Recollections of Abraham Lincoln 1847-1865 Part 23

Older* arguments of last term, as to new purpose to make all equal "to stand on judgment"--

Comments on the +real+ inequality of the distribution of the property.]

Was Mr. Lincoln's experience at the bar a mere episode in his wonderful career, or was it the foundation upon which rested the whole structure of that career? He said himself that "Law is the greatest science of man. It is the best profession to develop the logical faculty and the highest platform on which man can exhibit his powers of well trained manhood."

[Ill.u.s.tration:

Chicago, March 28_ 1860

Hon. W. H. Lamon.

My dear Sir:

Yours about motion to quash an indictment, was received yesterday.

I think I have* no authority but the Statute when I wrote the Indictment--In fact, I remember but little about it. I think yet there is no necessity for setting out the latter per +haec verba+.

Our Statute, as I think, relaxes* the high degree of **** certainty formerly required--

I am so busy with our case on that heir, that I can not examine authorities near as freely as you can there--

If after all, the indictment shall be quashed, it will only prove that my _forte_ is as a Statesman, rather than as a Prosecutor*

Yours, as ever A. Lincoln.]

MR. LINCOLN'S VIEWS OF THE AMERICAN OR KNOW-NOTHING PARTY.

That Mr. Lincoln found in the Declaration of Independence his perfect standard of political truth is perhaps in none of his utterances more conclusively shown than in a private letter to his old friend Joshua F.

Speed, written in 1855, in which he says: "You enquire where I now stand. That is a disputed point. I think I am a Whig; but others say there are no Whigs, and that I am an Abolitionist. I am not a Know-Nothing! that is certain. How could I be? How can anyone who abhors the oppression of negroes be in favor of degrading cla.s.ses of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation we began by declaring that '_All men are created equal_.' We now practically read it, 'All men are created equal except negroes.'

When the Know-Nothings get control it will read, 'All men are created equal, except negroes and foreigners and Catholics.' When it comes to this, I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty,--where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy."

ACCOUNT OF ARRANGEMENTS FOR COOPER INSt.i.tUTE SPEECH.

NEW YORK, March 20, 1872.

MY DEAR SIR,--....I send you for such use as you may deem proper the following letter written by me when at "Old Orchard Beach" a few years ago, giving the "truth of history" in relation to the address of Mr. Lincoln at the Cooper Inst.i.tute in this City on the 27th of February, 1860....

... We, the world, and all the coming generation of mankind down the long line of ages, cannot know too much about Abraham Lincoln, our martyr President.

Yours truly, (Signed) JAMES A. BRIGGS.

MR. WARD H. LAMON, WAs.h.i.+NGTON, D. C.

"In October, 1859, Messrs. Joseph H. Richards, J. M. Pettingill, and S.

W. Tubbs called on me at the office of the Ohio State Agency, 25 William Street, and requested me to write to the Hon. Thomas Corwin, of Ohio, and the Hon. Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, and invite them to lecture in a course of lectures these young gentlemen proposed for the winter in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn.

"I wrote the letters as requested, and offered as compensation for each lecture, as I was authorized, the sum of two hundred dollars. The proposition to lecture was accepted by Messrs. Corwin and Lincoln. Mr.

Corwin delivered his lecture in Plymouth Church as he was on his way to Was.h.i.+ngton to attend Congress. Mr. Lincoln could not lecture until late in the season, and a proposition was agreed to by the gentlemen named, and accepted by Mr. Lincoln, as the following letter will show:--

DANVILLE, ILL., November 13, 1859.

JAMES A. BRIGGS, Esq.:

DEAR SIR,--Yours of the 1st, closing with my proposition for compromise, was duly received. I will be on hand, and in due time will notify you of the exact day. I believe, after all, I shall make a political speech of it. You have no objection?

I would like to know in advance, whether I am also to speak or lecture in New York.

Very, very glad your election went right.

Yours truly, A. LINCOLN.

