Lincoln, the Politician Part 7

High in position, his act and word carrying weight, he proclaimed his protest. The chance being at hand, he struck slavery a stinging blow.

The silence of nearly a decade was broken in words that shall echo for evermore. Only one other representative, Dan Stone, of Sangamon County, dared to sign the following signal dissent that will save him from an oblivion that has already enshrouded those who voted for the successful resolutions:

"They believe that the inst.i.tution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy, but that the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than abate the evils.

"They believe that the Congress of the United States has no power under the Const.i.tution to interfere with the inst.i.tution of slavery in the different States.

"They believe that the Congress of the United States has the power, under the Const.i.tution, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, but that the power ought not to be exercised, unless at the request of the people of the District.

"The difference between these opinions and those contained in the said resolutions is their reason for entering this protest.

"Dan Stone, "A. Lincoln.

"Representatives of the County of Sangamon."[124]

[124] Lincoln's Speeches, 1, 15.

The resolutions that pa.s.sed the General a.s.sembly were still rather conservative for the time and place. The protest of Lincoln is therefore the more significant, as indicating its origin from some deep mental or moral sentiment. Every letter in the protest is weighed. No product of Lincoln is more native to his genius. It is as restrained as a judicial decision. Avoiding unneeded antagonism, it is framed with admirable diplomacy. Radical in thought, still so moderate in expression, it saved his power for further good, not placing him beyond fellows.h.i.+p with his a.s.sociates. Yet with all its subdued character, with infinite wisdom it made the a.s.sault at the weakest point, declaring that slavery was founded, not only on injustice, but _bad policy_. In the last phrase lurked the sting that was to awaken the self-interest of the North, the same kind of selfishness that solidified the South in defending the inst.i.tution. Lincoln was among the first to grasp and lay stress on the warp of the issue. He once declared that honest statesmans.h.i.+p was the employment of individual meanness for the public good. When self-interest became enlisted with conscience against the evil, its days were numbered. While Abolitionism was noisily tugging at one of the pillars that supported human bondage, Lincoln serenely forged an argument linking its moral and industrial weakness, an argument that finally shook its very foundation, until the peculiar inst.i.tution that dominated the destiny of the nation for more than half a century tumbled to destruction. While other men were forced to change their opinions through the malignancy of slavery to keep abreast of public sentiment, Lincoln remained steadfast in his opinions and his policy. At the outset, he foresaw that no inst.i.tution could last long that rested on injustice and bad policy. Only a change of external conditions separated the man who entered a solemn protest against the iniquity of slavery in a hostile community and the leader who gave life to the momentous act of the nineteenth century.

The period preceding the murder of Lovejoy was an era of unrest. The mob spirit ranged over the land. Thus in commenting upon the murder of the mulatto McIntosh, Lovejoy says: "In Charlestown it burns a Convent over the head of defenseless women; in Baltimore it desecrates the Sabbath, and works all that day in demolis.h.i.+ng a private citizen's house; in Vicksburg it hangs up gamblers, three or four in a row; and in St.

Louis it forces a man--a hardened wretch certainly, and one that deserves to die, but not _thus_ to die--it forces him from beneath the aegis of our const.i.tution and laws, hurries him to the stake and burns him alive!"[C]

[C] Lovejoy, 172.

Without doubt, the murder of Lovejoy and similar incidents drew the mind of Lincoln to the discussion of the subject of the preservation of our inst.i.tutions. For Herndon has left valuable testimony as to the influence of like events on his own opinions. The cruel and uncalled-for murder aroused anti-slavery sentiments, penetrating the college at Jacksonville where he was attending, and both faculty and students were unrestrained in their denunciation. Herndon's father, believing that the college was too strongly permeated with the virus of Abolitionism, forced him to withdraw from the inst.i.tution. But Herndon declares that it was too late; that the murder of Lovejoy filled him with more desperation than the slave scene in New Orleans did Lincoln. For while the latter believed in non-interference with slavery, as long as the Const.i.tution authorized its existence, Herndon, although acting nominally with the Whig party up to 1853, struck out for Abolitionism pure and simple.[125]

[125] Herndon, 1, 178-9.

In the fall of 1837, Lincoln addressed the Young Men's Lyceum at Springfield, Illinois, in a formal discourse bearing traces of considerable preparation. The style is fulsome and fanciful, and unlike his own crisp utterance of previous or subsequent periods. For a time he wandered from his natural self and followed the glitter of what he doubtless deemed a more cultivated form of expression. Thus it begins: "In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the American people, find our account running under date of the nineteenth century of the Christian era. We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the earth as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the government of a system of political inst.i.tutions conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty than any of which the history of former times tells us."[126]

[126] Lincoln's Speeches, 1, 9.

