THE WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN


CONSTITUTIONAL EDITION




WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN VOLUME II.

1843-1858




FIRST CHILD

TO JOSHUA F. SPEED. SPRINGFIELD, May 18, 1843.

DEAR SPEED:--Yours of the 9th instant is duly received, which I do not
meet as a "bore," but as a most welcome visitor. I will answer the
business part of it first.

In relation to our Congress matter here, you were right in supposing I
would support the nominee. Neither Baker nor I, however, is the man, but
Hardin, so far as I can judge from present appearances. We shall have no
split or trouble about the matter; all will be harmony. In relation to
the "coming events" about which Butler wrote you, I had not heard one
word before I got your letter; but I have so much confidence in the
judgment of Butler on such a subject that I incline to think there may be
some reality in it. What day does Butler appoint? By the way, how do
"events" of the same sort come on in your family? Are you possessing
houses and lands, and oxen and asses, and men-servants and maid-servants,
and begetting sons and daughters? We are not keeping house, but boarding
at the Globe Tavern, which is very well kept now by a widow lady of the
name of Beck. Our room (the same that Dr. Wallace occupied there) and
boarding only costs us four dollars a week. Ann Todd was married
something more than a year since to a fellow by the name of Campbell, and
who, Mary says, is pretty much of a "dunce," though he has a little money
and property. They live in Boonville, Missouri, and have not been heard
from lately enough for me to say anything about her health. I reckon it
will scarcely be in our power to visit Kentucky this year. Besides
poverty and the necessity of attending to business, those "coming
events," I suspect, would be somewhat in the way. I most heartily wish
you and your Fanny would not fail to come. Just let us know the time, and
we will have a room provided for you at our house, and all be merry
together for a while. Be sure to give my respects to your mother and
family; assure her that if ever I come near her, I will not fail to call
and see her. Mary joins in sending love to your Fanny and you.

Yours as ever,
A. LINCOLN.




1844

TO Gen. J. J. HARDIN.

SPRINGFIELD, May 21, 1844.

DEAR HARDIN: Knowing that you have correspondents enough, I have forborne
to trouble you heretofore; and I now only do so to get you to set a
matter right which has got wrong with one of our best friends. It is old
Uncle Thomas Campbell of Spring Creek--(Berlin P.O.). He has received
several documents from you, and he says they are old newspapers and
documents, having no sort of interest in them. He is, therefore, getting
a strong impression that you treat him with disrespect. This, I know, is
a mistaken impression; and you must correct it. The way, I leave to
yourself. Rob't W. Canfield says he would like to have a document or two
from you.

The Locos (Democrats) here are in considerable trouble about Van Buren's
letter on Texas, and the Virginia electors. They are growing sick of the
Tariff question; and consequently are much confounded at V.B.'s cutting
them off from the new Texas question. Nearly half the leaders swear they
won't stand it. Of those are Ford, T. Campbell, Ewing, Calhoun and
others. They don't exactly say they won't vote for V.B., but they say he
will not be the candidate, and that they are for Texas anyhow.

As ever yours,
A. LINCOLN.




1845
SELECTION OF CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES

TO Gen. J. J. HARDIN, SPRINGFIELD, Jany. 19, 1845.
DEAR GENERAL:

I do not wish to join in your proposal of a new plan for the selection of
a Whig candidate for Congress because:

1st. I am entirely satisfied with the old system under which you and
Baker were successively nominated and elected to Congress; and because
the Whigs of the district are well acquainted with the system, and, so
far as I know or believe, are well satisfied with it. If the old system
be thought to be vague, as to all the delegates of the county voting the
same way, or as to instructions to them as to whom they are to vote for,
or as to filling vacancies, I am willing to join in a provision to make
these matters certain.

2d. As to your proposals that a poll shall be opened in every precinct,
and that the whole shall take place on the same day, I do not personally
object. They seem to me to be not unfair; and I forbear to join in
proposing them only because I choose to leave the decision in each county
to the Whigs of the county, to be made as their own judgment and
convenience may dictate.

3d. As to your proposed stipulation that all the candidates shall remain
in their own counties, and restrain their friends in the same it seems to
me that on reflection you will see the fact of your having been in
Congress has, in various ways, so spread your name in the district as to
give you a decided advantage in such a stipulation. I appreciate your
desire to keep down excitement; and I promise you to "keep cool" under
all circumstances.