P. S. I am here at court, but my address is still at Springfield, Ill.

"In due time Mr. Lincoln wrote me that he would deliver the lecture, a political one, on the evening of the 27th of February, 1860. This was rather late in the season for a lecture, and the young gentlemen who were responsible were doubtful about its success, as the expenses were large. It was stipulated that the lecture was to be in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. I requested and urged that the lecture should be delivered at the Cooper Inst.i.tute. They were fearful it would not pay expenses--three hundred and fifty dollars. I thought it would.

"In order to relieve Messrs. Richards, Pettingill, and Tubbs of all responsibility, I called upon some of the officers of the 'Young Men's Republican Union' and proposed that they should take Mr. Lincoln, and that the lecture should be delivered under their auspices. They respectfully declined.

"I next called upon Mr. Simeon Draper, then President of 'The Draper Republican Union Club of New York,' and proposed to him that his 'Union'

take Mr. Lincoln and the lecture, and a.s.sume the responsibility of the expenses. Mr. Draper and his friends declined, and Mr. Lincoln was left in the hands of 'the original Jacobs.'

"After considerable discussion, it was agreed on the part of the young gentlemen that the lecture should be delivered in the Cooper Inst.i.tute, if I would agree to share the expenses, if the sale of tickets (twenty-five cents each) for the lecture did not meet the outlay. To this I a.s.sented, and the lecture was advertised to be delivered in the Cooper Inst.i.tute on the evening of the 27th of February, 1860.

"Mr. Lincoln read the notice of the lecture in the papers and, without any knowledge of the arrangement, was somewhat surprised to learn that he was first to make his appearance before a New York instead of a 'Plymouth Church' audience. A notice of the proposed lecture appeared in the New York papers, and the 'Times' spoke of him 'as a lawyer who had some local reputation in Illinois.'

"At my personal solicitation Mr. William Cullen Bryant presided as chairman of the meeting, and introduced Mr. Lincoln for the first time to a New York audience.

"The lecture was over, all the expenses were paid, I was handed by the gentlemen interested the sum of $4.25 as my share of the profits, as they would have called on me if there had been a deficiency in the receipts to meet expenses."

[Mr. Briggs received as his share of the profits $4.25. What the country profited by this, Mr. Lincoln's first triumph outside of his own state, has never been computed.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Colonel Ellsworth, Mr. Herndon, and Colonel Lamon accompanied Mr. Lincoln to the polls when he cast his vote for this ticket. He voted only for the State and County officers, feeling that a Presidential candidate ought not to vote for his own electors.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Decorative--head of Lincoln and rail fence]

THE RAIL-SPLITTER.

It has been said that the term "rail-splitter" which became a leading feature of the campaign in 1860 originated at the Chicago convention when Mr. Deland of Ohio, who seconded the nomination of Mr. Lincoln, said: "I desire to second the nomination of a man who can split rails and maul Democrats."

Mr. Delano not only seconded the nomination, but "seconded" the campaign "cry."

Gov. Oglesby one week before at the State Convention at Decatur introduced into the a.s.semblage John Hanks, who bore on his shoulder two small rails surmounted by a banner with this inscription: "Two rails from a lot made by Abraham Lincoln and John Hanks in the Sangamon Bottom in the year 1830."

For six months Rail-splitter was heard everywhere and rails were to be seen on nearly everything, even on stationery. One of the Lincoln delegates said: "These rails represent the issue between labor free and labor slave, between democracy and aristocracy."

The Democrats disliked to hear so much about "honest Old Abe," "the rail-splitter" the "flatboatman," "the pioneer." These cries had an ominous sound in their ears. Just after the State Convention which named Lincoln as first choice of the Republicans of Illinois, an old man, devoted to the principles of Democracy and much annoyed by the demonstration in progress, approached Mr. Lincoln and said, "So you're Abe Lincoln?"--"That's my name, sir," answered Mr. Lincoln. "They say you're a self-made man," said the Democrat. "Well, yes," said Lincoln, "what there is of me is self-made."--"Well, all I've got to say,"