History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 80

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084

USA > Illinois > Sangamon County > History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 80

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THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE.

The great debate between Lincoln and Dong- las, in 1858, was, unquestionably, both with reference to the ability of the speakers and its influence upon opinion and events, the most im- portant in American history. I do not think I do injustice to others, nor over-estimate their im- portance, when I say that the speeches of Lin- coln published, circulated and read throughout the Free States, did more than any other agency

in creating the public opinion, which prepared the way for the overthrow of slavery. The speeches of John Quincy Adams, and those of Senator Sumner, were more learned and scholar- ly, and those of Lovejoy and Wendel Phillips were more vehement and impassioned; Senators Seward, Chase and Hale spoke from a more con- spicnous forum, but Lincoln's speeches were as philosophic, as able, as earnest as any, and his manner has a simplicity and directness, a clear- ness of illustration, and his language a plainness, a vigor, an Anglo-Saxon strength, better adapted than any other, to reach and influence the under- standing and sentiment of the common people.

"At the time of this memorable discussion, both Lincoln and Douglas were in the full ma turity of their powers. Douglas being forty-five and Lincoln forty-nine years old. Douglas had had a long training and experience as a popular speaker. On the hustings ( stump, as we say in America) and in Congress, and especially in the United States Senate, he had been accustomed to meet the ablest debaters of his State and of the Nation.

" His friends insisted that never, either in con- fliet with a single opponent, or when repelling the assaults of a whole party, had he been dis- comfited. His manner was bold, vigorous, and aggressive. He was ready, fertile in resources, familiar with political history, strong and severe in denunciation, and he handled, with skill, all the weapons of the dialectician. His iron will, tireless energy, united with physical and moral courage, and great personal magnetism, made him a natural leader, and gave him personal popularity.

" Lincoln was also now a thoroughly trained speaker. He had contended successfully at the bar, in the legislature, and before the people, with the ablest men of the West, including Douglas, with whom he always rather sought than avoided a discussion. But he was a courte- ous and generous opponent, as is illustrated by the following beautiful allusion to his rival, made in 1856, in one of their joint debates. ' Twenty years ago, Judge Douglas and I first became acquainted; we were both young then; he a trifle younger than I. Even then, we were both ambitious, I, perhaps, quite as much as he. With me, the race of ambition has been a flat failure. With him, it has been a splendid success. His name fills the Nation, and is not unknown in foreign lands. I affect no contempt for the high eminence he has reached; so reached, that the oppressed of my species might have shared with me in the elevation. I would

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rather stand on that eminence than wear the richest crown that ever pressed a monarch's brow.'

"We know. and the world knows, that Lin- coln did reach that high, nay, far higher emi- nence, and that he did reach it in such a way that the 'oppressed' did share with him in the elevation.

"Such were the champions who, in 1858, were to discuss, before the voters of Illinois, and with the whole Nation as spectators, the political ques- tions then pending, and especially the vital ques- tions relating to slavery. It was not a single combat, but extended through a whole cam- paign.

"On the return of Douglas from Washington, to Illinois, in July, 1858, Lincoln and Douglas being candidates for the Senate, the former chal- lenged his rival to a series of joint debates, to be held at the principal towns in the State. The challenge was accepted, and it was agreed that each discussion should occupy three hours, that the speakers should alternate in the opening and the close-the opening speech to occupy one hour, the reply one hour and a half, and the close half an hour. The meetings were held in the open air, for no hall could hold the vast crowds which attended.

"In addition to the immense mass of hearers, reporters, from all the principal newspapers in the country, attended, so that the morning after eac'ı debate, the speeches were published, and eagerly read by a large part, perhaps a majority of all the voters of the United States.

"The attention of the American people was thus arrested, and they watched with intense in- terest, and devoured every argument of the champions.

" Each of these great men, I doubt not, at that time, sincerely believed he was right. Douglas' ardor, while in such a conflict, would make him think, for the time being, he was right, and I know that Lincoln argued for freedom against the extension of slavery with the most profound conviction that on the result hung the fate of his country. Lincoln had two advantages over Douglas; he had the best side of the question, and the best temper. He was always good humored, always had an apt story for illustra- tion, while Douglas sometimes, when hard pressed, was irritable.