4th. I have already said I am satisfied with the old system under which
such good men have triumphed and that I desire no departure from its
principles. But if there must be a departure from it, I shall insist upon
a more accurate and just apportionment of delegates, or representative
votes, to the constituent body, than exists by the old, and which you
propose to retain in your new plan. If we take the entire population of
the counties as shown by the late census, we shall see by the old plan,
and by your proposed new plan,

Morgan County, with a population 16,541, has but ....... 8 votes
While Sangamon with 18,697--2156 greater has but ....... 8  "
So Scott with 6553 has ................................. 4  "
While Tazewell with 7615 1062 greater has but .......... 4  "
So Mason with 3135 has ................................. 1 vote
While Logan with 3907, 772 greater, has but ............ 1  "

And so on in a less degree the matter runs through all the counties,
being not only wrong in principle, but the advantage of it being all
manifestly in your favor with one slight exception, in the comparison of
two counties not here mentioned.

Again, if we take the Whig votes of the counties as shown by the late
Presidential election as a basis, the thing is still worse.

It seems to me most obvious that the old system needs adjustment in
nothing so much as in this; and still, by your proposal, no notice is
taken of it. I have always been in the habit of acceding to almost any
proposal that a friend would make and I am truly sorry that I cannot in
this. I perhaps ought to mention that some friends at different places
are endeavoring to secure the honor of the sitting of the convention at
their towns respectively, and I fear that they would not feel much
complimented if we shall make a bargain that it should sit nowhere.

Yours as ever,
A. LINCOLN.




TO _________ WILLIAMS,

SPRINGFIELD, March 1, 1845.
FRIEND WILLIAMS:

The Supreme Court adjourned this morning for the term. Your cases of
Reinhardt vs. Schuyler, Bunce vs. Schuyler, Dickhut vs. Dunell, and
Sullivan vs. Andrews are continued. Hinman vs. Pope I wrote you
concerning some time ago. McNutt et al. vs. Bean and Thompson is reversed
and remanded.

Fitzpatrick vs. Brady et al. is reversed and remanded with leave to
complainant to amend his bill so as to show the real consideration given
for the land.

Bunce against Graves the court confirmed, wherefore, in accordance with
your directions, I moved to have the case remanded to enable you to take
a new trial in the court below. The court allowed the motion; of which I
am glad, and I guess you are.

This, I believe, is all as to court business. The canal men have got
their measure through the Legislature pretty much or quite in the shape
they desired. Nothing else now.

Yours as ever,
A. LINCOLN.




ABOLITION MOVEMENT

TO WILLIAMSON DURLEY.

SPRINGFIELD, October 3, 1845

When I saw you at home, it was agreed that I should write to you and your
brother Madison. Until I then saw you I was not aware of your being what
is generally called an abolitionist, or, as you call yourself, a Liberty
man, though I well knew there were many such in your country.

I was glad to hear that you intended to attempt to bring about, at the
next election in Putnam, a Union of the Whigs proper and such of the
Liberty men as are Whigs in principle on all questions save only that of
slavery. So far as I can perceive, by such union neither party need yield
anything on the point in difference between them. If the Whig
abolitionists of New York had voted with us last fall, Mr. Clay would now
be President, Whig principles in the ascendant, and Texas not annexed;
whereas, by the division, all that either had at stake in the contest was
lost. And, indeed, it was extremely probable, beforehand, that such would
be the result. As I always understood, the Liberty men deprecated the
annexation of Texas extremely; and this being so, why they should refuse
to cast their votes [so] as to prevent it, even to me seemed wonderful.
What was their process of reasoning, I can only judge from what a single
one of them told me. It was this: "We are not to do evil that good may
come." This general proposition is doubtless correct; but did it apply?
If by your votes you could have prevented the extension, etc., of slavery
would it not have been good, and not evil, so to have used your votes,
even though it involved the casting of them for a slaveholder? By the
fruit the tree is to be known. An evil tree cannot bring forth good
fruit. If the fruit of electing Mr. Clay would have been to prevent the
extension of slavery, could the act of electing have been evil?

But I will not argue further. I perhaps ought to say that individually I
never was much interested in the Texas question. I never could see much
good to come of annexation, inasmuch as they were already a free
republican people on our own model. On the other hand, I never could very
clearly see how the annexation would augment the evil of slavery. It
always seemed to me that slaves would be taken there in about equal
numbers, with or without annexation. And if more were taken because of
annexation, still there would be just so many the fewer left where they
were taken from. It is possibly true, to some extent, that, with
annexation, some slaves may be sent to Texas and continued in slavery
that otherwise might have been liberated. To whatever extent this may be
true, I think annexation an evil. I hold it to be a paramount duty of us
in the free States, due to the Union of the States, and perhaps to
liberty itself (paradox though it may seem), to let the slavery of the
other States alone; while, on the other hand, I hold it to be equally
clear that we should never knowingly lend ourselves, directly or
indirectly, to prevent that slavery from dying a natural death--to find
new places for it to live in when it can no longer exist in the old. Of
course I am not now considering what would be our duty in cases of
insurrection among the slaves. To recur to the Texas question, I
understand the Liberty men to have viewed annexation as a much greater
evil than ever I did; and I would like to convince you, if I could, that
they could have prevented it, if they had chosen. I intend this letter
for you and Madison together; and if you and he or either shall think fit
to drop me a line, I shall be pleased.

