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SPEECH AT TOLEDO, OHIO.

I am leaving you on an errand of national importance, attended, as you are aware, with considerable difficulties. Let us believe, as some poet has expressed it, "Behind the cloud the sun is shining still." I bid you an affectionate farewell.

CHARLES LANMAN.

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FULLY concur with all that has ever been utteredcalculated to show that Abraham Lincoln was a pure and honest man, and possessor of very superior abilities. Among those to whom I applied for biographical facts, while preparing the first edition of my Dictionary of Congress, was Mr. Lincoln; and his reply was so characteristic of the man, that I send the following: "Born in Hardin County, Kentucky, February 12, 1809; received a limited education; adopted the profession of law; was captain of volunteers in the Black Hawk war; was post-master of a small village; four times elected to the Illinois Legislature, and a Representative in Congress from 1847 to 1849." The several letters which he wrote to me, and two or three very pleasant interviews that I had with him, can never be forgotten; but what I cherish with peculiar pleasure, is the fact that he once suggested my appointment as Librarian of Congress; and when, through a distinguished friend, I suggested that Mr. A. R. Spofford was an applicant for the place, and better fitted for it than myself, the manner in which he commented on my suggestion was exceedingly gratifying.

Charles Lanman

WASHINGTON, 1882.

SPEECH DELIVERED

DELIVERED AT INDIANAPOLIS,

INDIANA.

In all trying positions in which I shall be placed, and, doubtless I shall be placed in many such, my reliance will be placed upon you and the people of the United States; and I wish you to remember, now and forever, that it is your business, and not mine; that if the Union of these States, and the liberties of this people shall be lost, it is but little to any one man of fifty-two years of age, but a great deal to the thirty millions of people who inhabit these United States, and to their posterity in all coming time. It is your business to rise up and preserve the Union and liberty for yourselves, and not for me. I desire they should be constitutionally performed. I, as already intimated, am but an accidental instrument, temporary, and to serve but for a limited time, and I appeal to you again to constantly bear in mind that with you, and not with politicians, not with Presidents, not with. office-seekers, but with you, is the question, Shall the Union and shall the liberties of this country be preserved to the latest generations?

RUFUS BLANCHARD.

153

ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE CONVENTION OF 1860.

ATIONS, like individuals, have turning-points in

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their lives. The United States has passed through one of them her first crisis since she became a nation by the adoption of a constitution in 1789. No small amount of eloquent advocacy, as well as charitable compromise, were required to unite the different States together in one common bond in that early day, even though the glories of her Revolution were fresh in the minds of all. The only cause of this reluctance on the part of some of the States to enter into this compact grew out of a fear, that slavery might not be sustained after the national Union of the States had been consummated. And it is not improbable that some mental reservation existed as to the binding force of the constitution, on the part of some of the States at the time of signing it. When this union of all the States under one bond was accomplished we became, in the eyes of the world, a nation; and our patriotic pride and fidelity to a common interest seemed to give an assurance of perpetual harmony. This kindred feeling was not disturbed till slavery had assumed rights, which were con

sidered hostile to the honor of the North, and dangerous to the best interests of the nation. At this eventful epoch, when everybody was intent on his calling, loath to turn aside from his daily routine, the great issue was forced upon the nation in no equivocal form at the convention of 1860. For the first time in the history of presidential conventions, this issue completely transcended all others; that of 1856 having been somewhat vacillating. A suspense now hung over the whole country. Prophets harangued and everybody partook of the general excitement. When the convention met it was observable through a conviction that seemed to fill the very air, that a new order of things was at hand; that new men and new measures would soon be brought to the front by an irresistible influence that was gathering force like the whirlwind. And while (as is always the case at such popular councils), noisy and thoughtless demonstrations, like the froth that floats on deep waters, were uppermost at times, yet the profound convictions of political economists transcended them, whenever the true issue came up for debate. It was the substance, not the shadow, that this element of candor demanded; it asked no favors through a reciprocity of interest, but challenged men to support principles according to their merits. Political prestige weighed nothing. In vain, it had oft been tried to bridge over the chasm; heroic treatment was demanded, and who should be the hero to administer it, who could buffet the storm of indignation ready to burst upon the head of him who accepted the nomination of the anti-slavery party? Who could step into this arena impervious to the corruption of partisans ?

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