" Douglas carried away the most popular ap- plause, but Lincoln made the deeper and more lasting impression. Douglas did not disdain an immediate ad captandum triumph, while Lincoln aimed at permanent conviction. Sometimes,

when Lincoln's friends urged him to raise a storm of applause (which he could always do by his happy illustrations and amusing stories), he refused, saying the occasion was too serious, the issue too grave. 'I do not seek applause,' said he, 'nor to amuse the people, I want to convince them.'

"It was often observed, during this canvass, that while Douglas was sometimes greeted with the loudest cheers, when Lincoln closed, the people seemed solemn and serious, and could be heard, all through the crowd, gravely and anx- iously discussing the topics on which he had been speaking.

Douglas secured the immediate object of the struggle, but the manly bearing, the vigorous logic, the honesty and sincerity, the great intel- lectual powers, exhibited by Mr. Lincoln, pre- pared the way, and, two years later, secured his nomination and election to the Presidency. It is a touching incident, illustrating the patriotism of both these statesmen, that, widely as they dif- fered, and keen as had been their rivalry, just as soon as the life of the Republic was menaced, by treason, they joined hands to shield and save the country they loved.

"The echo and prophecy of this great debate was heard, and inspired hope in the far-off cotton and rice-fields of the South. The toiling blacks, to use the words of Whittier, began hopefully to pray:

" ' We pray de Lord. He gib us signs Dat some day we be free, De Norf wind tell it to de pines, De wild duck to de sea.

" ' We tink it when de church-bell ring, We dream it in de dream, De rice-bird mean it when he sing, De eagle when he scream.'

THE COOPER-INSTITUTE SPEECH.

"In February, 1860, Mr. Lincoln was called to address the people of New York, and, speaking to a vast audience, at the Cooper Institute (the Exeter Hall of the United States), the poet Bry- ant presiding, he made, perhaps, the most learned, logical, and exhaustive speech to be found in American anti-slavery literature. The question was, the power of the National Government to exclude slavery from the Territories. The orator from the prairies, the morning after this speech, awoke to find himself famous.

" He closed with these words, 'Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us, to the end, do our duty as we understand it.'

57 --

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

" This address was the carefully finished pro- duct of, not an orator and statesman only, but also of an accurate student of American history. It confirmed and elevated the reputation he had already acquired in the Douglas debates, and caused his nomination and election to the Presi- dency.

"If time permitted, I would like to follow Mr. Lincoln, step by step, to enumerate his measures one after another, until by prudence and courage, and matchless statesmanship, he led the loyal people of the Republic to the final and complete overthrow of slavery and the restoration of the Union.

"From the time he left his humble home in Illinois, to assume the responsibilities of power, the political horizon black with treason and re- bellion, the teriffie thunder clouds,-the tempest which had been gathering and growing more black and threatening for years, now ready to explode,-on and on, through long years of bloody war, down to his final triumph and death-what a drama! His eventful life ter- minated by his tragie death, has it not the dra- matie unities, and the awful ending, of the Old Greek tragedy?

IIIS FAREWELL TO HIS NEIGHBORS.

"I know of nothing in history, more pathetic than the scene when he bade good-bye to his old friends and neighbors. Conscious of the diffi- eulties and dangers before him, difficulties which seemed almost insurmountable, with a sadness as though a presentment that he should return no more was pressing upon him, but with a deep religious trust which was characteristic, on the platform of the rail-carriage, which was to bear him away to the Capital, he paused and said, 'No one can realize the sadness I feel at this parting. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century. Here my children were born, and here one of them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again. I go to assume a task more difficult than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washing- ton. He never would have succeeded but for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which, at all times, he relied. * *

* I hope you, my dear friends, will all pray that I may receive that Di- vine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with which, success is certain.'

"And as he waved his hand in farewell to the old home, to which he was never to return, he heard the response from many old friends, ' God bless and keep you.' 'God protect you from all traitors.' His neighbors ' sorrowing most of all,'

for the fear 'that they should see his face no more.'

HIS INAUGURAL AND APPEAL FOR PEACE.