Yours with respect,
A. LINCOLN.




1846
REQUEST FOR POLITICAL SUPPORT

TO Dr. ROBERT BOAL. SPRINGFIELD, January 7, 1846.

Dr. ROBERT BOAL, Lacon, Ill.

DEAR DOCTOR:--Since I saw you last fall, I have often thought of writing
to you, as it was then understood I would, but, on reflection, I have
always found that I had nothing new to tell you. All has happened as I
then told you I expected it would--Baker's declining, Hardin's taking the
track, and so on.

If Hardin and I stood precisely equal, if neither of us had been to
Congress, or if we both had, it would only accord with what I have always
done, for the sake of peace, to give way to him; and I expect I should do
it. That I can voluntarily postpone my pretensions, when they are no more
than equal to those to which they are postponed, you have yourself seen.
But to yield to Hardin under present circumstances seems to me as nothing
else than yielding to one who would gladly sacrifice me altogether. This
I would rather not submit to. That Hardin is talented, energetic, usually
generous and magnanimous, I have before this affirmed to you and do not
deny. You know that my only argument is that "turn about is fair play."
This he, practically at least, denies.

If it would not be taxing you too much, I wish you would write me,
telling the aspect of things in your country, or rather your district;
and also, send the names of some of your Whig neighbors, to whom I might,
with propriety, write. Unless I can get some one to do this, Hardin, with
his old franking list, will have the advantage of me. My reliance for a
fair shake (and I want nothing more) in your country is chiefly on you,
because of your position and standing, and because I am acquainted with
so few others. Let me hear from you soon.

Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.




TO JOHN BENNETT.

SPRINGFIELD, Jan. 15, 1846.
JOHN BENNETT.

FRIEND JOHN:

Nathan Dresser is here, and speaks as though the contest between Hardin
and me is to be doubtful in Menard County. I know he is candid and this
alarms me some. I asked him to tell me the names of the men that were
going strong for Hardin, he said Morris was about as strong as any-now
tell me, is Morris going it openly? You remember you wrote me that he
would be neutral. Nathan also said that some man, whom he could not
remember, had said lately that Menard County was going to decide the
contest and that made the, contest very doubtful. Do you know who that
was? Don't fail to write me instantly on receiving this, telling me
all--particularly the names of those who are going strong against me.

Yours as ever,
A. LINCOLN.




TO N. J. ROCKWELL.

SPRINGFIELD, January 21, 1846.

DEAR SIR:--You perhaps know that General Hardin and I have a contest for
the Whig nomination for Congress for this district.

He has had a turn and my argument is "turn about is fair play."

I shall be pleased if this strikes you as a sufficient argument.

Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.




TO JAMES BERDAN.

SPRINGFIELD, April 26, 1846.

DEAR SIR:--I thank you for the promptness with which you answered my
letter from Bloomington. I also thank you for the frankness with which
you comment upon a certain part of my letter; because that comment
affords me an opportunity of trying to express myself better than I did
before, seeing, as I do, that in that part of my letter, you have not
understood me as I intended to be understood.

In speaking of the "dissatisfaction" of men who yet mean to do no wrong,
etc., I mean no special application of what I said to the Whigs of
Morgan, or of Morgan & Scott. I only had in my mind the fact that
previous to General Hardin's withdrawal some of his friends and some of
mine had become a little warm; and I felt, and meant to say, that for
them now to meet face to face and converse together was the best way to
efface any remnant of unpleasant feeling, if any such existed.

I did not suppose that General Hardin's friends were in any greater need
of having their feelings corrected than mine were. Since I saw you at
Jacksonville, I have had no more suspicion of the Whigs of Morgan than of
those of any other part of the district. I write this only to try to
remove any impression that I distrust you and the other Whigs of your
country.

Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.




TO JAMES BERDAN.

SPRINGFIELD, May 7, 1866.