It is especially important to take note of Lincoln's att.i.tude of the prevailing mob spirit. His treatment of that theme, his mode and manner and thought, is so like that of the editor of the _Alton Observer_, that it is reasonable to a.s.sume that there was a common origin to the common sentiment. The same scenes and events that stirred the soul of Lovejoy aroused that of Lincoln. His direct onslaught on the mob spirit being largely connected with the slave issue, was an indirect attack on slavery. In this, Lincoln and the Abolitionists stood on the same ground. He extravagantly denounced the malefaction of the mobs, saying that they pervaded the country from New England to Louisiana; and alike sprang up among the pleasure-hunting masters of Southern slaves, and the order-loving citizens of the land of steady habits, that this process of hanging went on from gamblers to negroes, from negroes to white citizens, and from these to strangers, till dead men were seen literally dangling from the boughs of trees upon every roadside. He further insisted that by the operation of this mobocratic spirit, the strongest bulwark of any government might effectually be broken down and destroyed--the attachment of the people. He contended that whenever the vicious portion of population should be permitted to burn churches, ravage provision stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious persons with impunity, this government could not last.[127]

[127] _Ibid._, 10-11.

Under the display of such extravagant expression there is still patriotic apprehensiveness of danger to the national existence. He fought out the solution of the problem unaided until the way seemed clear and plain. To him the remedy was simple--obedience to the law of the land.

"Let reverence for the law be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in schools, in seminaries and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation, and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay of all s.e.xes and tongues and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars....

"When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of all the laws, let me not be understood as saying there are no bad laws, or that grievances may not arise for the redress of which no legal provisions have been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say that although bad laws if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed. So also in unprovided cases. If such arises, let proper legal provision be made for them with the least possible delay, but till then, if not too intolerable, be borne with."[128]

[128] Lincoln's Speeches, 1, 12.

His remedy bespeaking reverence for the laws, would destroy the rampant spirit in the slavery movement and in abolitionism, so that neither would violate the law of the land, and so that the controversy might be conducted without intruding on the sanct.i.ty of the fundamental principles of the Const.i.tution.

From this time, Lincoln ceased to be a mere local politician. He became intensely concerned over national questions. Naturally, a man of broad views, he soon threw off the coil of locality, and with zeal invaded the arena of national issues. His mind ranged over the general domain for materials. Local issues were only stepping stones to him. Leaving the valley of minor matters, with exuberant spirits, he rejoicingly entered the new land of larger import, and of broader moment to the weal of the nation. For the first time he encountered extensive questions concerning the very foundations of the Republic.

"Towering genius," he said, "disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions. .h.i.therto unexplored. It sees no distinction in adding story to story upon the monuments of fame erected to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however ill.u.s.trious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emanc.i.p.ating slaves or enslaving freemen."[129]

[129] Lincoln's Speeches, 1, 13.

We here strike a golden vein in his character. Ranging over the world's activities for an ill.u.s.tration to rival the ambition of towering genius, he finds it in the enslavement or emanc.i.p.ation of a race. Out of the loneliness of his individuality, out of the solemnity of his deliberations, he grew into a great character. It is his own ill.u.s.tration dug out of his mental experience, a product of a mind brooding over a national destiny. He saw with unerring vision, for men did come in his own generation who did not scruple to climb to power upon the back of an enslaved people. The true Lincoln consists not only of the humble man, of homely face, gaunt form, shambling limbs, quaint utterance, rude story and humble way. We may also see him in his early manhood with t.i.tan power, fighting and triumphing over the brute forces of his being, over his ambition, and towering to the greatness of righteous triumph. Conduct is only the shadow of soul struggle. Nearly three decades before the Emanc.i.p.ation, its destiny was determined in no small measure by the events that led to the murder of Lovejoy.

CHAPTER VI

PARTISAN IN STATE AND NATIONAL AFFAIRS

The campaign of 1838 did not differ materially from that of previous years. A colleague of Lincoln says that they called at nearly every home; that it was customary to keep some whiskey in the house, for private use and to treat guests; that the subject was always mentioned as a matter of etiquette, but with the remark to Lincoln that though he never drank, his friend might like to take a little. Lincoln often told his a.s.sociates that he never drank and had no desire for drink, nor the companions.h.i.+p of drinking men.

Some light is thrown on the nature of the conduct of office seekers by the following incident: During this campaign, Douglas and Stuart, candidates for Congress, "fought like tigers in Herndon's grocery, over a floor that was drenched with slops, and gave up the struggle only when both were exhausted. Then, as a further entertainment to the populace, Mr. Stuart ordered a 'barrel of whiskey and wine.'"[130]

[130] Lamon, 230.