" In his inaugural address, spoken in the open air, and from the eastern portico of the capitol, and heard by thrice ten thousand people, on the very verge of civil war, he made a most earnest appeal for peace. He gave the most solemn as- surance, that ' the property, peace, and security of no portion of the Republic should be endan- gered by his administration.' But he declared, with firmness, that the Union of the States must be 'perpetual,' and that he should 'execute the laws faithfully in every State.' 'In doing this,' said he, ' there need be no blood shed nor vio- lence, nor shall there be, unless forced upon the National Authority.' In regard to the difficul- ties which thus divided the people, he appealed to all to abstain from precipitate action, assur- ing them that intelligence, patriotism, and a firm reliance on Him, who had never yet forsaken the Republic, ' were competent to adjust, in the best way, all existing troubles.'

" His closing appeal, against civil war, was most touching, 'In your hands,' said he, and his voice, for the first time faltered, ' In your hands, and not in mine, are the momentous issues of civil war.' ' You can have no con- flict without being yourselves the aggressors.' * 'I am,' continued he, 'loth to close, we are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies, though passion may strain -it must not break the bonds of affection.'

" The answer to these appeals was the attack upon Fort Sumter, and immediately broke loose all the maddening passions which riot in blood and carnage and civil war.

"I know not how I can better picture and illustrate the condition of affairs, and of public feeling, at that time, than by narrating two or three incidents.

DOUGLAS' PROPHECY, JANUARY 1, 1861.

"In January, 1861, Senator Douglas, then lately a candidate for the Presidency, with Mrs. Douglas, one of the most beautiful and fascinat- ing women in America, a relative of Mrs. Madi- son, occupied, at Washington, one of the most magnificent block of dwellings, called the ' Min- nesota Block.' On New Year's day, 1861, Gen- eral Charles Stewart, of New York, from whose lips I write an account of the incident, says:

"' I was making a New Year's call on Senator Douglas; after some conversation, I asked him: "' What will be the result, Senator, of the ef- forts of Jefferson Davis, and his associates, to

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divide the Union?' We were,' said Stewart, ' sitting ou the sofa together, when I asked the question. Douglas rose, walked rapidly up and down the room for a moment, and then pausing, he exclaimed, with deep feeling and excitement: "" The Cotton States are making an effort to draw in the Border States, to their schemes of Secession, and I am but too fearful they will succeed. If they do, there will be the most fearful civil war the world has ever seen, lasting for years.'

" Pausing a moment, he looked like one in- spired, while he proceeded: ' Virginia, over yon- der, across the Potomac,' pointing toward Ar- lington, 'will become a charnel-house-but in the end the Union will triumph. They will try.' he continued, 'to get possession of this Capital, to give them prestige abroad, but in that effort they will never succeed; the North will rise en masse to defend it. But Washing- ton will become a city of hospitals, the churches will be used for the sick and wounded. This house,' he continued, ' the Minnesota Block will be devoted to that purpose before the end of the war'

" Every word he said was literally fulfilled - all the churches nearly were used for the wounded, and the Minnesota Block, and the very room in which this declaration was made, became the 'Douglas Hospital.'

"' What justification for all this?' said Stew- art.

"' There is no justification,' replied Douglas. " ' I will go as far as the Constitution will per- mit to maintain their just rights. But,' said he, rising upon his feet and raising his arm, 'if the Southern States attempt to secede, I am in favor of their having just so many slaves, and just so much slave territory, as they can hold at the point of the bayonet, and no more.'

WILL THE NORTH FIGHT?

" Many Southern leaders believed there would be no serious war, and labored industriously to impress this idea on the Southern people.

". Benjamin F. Butler, who as a delegate from Massachusetts, to the Charleston Convention, had voted many times for Breckenridge, the ex- treme Southern candidate for President, came to Washington in the winter of 1860-1, to inquire of his old associates what they meant by their threats.

". We mean,' replied they, ' we mean Separa- tion-a Southern Confederacy. We will have our independence, a Southern government- with no discordant elements.

"'Are you prepared for war?' said Butler, coolly.

"' Oh, there will be no war; the North won't fight.

"'The North will fight,' said Butler, 'the North will send the last man and expend the last dollar to maintain the government.

" ' But,' replied Butler's Southern friends, 'the North can't fight-we have too many allies there.

""' You have friends,' responded Butler, 'in the North who will stand by you so long as you fight your battles in the Union, but the moment you fire on the flag, the North will be a unit againt you.' 'And,' Butler continued, 'you may be assured if war comes, slavery ends.'

