intimated to the War Department that, in his opinion, no such movement was necessary to the defence or protection of Texas.

These resolutions, which Mr. Polk would have found it very inconvenient to answer, were laid over, under the rule, and were never acted upon, although Mr. Lincoln commented on them in a speech, made January 12, 1848, which, by the way, was his first formal appearance in the House. In this speech he discussed, in his homely but forcible manner, the absurdities and contradictions of Mr. Polk's message, and exposed its weaknesses.

In these times, when questions of so much greater magnitude and importance have overshadowed those which occupied or agitated the public mind twenty years ago, it seems strange that political opponents could even then have compelled Mr. Lincoln to defend his course in Congress, as having been prompted by patriotic motives. The nation which has been plunged into mourning by his sudden and violent death, would now regard as gratuitous and puerile any argument, the purpose of which should be to prove that Mr. Lincoln's action upon this Mexican question was governed by the same inflexible ideas of honor and right which ruled him so unwaveringly throughout his entire public career, and which have since made his memory sacred.

On

A Whig from conviction, Mr. Lincoln acted consistently with his party upon all questions of public concern. June 20, 1848, after the nomination of General Cass as the Democratic candidate for the Presidency, Mr. Lincoln made an able speech in support of the line of policy the Whigs had pursued regarding internal improvements. He ridiculed mercilessly the position taken by General Cass upon this important question, and, in concluding his remarks, thus stated his own views, while he dealt a severe blow at the same pseudo chivalric spirit of the South, which he has since been chiefly instrumental in humbling to the dust. He said:

How to do something, and still not to do too much, is the desideratum. Let each contribute his mite in the way of suggestion. The late Silas

Wright, in a letter to the Chicago convention, contributed his, which was worth something; and I now contribute mine, which may be worth nothing. At all events, it will mislead nobody, and therefore will do no harm. I would not borrow money. I am against an overwhelming, crushing system. Suppose that, at each session, Congress shall first determine how much money can, for that year, be spared for improvements; then apportion that sum to the most important objects. Su far all is easy; but how shall we determine which are the most important? On this question comes the collision of interests. I shall be slow to acknowledge that your harbor or your river is more important than mine, and vice versa. To clear this difficulty, let us have that same statistical information which the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Vinton] suggested at the beginning of this session. In that information we shall have a stern, unbending basis of facts-a basis in nowise subject to whim, caprice, or local interest. The pre-limited amount of means will save us from doing too much, and the statistics will save us from doing what we do in wrong places. Adopt and adhere to this course, and, it seems to me, the difficulty is cleared.

One of the gentlemen from South Carolina [Mr. Rhett] very much deprecates these statistics. He particularly objects, as I understand him, to counting all the pigs and chickens in the land. I do not perceive much force in the objection. It is true, that if every thing be enumerated, a portion of such statistics may not be very useful to this object. Such products of the country as are to be consumed where they are produced, need no roads and rivers, no means of transportation, and have no very proper connection with this subject. The surplus, that which is produced in one place to be consumed in another; the capacity of each locality for producing a greater surplus; the natural means of transportation, and their susceptibility of improvement; the hindrances, delays, and losses of life and property during transportation, and the causes of each, would be among the most valuable statistics in this connection. From these it would readily appear where a given amount of expenditure would do the most good. These statistics might be equally accessible, as they would be equally useful, to both the Nation and the States. In this way, and by these means, let the Nation take hold of the larger works, and the States the smaller ones; and thus, working in a meeting direction, discreetly, but steadily and firmly, what is made unequal in one place may be equalized in another, extravagance avoided, and the whole country put on that career of prosperity which shall correspond with its extent of territory, its natural resources, and the intelligence and enterprise of its people.

The nomination of General Taylor as the Whig candidate for the Presidency, by the Convention of that party at Philadelphia, to which Mr. Lincoln was a delegate, fairly opened the campaign, and Congress prolonged its

session until August 14th, as the members,-Senators and Representatives alike,--insisted, each for himself, upon expressing his views, and defining his position in full, for the benefit of his constituents. The only speech of any length made by Mr. Lincoln, subsequent to that from which we have already quoted, was delivered July 27th, when he defended, with characteristic shrewdness and ability, the position General Taylor had taken regarding the exercise of the veto power. This speech is, perhaps, more strongly marked by Mr. Lincoln's peculiarities than any other of his Congressional utterances. The keen sarcasm with which he exposed the inconsistencies of both General Cass and Mr. Van Buren, is not surpassed in any of his subsequent efforts.

