been his idol, and
Clay's party, the whig, nearly synonymous with all that was desirable
in American politics. It was therefore no easy matter for Lincoln to
leave the whig party. Nothing could accomplish this but the
overmastering power of a noble emotion.

From childhood Lincoln had hated slavery. The fact that Kentucky was a
slave state had its influence in his father's removal to Indiana. His
personal observations upon his journeys down the Mississippi River had
given him a keener feeling on the subject. The persistent and ever-
increasing outrages of the slave power had intensified his hatred. The
time had come when he, and such as he, felt that other party questions
were of minor importance, and that everything else should for the time
be subordinated to the supreme question of slavery.

There were certain reasons why the whig party could not accomplish the
desired end. Its history had identified it with a different class of
subjects. Though Clay himself and a majority of his party were opposed
to the extension of slavery, there were still pro-slavery men in its
ranks in sufficient numbers to prevent any real efficiency on the
slavery question.

On the other hand, while the democratic party was overwhelmingly pro-
slavery, there were anti-slavery democrats who, from their numbers,
ability, and character, were not to be overlooked. The election to the
senate of Lyman Trumbull as an anti-Douglas democrat had crystalized
this wing of the party. The fiasco of Lincoln's defeat when the whigs
were in a good plurality caused much discontent in that party. If the
anti-slavery men were to be united for efficiency in opposing Douglas,
it must be under another organization--a new party must be formed.

In this the newspapers took the initiative. A number of papers
editorially called for a convention, which was really a mass meeting,
for there were no accredited delegates, and could be none. This met in
Decatur on Washington's birthday, 1856. It was a motley assembly, from
a political standpoint. It included whigs, democrats, free-soilers,
abolitionists, and know-nothings. Said Lincoln: "Of strange,
discordant, even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds."
Politicians were conspicuously absent, for it would imperil their
political orthodoxy to be seen there. Lincoln was the principal one who
had anything to lose. He was consulted on all measures, and gave freely
of his counsel. The proceedings ended with a dinner, at which he made a
speech.

He was the most prominent man in the new movement, was popular
throughout the state, and was the logical candidate for governor. He
would have been highly gratified with the candidacy. But again he put
personal desires one side that the general good might not be
endangered. He therefore proposed, in his after-dinner speech, for
nomination a democrat who had a record of earnest opposition to the
slave power. Refusing the use of his own name, he added: "But I can
suggest a name that will secure not only the old whig vote, but enough
anti-Nebraska democrats to give us the victory. That man is Colonel
William H. Bissell." Bissell was afterwards regularly nominated and
triumphantly elected. The meeting at Decatur called for a convention to
be held at Bloomington on the 29th of May.

About the same thing had been going on in some other free states. On
the very day of the Decatur meeting there was a notable meeting for the
same purpose in Pittsburg. This was attended by E. D. Morgan, governor
of New York, Horace Greeley, O. P. Morton, Zach. Chandler, Joshua R.
Giddings, and other prominent men. They issued the call for the first
national convention of the republican party to be held in Philadelphia
in June.

In May the Illinois convention assembled in Bloomington, and the most
conspicuous person there was Lincoln. It was there that he made the
amazing speech already described. It was the speech which held even the
reporters in such a spell that they could not report it. It is known in
history as the "lost speech," but the fame of it endures to this day.

The democratic convention met in Cincinnati early in June and nominated
James Buchanan to succeed Franklin Pierce. Thus Douglas was for a
second time defeated for the nomination.

The republican convention met a few days later in Philadelphia. At that
time John C. Fremont was at the height of his fame. His character was
romantic, and the record of his adventures was as fascinating as a
novel by Dumas. He had earned the name of "pathfinder" by crossing the
continent. Although unauthorized, he had in California raised a
military company which was of material assistance to the naval forces
of the United States against a Mexican insurrection. He was an ardent
hater of slavery. He was precisely the man, as standard-bearer, to
infuse enthusiasm into the new party and to give it a good start in its
career. He did this and did it well. The large vote which he polled
augured well for the future.

All this we may claim without denying the fact that it was fortunate
for the party and for the country that he was not elected. There was no
doubt of his sincerity or his patriotism. But he lacked self-control,
wariness, patience. He was hot-headed, extreme, egotistical. He never
could have carried the burdens of the first administration of the
republican party.