TIIE SPECIAL SESSION OF CONGRESS, JULY; 1861.

"On the brink of this civil war, the President summoned Congress to meet on the 4th of July, 1861, the anniversary of our Independence. Seven States had already seceded, were in open revolt, and the chairs of their representatives, in both Houses of Congress, were vacant. It need- ed but a glance at these so numerous vacant seats to realize the extent of the defection, the gravity of the situation, and the magnitude of the im- pending struggle. The old pro-slavery leaders were absent. Some in the rebel government set up at Richmond, and others marshalling troops in the field. Hostile armies were gathering, and from the dome of the Capital, across the Poto- mac, and on towards Fairfax, in Virginia, could be seen the Confederate flag.

Breckenridge, late the Southern candidate for President, now Senator from Kentucky, and soon to lead a rebel army, still lingered in the Senate. Like Cataline among the Roman Senators, he was regarded with aversion and distrust. Gloomy and perhaps sorrowful, he said, 'I can only look with sadness on the melancholy drama that is being enacted."

" Pardon the digression, while I relate an inci- dent which occurred in the Senate, at this special session.

"Senator Baker, of Oregon, was making a brilliant and impassioned reply to a speech of Breckenridge, in which he denounced the Ken- tucky Senator for giving aid and encouragement to the enemy by his speeches. At length he paused, and, turning toward Breckenridge, and fixing his eye upon him, he asked, 'What would have been thought if, after the battle of Canna, a Roman Senator had risen, amidst the conscript Fathers, and denounced the war, and opposed all measures for its success ?'

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" Baker paused, and every eye in the Senate, and in the crowded galleries was fixed upon the almost solitary Senator from Kentucky. Fessen- den broke the painful silence by exclaiming, in low deep tones, which gave expression to the thrill of indignation, which ran through the hall, 'He would have been hurled from the Tar- peian Rock.'

"Congress manifested its sense of the gravity of the situation by authorizing a loan of two hundred and fifty millions of dollars, and em- powering the President to call into the field five hundred thousand men, and as many more as he might deem necessary.

SURRENDER OF MASON AND SLIDELL.

" No act of the British Government, since the ' stamp act' of the Revolution, has ever excited such intense feeling of hostility toward Great Britain, as her haughty demand for the surrender of Mason and Slidell. It required nerve, in the President, to stem the storm of popular feeling, and yield to that demand, and it was, for a time, the most unpopular act of his administration. But when the excitement of the day had passed, it was approved by the sober judgment of the Nation.

"Prince Albert is kindly and gratefully re- membered in America, where it is believed that his action, in modifying the terms of that de- mand, probably saved the United States and Great Britain from the horrors of war.

LINCOLN AND THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.

"When, in June, 1858, at his home, in Spring- field, Mr. Lincoln startled the people with the declaration, 'This government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free,' and when, at the close of his speech, to those who were laboring for the ultimate extinction of slavery, he exclaimed, with the voice of a prophet, ' We shall not fail; if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise councils may accelerate, or mistakes delay, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come;' he anticipated success, through years of discussion, and final triumph, through peaceful and constitutional means, by the ballot. He did not foresee, nor even dream (unless in those dim, mysterious shadows, which some- times startle, by half revealing the future), his own elevation to the Presidency. He did not then suspect that he had been appointed by God, and should be chosen by the people, to pro- claim the emancipation of a race, and to save his country. He did not foresee that slavery was so soon to be destroyed, amidst the flames of war which itself kindled.

HIS MODERATION.

" He entered upon his administration with the single purpose of maintaining National unity, and many reproached and denounced him for the slowness of his anti-slavery measures. The first of the series was the abolition of slavery at the National Capital. This act gave freedom to three thousand slaves, with compensation to their loyal masters. Contemporaneous with this, was an act conferring freedom upon all colored soldiers who should serve in the Union armies, and upon their families. The next was an act, which I had the honor to introduce, prohibiting slavery in all the Territories, and wherever the National Government had jurisdiction. But the great, the decisive, act of his administration, was the 'Emancipation Proclamation.'

EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.