Joshua Speed states that some of the Whigs contributed a purse of two hundred dollars to enable Lincoln to pay his personal expense in the canva.s.s. After the election, the candidate handed Speed $199.25, with the request that he return it to the subscribers. "I did not need the money," said he, "I made the canva.s.s on my own horse; my entertainment being at the houses of friends, cost me nothing; and my only outlay was seventy-five cents for a barrel of cider, which some farm hands insisted I should treat them to."[131]

[131] Nicolay & Hay, 1, 158.

On one occasion, Col. Taylor, a demagogue of the Democratic party, was hypocritically appealing to his "h.o.r.n.y handed neighbors" in language of feigned adulation. Lincoln knew his man. He deftly removed the vest of the orator and revealed to his astonished hearers "a ruffled s.h.i.+rt front glittering with watch chain, seals and other golden jewels." The speaker stood confused. The audience roared with laughter. When it came Lincoln's turn to answer, he retorted. "While Colonel Taylor was making these charges against the Whigs over the country, riding in fine carriages, wearing ruffled s.h.i.+rts, kid gloves, ma.s.sive gold watch chains with large gold seals, and flouris.h.i.+ng a heavy gold-headed cane, I was a poor boy, hired on a flat-boat at eight dollars a month, and had only one pair of breeches to my back, and they were buckskin. Now if you know the nature of buckskin when wet and dried by the sun, it will shrink; and my breeches kept shrinking until they left several inches of my legs bare between the tops of my socks and the lower part of my breeches; and whilst I was growing taller they were growing shorter, and so much tighter that they left a blue streak around my legs that can be seen to this day. If you call this aristocracy I plead guilty to the charge."[132]

[132] Herndon, 1, 186.

When the Legislature convened in 1838, Lincoln was a candidate of his party for speaker. His opponent was chosen by a plurality of one vote.

Lamon declares that this distinction was a barren honor, and known to be such at the time, but cites no reason for his statement.[133] At least the humble representative of Sangamon County continued to rise in the esteem of his a.s.sociates. His activity was crowned with the approval of those with whom he fought side by side in the turmoil and debate of controversy. It is a significant indication of his diplomacy. He had so won the confidence of his companions that even differences on that slavery issue did not cause him the loss of their esteem and favor. The recipient of such an honor is likely to be the possessor of amiable personal qualities that call forth devotion, even more than the st.u.r.dy qualities of talent and ability.[134] In matters of political expediency, Lincoln did not run athwart the sentiments of the majority.

Despite the mutterings of discontent in some quarters, despite a growing feeling that the internal improvement policy was likely to involve the State in disaster, the finance committee, of which Lincoln was a prominent member, advised even further indulgence in the fatal policy.

Finally, the fearful financial condition of the State stared the people and their representatives in the face. The supporters of the internal improvement system stubbornly began to yield to the policy of retrenchment. Still, in the Special Session of 1839, a.s.sembled to deliberate over the momentous state of affairs, Lincoln with peculiar logic urged they were so far advanced in a general system of internal improvements that they could not retreat from it without disgrace and great loss, and that the conclusion was that they must advance.[135]

[133] Lamon, 212.

[134] Lamon, 212.

[135] From Lincoln's Report for Finance Committee on Expediency of Purchasing all Unsold Lands of United States in Illinois, Jan. 23, 1839, 223.

Lincoln was one of thirty-three members to vote for laying the bill repealing improvements on the table, while sixty opposed this action; and he was one of thirty-five who voted against the repeal of the internal improvement policy, while thirty-seven voted for it.[136] Thus, to the very end, Lincoln persisted in the disastrous policy that clouded the history and prosperity of Illinois for many years.

[136] House Journal of 1839, 265.

Lincoln basked in political events. He was alive to the details in political strategy. In November, 1839, he wrote to Stuart, his partner, in regard to a voter: "Evan Butler is jealous that you never send your compliments to him. You must not neglect him next time."[137]

[137] Lincoln's Speeches, 1, 41.

From the very beginning, he concerned himself with the candidacy of General Harrison. Recognizing its elemental political strength, he watched its growth with increasing interest. Harrison had never distinguished himself as a public citizen. Lincoln looked at the political side of the picture alone, little dreaming that the day was to come when his election was to depend, in some measure, on the same emotions that promoted the triumph of Harrison. In both campaigns the log cabin played a dominant part.

Speed's store in Springfield was the retreat of Lincoln, Douglas and Baker, and other political leaders of the dominant parties. However, partisans.h.i.+p was about to triumph, and common meeting places were soon to become unknown. In December, 1839, just as the campaign of 1840 was looming up, a political discussion between the leaders grew violent in the grocery over the national issue. During the angry debate, Douglas, with his imperial manner, flung forth the taunt: "Gentlemen, this is no place to talk politics; we will discuss the question publicly with you."[138]

[138] Lamon, 232.