When the election was over, it was found that Buchanan had carried
every slave state except Maryland, which went to Fillmore. Fremont had
carried every New England state and five other northern states.
Buchanan received 174 electoral votes; Fremont, 114; Fillmore, 8. The
popular vote was, for Buchanan, 1,838,169; for Fremont, 1,341,264; for
Fillmore, 874,534. That was an excellent showing for the new party. It
showed that it had come to stay, and gave a reasonable hope of victory
at the next presidential election.

Lincoln was at the head of the electoral ticket of the state of
Illinois. He usually was on the ticket. He playfully called himself one
of the electors that seldom elected anybody. In Illinois the honors of
the election were evenly divided between the two parties. Buchanan
carried the state by a handsome majority, but Bissell was elected
governor by a good majority. Lincoln had faithfully canvassed the state
and made nearly fifty speeches. One paragraph from a speech made in
Galena should be quoted. The slave party had raised the cry of
sectionalism, and had charged that the republicans purposed to destroy
the Union. Lincoln said:

"But the Union, in any event, will not be dissolved. We don't want to
dissolve it, and if you attempt it we won't let you. With the purse and
sword, the army, the navy, and the treasury in our hands and at our
command, you could not do it. This government would be very weak indeed
if a majority with a disciplined army and navy and a well-filled
treasury could not preserve itself, when attacked by an unarmed,
undisciplined minority. All this talk about the dissolution of the
Union is humbug, nothing but folly. We do not want to dissolve the
Union; you shall not."

These words were prophetic of the condition of the country and of his
own policy four or five years later. But he apparently did not
apprehend that an unscrupulous administration might steal the army and
the munitions of war, scatter the navy, and empty the treasury.

On the 10th of December Lincoln spoke at a republican banquet in
Chicago. It was after the election, after Buchanan's supercilious
message to congress. The purpose of the speech was to forecast the
future of the young party. The following quotations may be read with
interest:

"He [Buchanan, in his message to congress] says the people did it. He
forgets that the 'people,' as he complacently calls only those who
voted for Buchanan, are in a minority of the whole people by about four
hundred thousand votes.... All of us who did not vote for Mr. Buchanan,
taken together, are a majority of four hundred thousand. But in the
late contest we were divided between Fremont and Fillmore. Can we not
come together for the future? Let every one who really believes, and is
resolved, that free society is not and shall not be a failure, and who
can conscientiously declare that in the past contest he has done only
what he thought best, let every such one have charity to believe that
every other one can say as much. Let bygones be bygones; let past
differences as nothing be; and with steady eye on the real issue, let
us re-inaugurate the good old 'central ideas' of the republic. We can do
it. The human heart is with us; God is with us. We shall again be able
to declare, not that 'all states as states are equal,' nor yet that
'all citizens as citizens are equal,' but to renew the broader, better
declaration, including these and much more, that 'all men are created
equal.'"

It was upon the wisdom of this plan that, four years later, he held the
foes of slavery united, while the foes of freedom were divided among
themselves. It was this that carried the party to its first victory and
made him president.

CHAPTER XV.

THE BATTLE OF THE GIANTS.

The admiring friends of Douglas had given him the nickname of "the
little giant." To this he was fairly entitled. Physically he was very
little. Intellectually he was a giant. He was in 1858 perhaps the most
prominent man in the United States. He was the unquestioned leader of
the dominant party. He had been so long in public life that he was
familiar with every public question, while upon the burning question of
slavery he was the leader.

Lincoln was a giant physically, and it soon became evident that he was
no less intellectually. These two men soon were to come together in a
series of joint debates. It was manifest that this would be a battle of
intellectual giants. No other such debates have ever occurred in the
history of the country.

Events led up to this rapidly and with the certainty of fate. In 1854
Lincoln had been candidate for the senate to succeed Shields, but his
party had been outwitted and he was compelled to substitute Trumbull.
In 1856 he was the logical candidate for governor, but he was of
opinion that the cause would be better served permanently by placing an
anti-slavery democrat in nomination. This was done and Bissell was
elected. Now in 1858 the senatorial term of Douglas was about to expire
and a successor would be chosen. Douglas was the candidate of his own
party. The republicans turned naturally and spontaneously to Lincoln,
for it would be no light task to defeat so strong an opponent.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20