"The President had urged, with the utmost earnestness, on the loyal slaveholders, of the Border States, gradual and compensated emanci- pation, but in vain. He clearly saw, all saw, that the slaves, as used by the Confederates, were a vast power, contributing immensely to their ability to carry on the war, and, that by declaring their freedom, he would convert millions of freedmen into active friends and allies of the Union. The people knew that he was deliberating upon the question of issuing this Emancipation Proclamation. At this crisis, the Union men of the Border States made an appeal to him to withhold the edict, and suffer slavery to survive.

"They selected John J. Crittenden, a ven- erable and eloquent man, and their ablest states- man, to make, on the floor of Congress, a public appeal to the President to withhold the procla- mation. Mr. Crittenden had been Governor of Kentucky, her Senator in Congress, Attorney- General of the United States, and now, in his old age, covered with honors, he accepted, like John Quincy Adams, a seat in Congress, that in this crisis he might help to save his country.

"He was a sincere Union man, but believed it unwise to disturb slavery. In his speech, he made a most eloquent and touching appeal, from a Kentuckian to a Kentuckian. He said, among other things, 'There is a niche, near to that of Washington, to him who shall save his country. If Mr. Lincoln will step into that niche, the founder and the preserver of the Re- public shall stand side by side. * Owen Lovejoy, the brother of Elijah P. Lovejoy, who had been mobbed and murdered, because he would not surrender the liberty of the press

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replied to Crittenden. After his brother's mur- der, kneeling upon the green sod which covered that brother's grave, he had taken a solemn vow of eternal war upon slavery. Ever after, like Peter the Hermit, with a heart of fire and a tongue of lightning, he had gone forth, preach- ing his crusade against slavery. At length, in his reply, turning to Crittenden, he said, 'The gentleman, from Kentucky, says he has a niche for Abraham Lincoln, where is it?'

"Crittenden pointed toward Heaven.

"Lovejoy continuing said, ' He points upward, But, sir! if the President follows the counsel of that gentleman, and becomes the perpetuator of slavery, he should point downward, to some dun- geon in the temple of Moloch, who feeds on hu- man blood, and where are forged chains for hu- man limbs; in the recesses of whose temple woman is scourged and man tortured, and out- side the walls are lying dogs, gorged with human flesh, as Byron describes them, lying around the walls of Stambool.' 'That,' said Lovejoy, 'is a suitable place for the statue of him who would perpetuate slavery.'

"""" I, too,' said he, ' have a temple for Abraham Lincoln, but it is in freedom's holy fane, * % not surrounded by slave fetters and chains, but with the symbols of freedom-not dark with bondage, but radiant with the light of liberty. In that niche he shall stand proudly, nobly, gloriously, with broken chains and slaves whips beneath his feet. * That is a fame worth living for, aye, more, it is a fame worth dying for, though that death led through Geth- semene and the agony of the accursed tree.' *

"" It is said,' continued he, 'that Wilberforce went up to the judgment seat with the broken chains of eight hundred thousand slaves! Let Lincoln make himself the Liberator, and his name shall be enrolled, not only in this earthly temple, but it shall be traced on the living stones of that temple which is reared amid the thrones of Heaven.'

" Lovejoy's prophecy has been fulfilled-in this world-you see the statues to Lincoln, with broken chains at his feet, rising all over the world, and-in that other world-few will doubt that the prophecy has been realized.

" In September, 1862, after the Confederates, by their defeat at the great battle of Antietam, had been driven back from Maryland and Pennsyl- vania, Lincoln issued the Proclamation. It is a fact, illustrating his character, and showing that there was in him what many would call a tinge of superstition, that he declared, to Secretary Chase, that he had made a solemn vow to God,

saying, ' If General Lee is driven back from Pennsylvania, I will crown the result with the declaration of freedom to the slave.' The final Proclamation was issued on the first of Jannary, 1863. In obedience to an American custom, he had been receiving calls on that New-Year's-day, and, for hours, shaking hands. As the paper was brought to him by the Secretary of State, to be signed, he said, 'Mr. Seward, I have been shaking hands all day, and my right hand is almost paralyzed. If my name ever gets into history, it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it. If my hand trembles when I sign the proclamation, those who examine the document hereafter will say, 'he hesitated.'

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History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 80

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company Number of Pages: 1084

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084