interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known.

If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be said, I am, in height, six feet four inches nearly; lean in flesh, weighing, on an average, one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with coarse black hair, and gray eyes. No other marks or brands recollected.

Yours very truly,

Addresses at Springfield

A. LINCOLN

On the 27th of January, 1837, he gave an address before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield upon the "Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions." The address was a remarkable one. It began as follows:

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 institutions conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty than any of which the history of former times tells us.

We, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of them; they are a legacy bequeathed to us by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic but now lamented and departed race of ancestors.

Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and through themselves us, of this goodly land, and to rear upon its hills and valleys a political edifice of liberty and equal rights: 'tis ours only to transmit these-the former unprofaned by the foot of the invader, the latter undecayed by the lapse of time. This our duty to ourselves and to our posterity, and love for our species in general, imperatively requires us to perform.

How then shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step across the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track upon the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.'

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reaches us, it must spring up among us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.

As

a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate in the least particular the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six" did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and laws let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor; let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample upon the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own and his children's liberties. Let reverence for the laws 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, in 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.

In 1839 he delivered another remarkable address in Springfield, in the course of which occurs the following passage: 2

1. Is not this statement exaggerated?

2. This remarkable passage was quoted by Bishop Simpson in his oration at Lincoln's funeral.

(Many free countries have lost their liberties, and ours

may lose hers; but if she shall, be it my proudest boast, not that I was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her.

In referring to the bitter hostility and corruption of the slave power, he said:

Broken by it I too may be; bow to it I never will. The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from a cause that we deem to be just. It shall not deter me. If. I ever feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country deserted by all the world beside, and I, standing up boldly and alone, hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors. And here, without contemplating consequences, before high Heaven and in the face of the whole world, I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and my love. And who that thinks with me will not fearlessly adopt the oath I take? Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. But if, after all, we shall fail, be it so. We shall have the proud consolation of saying to our conscience and to the departed shade of our country's freedom, that the cause approved by our judgments and adored by our hearts in disaster, in chains, in torture, and in death, we never failed in defending.

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

April 21, 1858, the Democratic State Convention met at Springfield, and after heartily indorsing the course of Senator Douglas, announced him as the candidate of the party for another Senatorial term.1

The career of Douglas was intimately connected with that of Lincoln. They were rivals in their profession and in politics, and finally were rival candidates for the Presidency. Stephen A. Douglas was a native of Vermont. In 1833 he emigrated to Illinois, at the age of twenty, feeble, friendless, and almost penni

1. How are Senators elected? What was the reason for this unusual procedure? Would a change in the method of electing Senators be desirable?

less, seeking bread and a career in the great West. In his adopted State he rapidly rose to distinction. Success greeted his every effort, and glory and renown came at his bidding.

At the age of twenty-one he was admitted to the bar, where he made such rapid progress that a year later he stood at the head of his profession in lis district. At the age of twenty-three he was a member of the State Legislature; at twenty-seven he was appointed Secretary of State in Illinois; at twenty-eight he became Judge in the Supreme Court. At thirty he was a Member of Congress. At thirty-two United States Senator, and recognized as the leader of the Democratic party. At forty-three he was a candidate for nomination to the Presidency. At forty-six he was nominated, but was defeated by an irreconcilable division in his party. In his forty-eighth year he died, in the prime of life, yet with a well-rounded career behind him.

In Congress he had become distinguished as the author of the Kansas-Nebraska bill,' and had succeeded in securing its passage by his brilliant oratory and plausible arguments.

This legislation concentrated the opposition to slavery in the North, and was one of the causes of the formation of the Republican party. In this political movement Lincoln was one of the leaders.

On June 16, 1858, the Republican State Convention met at Springfield and unanimously declared that " Abraham Lincoln is our first and only choice for United States Senator to fill the vacancy about to be created by the expiration of Judge Douglas' term of office."

Lincoln was invited to address the convention, and responded in an able and eloquent speech.

It

The opening paragraph excited much hostile criticism. sounded the key-note of the conflict which was destined to be waged more and more bitterly until the pet institution of the South should be swept out of existence. It was as follows:

2

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION: If we could first know where we are and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it. We are now

1. What were the provisions of the Kansas-Nebraska bill? What was the Missouri Compromise?

2. Compare the opening paragraph of Webster's "Reply to Hayne."

far into the fifth year since a policy' was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved, I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South."

In the ensuing campaign Lincoln proposed to Douglas that they enter into a series of joint debates upon the great questions of the day. The offer was accepted, and they agreed to meet in joint discussion in seven different places, viz., Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and Alton. The first debate was held August 21, and the last October 15.

These debates were widely read, and attracted the attention of the whole country. They rank among the greatest forensic discussions in the history of the world. A few short extracts from Lincoln's speeches follow.

3

My declarations upon this subject of negro slavery may be misrepresented, but cannot be misunderstood. I have said that I do not understand the Declaration to mean that all men were created equal in all respects. They are not our equal in color; but I suppose that it does mean to declare that all men are equal in some respects: they are equal in their right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Certainly the negro is not our equal in color-perhaps not

1. What was this policy?

2. Before delivering this speech Lincoln read it to a number of his friends. At its conclusion one of them remarked: "Lincoln, deliver that speech as you read it and it will make you President." Did it? If so, why? 3. What declaration is referred to? When was it formulated, and under what circumstances? (It should be read in the class.)