Chapter XIII

FROM STATE TO NATION

T

HE HOUSE-DIVIDED SPEECH made Lincoln at

once a national figure. The "step" that Douglas had

invited him to take in Springfield four years before had developed into a swinging stride that was carrying him powerfully forward on his destined way. With his utterance, "a house divided against itself cannot stand," he had demonstrated the futility of further compromise with the evil of slavery. The inspired glow of his genius had revealed at once the Ship of State on a storm-tossed ocean and the reefs toward which she was being inevitably driven. Study and meditation appeared in clear terms and accentuated God-like calm in that great speech. In revealing the mind of the Nation, he had revealed his own.

That which properly constitutes the life of everyone is a profound secret, says Thoreau. But Lincoln at this time bravely disclosed the depths of his being. He did this with such simple dignity that everyone, everywhere, felt that he had spoken their deeper thoughts, and revealed themselves to themselves and to each other. It was that touch of nature which makes the whole world kin.

It has been said that the best men do not seem to go contrary to others, but, as if they could afford to travel the same way, they go a parallel but higher course, a sort of

upper road. Does not Lincoln measure up to this standard of the best? He seems never to be going contrary to the course of humanity. He seems always with it, but on a higher level, as pilot and encourager. How kindly he leads; with what compassion he views the struggles of his fellows! Study Lincoln the least little bit and he becomes at once a familiar. You feel that your entrance to the company of a great lover has stirred the love impulse in your own heart, and humanity becomes of greater moment, is nearer, and compounded of your own virtues, your own infirmities.

Attempts to refine Lincoln have been no more successful in biography than they were in his lifetime. They are like stripping the coat from the thistle to make it a cornstalk. Lincoln was thoroughly harmonious, a shellbark hickory, sturdy in his individualism. People of all stations recognized his likeness to themselves and followed him spontaneously to attempt the high and noble.

Lincoln early in life discovered that strong people were won by exhibitions of strength. From physical to mental he carried that idea with prime results. As in New Salem he had invented a harness by which he was enabled to lift nearly two thousand pounds, so in his Springfield speech he had woven a harness of logic by which he was enabled to lift the whole weight of the slavery question to the view of all the people, everywhere.

Students of the time charge to this speech, the defeat of Lincoln as a senatorial candidate. That is mere speculation born, perhaps, from a desire to argue that Lincoln might have been elected. He had unhorsed Douglas with the people, having received a majority of the popular vote, but holdover Democratic Senators gave his opponent fifty-four votes to the Republicans' forty-six, and by a strict Party vote Douglas was returned to the Senate.

That this defeat of his high hopes was a hard blow to Lincoln cannot be disputed. He had said in the great LincolnDouglas Debate, "I affect no contempt for the high eminence he (Douglas) has reached. If so reached that the oppressed of my species might have shared with me in the elevation, I would rather stand on that eminence than wear the richest crown that ever pressed a monarch's brow."

He could not think with patience of lonely grandeur, such as that of Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon. Like Pan he longed to move the baser elements in humanity to freedom and gladness. If he mounted the heights, he longed to take with him the poor slave, the robust backwoodsman, the wild, rough Clary Grove boys, as well as the more refined and favored of humanity. But his temporary defeat for the Senate was a hard blow.

When a friend, following the election of Douglas asked Lincoln how he felt about it, he replied characteristically, "I am like the boy who stubbed his toe on a root. It hurts too bad to laugh, and I am too big to cry."

When he had been warned that should he put the question of state sovereignty directly up to Douglas, he might answer it in a way that would result in his being returned to the Senate, Lincoln said: “I am after bigger game. The election of 1860 is worth a thousand of this. If he wins by his answer now he can never be President."

It is not likely that Lincoln thought at this time that he might be the standard bearer of his Party for that great office. He saw clearly, however, that it would be a national catastrophe if a man who had openly declared that he cared not whether slavery were "voted down or up" should become the head of a Union; and he was willing to sacrifice his greatest ambition to prevent such a result.

He must have realized too, as no one else did, that his arguments during the debates and his clear exposition of the situation which confronted the people of the country, had given him distinction beyond the boundaries of his state and that he would have an audience in other states; that the bold challenge he had made would result in his being called to support it generally before the people during the coming Presidential canvass.

The time had come when he was able, as he had been willing long before in that slave mart in New Orleans, to "hit that thing, and hit it hard." Knowing this, he had appeared this time, to challenge Douglas and through him to challenge all the forces of evil, South or North, that should put material success above the rights of man. He asked nothing of the Nation but what he was willing himself to lead in doing.

The result of the canvass of 1858 had called for material sacrifices as disastrous to his finances as they had been to his political career. The loss of over six months from his business, and the expenses of the canvass, had made a severe drain on his personal income. In this day of million-dollar political backing for those who put on the armor and lead to battle, it is strange to read Lincoln's letter of that time to Norman B. Judd, Chairman of the Republican State Committee, when the books were being balanced.

"I have been on expenses so long, without earning anything," he writes, "that I am absolutely without money now even for household expenses. Still, if you can put in $250, for me towards discharging the debt of the Committee, I will allow it when you and I settle the private matter between us. This, with what I have already paid, with an outstanding note of mine, will exceed my subscription of $500. This, too, is exclusive of my ordinary expenses during the campaign,

all of which, being added to my loss of time and business, bears pretty heavily upon one no better off than I am. But as I had the post of honor, it is not for me to be over-nice."

At the time this letter was written, says Herndon, Lincoln's property consisted of the house and lot on which he lived, a few law books and some household furniture. He owned a small tract of land in Iowa which yielded him nothing, and his annual law practice did not exceed three thousand dollars, yet the Party Committee in Chicago were dunning the late standard bearer, who besides the chagrin of his defeat, his own expenses, and the sacrifices of his time, was asked to aid in meeting the general expense of the campaign."

But however fortune frowned, the Lincoln spirit was not daunted. His thirst for knowledge prompted him during the political lull to write a lecture on Inventions, which he delivered in several places. Preparations for this lecture sent him to the library, and his habit of nosing among books supplanted his search for ideas among the groups at the corner grocery and upon the court house steps. The Socratic method was exchanged for that of Bacon. Whether consciously or not, he was preparing himself for supreme leadership.

The long delayed blow had been struck and there were signs that its echoes were still sounding in the farthest corners. Invitations to take part in the political canvass during the Fall of 1859 came from a half dozen states where elections were to be held. Douglas, fresh from the Senate, had gone to Ohio. In response to the demands of Party friends, Lincoln followed. He delivered telling and impressive speeches at Cincinnati and Columbus, following the Senator at both places. His speeches were published and distributed as campaign documents. In December he visited Kansas, speaking