DEAR SIR:--It is a matter of high moral obligation, if not of necessity,
for me to attend the Coles and Edwards courts. I have some cases in both
of them, in which the parties have my promise, and are depending upon me.
The court commences in Coles on the second Monday, and in Edgar on the
third. Your court in Morgan commences on the fourth Monday; and it is my
purpose to be with you then, and make a speech. I mention the Coles and
Edgar courts in order that if I should not reach Jacksonville at the time
named you may understand the reason why. I do not, however, think there
is much danger of my being detained; as I shall go with a purpose not to
be, and consequently shall engage in no new cases that might delay me.

Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.




VERSES WRITTEN BY LINCOLN AFTER A VISIT TO HIS OLD HOME IN
INDIANA-(A FRAGMENT).

[In December, 1847, when Lincoln was stumping for Clay, he crossed into
Indiana and revisited his old home. He writes: "That part of the country
is within itself as unpoetical as any spot on earth; but still seeing it
and its objects and inhabitants aroused feelings in me which were
certainly poetry; though whether my expression of these feelings is
poetry, is quite another question."]

Near twenty years have passed away
Since here I bid farewell
To woods and fields, and scenes of play,
And playmates loved so well.

Where many were, but few remain
Of old familiar things;
But seeing them to mind again
The lost and absent brings.

The friends I left that parting day,
How changed, as time has sped!
Young childhood grown, strong manhood gray,
And half of all are dead.

I hear the loved survivors tell
How naught from death could save,
Till every sound appears a knell,
And every spot a grave.

I range the fields with pensive tread,
And pace the hollow rooms,
And feel (companion of the dead)
I 'm living in the tombs.

VERSES WRITTEN BY LINCOLN CONCERNING A SCHOOL-FELLOW
WHO BECAME INSANE--(A FRAGMENT).

And when at length the drear and long
Time soothed thy fiercer woes,
How plaintively thy mournful song
Upon the still night rose

I've heard it oft as if I dreamed,
Far distant, sweet and lone;
The funeral dirge it ever seemed
Of reason dead and gone.

Air held her breath; trees with the spell
Seemed sorrowing angels round,
Whose swelling tears in dewdrops fell
Upon the listening ground.

But this is past, and naught remains
That raised thee o'er the brute;
Thy piercing shrieks and soothing strains
Are like, forever mute.

Now fare thee well! More thou the cause
Than subject now of woe.
All mental pangs by time's kind laws
Hast lost the power to know.

O Death! thou awe-inspiring prince
That keepst the world in fear,
Why dost thou tear more blest ones hence,
And leave him lingering here?




SECOND CHILD

TO JOSHUA P. SPEED

SPRINGFIELD, October 22, 1846.

DEAR SPEED:--You, no doubt, assign the suspension of our correspondence
to the true philosophic cause; though it must be confessed by both of us
that this is rather a cold reason for allowing a friendship such as ours
to die out by degrees. I propose now that, upon receipt of this, you
shall be considered in my debt, and under obligations to pay soon, and
that neither shall remain long in arrears hereafter. Are you agreed?

Being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our friends for
having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected.

We have another boy, born the 10th of March. He is very much such a child
as Bob was at his age, rather of a longer order. Bob is "short and low,"
and I expect always will be. He talks very plainly,--almost as plainly as
anybody. He is quite smart enough. I sometimes fear that he is one of the
little rare-ripe sort that are smarter at about five than ever after. He
has a great deal of that sort of mischief that is the offspring of such
animal spirits. Since I began this letter, a messenger came to tell me
Bob was lost; but by the time I reached the house his mother had found
him and had him whipped, and by now, very likely, he is run away again.
Mary has read your letter, and wishes to be remembered to Mrs. Speed and
you, in which I most sincerely join her.

As ever yours,
A. LINCOLN.




TO MORRIS AND BROWN

SPRINGFIELD, October 21, 1847.
MESSRS. MORRIS AND BROWN.

GENTLEMEN:--Your second letter on the matter of Thornton and others, came
to hand this morning. I went at once to see Logan, and found that he is
not engaged against you, and that he has so sent you word by Mr.
Butterfield, as he says. He says that some time ago, a young man (who he
knows not) came to him, with a copy of the affidavit, to engage him to
aid in getting the Governor to grant the warrant; and that he, Logan,
told the man, that in his opinion, the affidavit was clearly
insufficient, upon which the young man left, without making any
engagement with him. If the Governor shall arrive before I leave, Logan
and I will both attend to the matter, and he will attend to it, if he
does not come till after I leave; all upon the condition that the
Governor shall not have acted upon the matter, before his arrival here. I
mention this condition because, I learned this morning from the Secretary
of State, that he is forwarding to the Governor, at Palestine, all papers
he receives in the case, as fast as he receives them. Among the papers
forwarded will be your letter to the Governor or Secretary of, I believe,
the same date and about the same contents of your last letter to me; so
that the Governor will, at all events have your points and authorities.
The case is a clear one on our side; but whether the Governor will view
it so is another thing.