Upon the adjournment of Congress, the members entered energetically into the popular canvass, Mr. Lincoln first making a visit to New England, where he delivered a number of effective campaign speeches in support of General Taylor. The journals of the day note his presence at the Massachusetts State Convention during his brief visit to New England, and speak in terms of the highest praise of an address which he delivered at New Bedford. He felt conscious, however, that he could labor more effectively among his Western friends, and accordingly spent most of his time during the canvass in that section of the country. Although he failed to carry his own State for his favorite candidate, his disappointment was entirely forgotten in General Taylor's election.

In December, when the Thirtieth Congress reassembled for its second session, Mr. Lincoln took his seat; but the exhaustion consequent upon the exciting political campaign just closed, reacted upon Congress, and precluded the possibility of any exciting discussions. Important action was taken, however, upon the slavery question in some of its phases. It is needless to state, that during his entire Congressional service Mr. Lincoln steadily and persistently cast his vote upon the side of freedom. He repeatedly recorded himself against laying on the table, without consideration, petitions in favor of the

abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and against the slave-trade.

On the question of abolishing slavery in the District, he took rather a prominent part. A Mr. Gott had introduced a resolution directing the proper committee to introduce a bill abolishing the slave-trade in the District. On January 16 (1849), Mr. Lincoln moved the following amendment, instructing the Committee to introduce a bill not for the abolition of the slave-trade, but of slavery, within the District:

Resolved, That the Committee on the District of Columbia be instructed to report a bill in substance as follows:

SEO. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, in Congress assembled, That no person now within the District of Columbia, nor now owned by any person or persons now resident within it, nor hereafter born within it, shall ever be held in slavery within said District.

SEC. 2. That no person now within said District, or now owned by any person or persons now resident within the same, or hereafter born within it, shall ever be held in slavery without the limits of said District: Provided, That the officers of the Government of the United States, being citizens of the slaveholding States, coming into said District on public business, and remaining only so long as may be reasonably necessary for that object, may be attended into and out of said District, and while there, by the necessary servants of themselves and their families, without their right to hold such servants in service being impaired.

SEC. 3. That all children born of slave mothers within said District, on or after the 1st day of January, in the year of our Lord 1850, shall be free; but shall be reasonably supported and educated by the respective owners of their mothers, or by their heirs or representatives, and shall serve reasonable service as apprentices to such owners, heirs, or representatives, until they respectively arrive at the age of years, when they shall be entirely free: And the municipal authorities of Washington and Georgetown, within their respective jurisdictional limits, are hereby empowered and required to make all suitable and necessary provision for enforcing obedience to this section, on the part of both masters and apprentices.

SEC. 4. That all persons now within this District, lawfully held as slaves, or now owned by any person or persons now resident within said. District, shall remain such at the will of their respective owners, their heirs, or legal representatives: Provided, that such owner, or his legal representatives, may at any time receive from the Treasury of the United

States the full value of his or her slave, of the class in this section mentioned, upon which such slave shall be forthwith and forever free: And provided further, That the President of the United States, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of the Treasury, shall be a board for determining the value such slaves as their owners desire to emancipate under this section, and whose duty it shall be to hold a session for the purpose on the first Monday of each calendar month, to receive all applications, and, on satisfactory evidence in each case that the person presented for valuation is a slave, and of the class in the section mentioned, and is owned by the applicant, shall value such slave at his or her full cash value, and give to the applicant an order on the Treasury for the amount, and also to such slave a certificate of freedom.

SEC. 5. That the municipal authorities of Washington and Georgetown, within their respective jurisdictional limits, are hereby empowered and required to provide active and efficient means to arrest and deliver up to their owners all fugitive slaves escaping into said District.

SEC. 6. That the elective officers within said District of Columbia are hereby empowered and required to open polls, at all the usual places of holding elections, on the first Monday of April next, and receive the vote of every free white citizen above the age of twenty-one years, having resided within said District for the period of one year or more next preceding the time of such voting for or against this act, to proceed in taking said votes, in all respects not herein specified, as at elections under the municipal laws, and with as little delay as possible to transmit correct statements of the votes so cast to the President of the United States; and it shall be the duty of the President to count such votes immediately, and if a majority of them be found to be for this act, to forthwith issue his proclamation giving notice of the fact; and this act shall only be in full force and effect on and after the day of such proclamation.

SEC. 7. That involuntary servitude for the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall in no wise be prohibited by this act.

SEC. 8. That for all purposes of this act, the jurisdictional limits of Washington are extended to all parts of the District of Columbia not included within the present limits of Georgetown.

A bill was afterwards reported by the committee forbidding the introduction of slaves into the District for sale or hire. This bill also Mr. Lincoln supported, but in vain. The time for the success of such measures, involving to an extent attacks upon slavery, had not yet

come.

The question of the Territories also came up in many The Wilmot Proviso had made its first appearance

ways.