Yours as ever,
A. LINCOLN.




TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON

WASHINGTON, December 5, 1847.

DEAR WILLIAM:--You may remember that about a year ago a man by the name
of Wilson (James Wilson, I think) paid us twenty dollars as an advance
fee to attend to a case in the Supreme Court for him, against a Mr.
Campbell, the record of which case was in the hands of Mr. Dixon of St.
Louis, who never furnished it to us. When I was at Bloomington last fall
I met a friend of Wilson, who mentioned the subject to me, and induced me
to write to Wilson, telling him I would leave the ten dollars with you
which had been left with me to pay for making abstracts in the case, so
that the case may go on this winter; but I came away, and forgot to do
it. What I want now is to send you the money, to be used accordingly, if
any one comes on to start the case, or to be retained by you if no one
does.

There is nothing of consequence new here. Congress is to organize
to-morrow. Last night we held a Whig caucus for the House, and nominated
Winthrop of Massachusetts for speaker, Sargent of Pennsylvania for
sergeant-at-arms, Homer of New Jersey door-keeper, and McCormick of
District of Columbia postmaster. The Whig majority in the House is so
small that, together with some little dissatisfaction, [it] leaves it
doubtful whether we will elect them all.

This paper is too thick to fold, which is the reason I send only a
half-sheet.

Yours as ever, A. LINCOLN.




TO WILLIAM H. HERNDON.

WASHINGTON, December 13, 1847

DEAR WILLIAM:--Your letter, advising me of the receipt of our fee in the
bank case, is just received, and I don't expect to hear another as good a
piece of news from Springfield while I am away. I am under no obligations
to the bank; and I therefore wish you to buy bank certificates, and pay
my debt there, so as to pay it with the least money possible. I would as
soon you should buy them of Mr. Ridgely, or any other person at the bank,
as of any one else, provided you can get them as cheaply. I suppose,
after the bank debt shall be paid, there will be some money left, out of
which I would like to have you pay Lavely and Stout twenty dollars, and
Priest and somebody (oil-makers) ten dollars, for materials got for
house-painting. If there shall still be any left, keep it till you see or
hear from me.

I shall begin sending documents so soon as I can get them. I wrote you
yesterday about a "Congressional Globe." As you are all so anxious for me
to distinguish myself, I have concluded to do so before long.

Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.




RESOLUTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES, DECEMBER 22, 1847

Whereas, The President of the United States, in his message of May 11,
1846, has declared that "the Mexican Government not only refused to
receive him [the envoy of the United States], or to listen to his
propositions, but, after a long-continued series of menaces, has at last
invaded our territory and shed the blood of our fellow-citizens on our
own soil";

And again, in his message of December 8, 1846, that "we had ample cause
of war against Mexico long before the breaking out of hostilities; but
even then we forbore to take redress into our own hands until Mexico
herself became the aggressor, by invading our soil in hostile array, and
shedding the blood of our citizens";

And yet again, in his message of December 7, 1847, that "the Mexican
Government refused even to hear the terms of adjustment which he [our
minister of peace] was authorized to propose, and finally, under wholly
unjustifiable pretexts, involved the two countries in war, by invading
the territory of the State of Texas, striking the first blow, and
shedding the blood of our citizens on our own soil";

And whereas, This House is desirous to obtain a full knowledge of all the
facts which go to establish whether the particular spot on which the
blood of our citizens was so shed was or was not at that time our own
soil: therefore,

Resolved, By the House of Representatives, that the President of the
United States be respectfully requested to inform this House:

First. Whether the spot on which the blood of our citizens was shed, as
in his message declared, was or was not within the territory of Spain, at
least after the treaty of 1819, until the Mexican revolution.

Second. Whether that spot is or is not within the territory which was
wrested from Spain by the revolutionary government of Mexico.

Third. Whether that spot is or is not within a settlement of people,
which settlement has existed ever since long before the Texas revolution,
and until its inhabitants fled before the approach of the United States
army.

Fourth. Whether that settlement is or is not isolated from any and all
other settlements by the Gulf and the Rio Grande on the south and west,
and by wide uninhabited regions on the north and east.

Fifth. Whether the people of that settlement, or a majority of them, or