GO BACK TO OLD PRINCIPLES.

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Hall, seventy-eight years ago, the very door-keeper would have throttled the man, and thrust him into the street.

"Let no one be deceived; the spirit of seventy-six and the spirit of Nebraska are utter antagonisms, and the former is being rapidly displaced by the latter.

"Fellow-countrymen! Americans-South as well as North-shall we make no effort to arrest this? Already the liberal party throughout the world express the apprehension 'that the one retrograde institution in America is undermining the principles of progress, and fatally violating the noblest political system the world ever saw.' This is not the taunt of enemies, but the warning of friends. Is it quite safe to disregard it—to despise it? Is there no danger to liberty itself, in discarding the earliest practice and first precept of our ancient faith? In our greedy chase to make profit of the negro, let us beware lest we 'cancel and tear in pieces' even the white man's charter of freedom.

"Our republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. Let us repurify it. Let us turn and wash it white, in the spirit, if not in the blood, of the Revolution. Let us turn slavery from its claims of 'moral right' back upon its existing legal rights, and its arguments of 'necessity.' Let us return it to the position our fathers gave it, and there let it rest in peace. Let us readopt the Declaration of Independence, and, with it, the practices and policy which harmonize with it. Let North and South--let all Americans-let all lovers of liberty everywhere-join in the great and good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union, but we shall have so saved it as to make, and to keep it, forever worthy of the saving. We shall have so saved it, that the succeeding millions of free, happy people, the world over, shall rise up and call us blessed, to the latest generations."

He then saw, with eagle eye and prophetic foresight, the beginning of the end. The State voted anti-Nebraska, and Mr. Lincoln was the prominent man for the seat in the national Senate to be vacated by General Shields, and was voted for on several ballots, but fearing division might result in the election of some man of doubtful policy he used his influence to harmonize his friends in the support of Lyman Trumbull, who was elected. Mr. Lincoln was in training for a higher post, though he knew it not.

In a former chapter there has been mention made of the great contest of 1858 between himself and Mr. Douglas-"the battle of the giants." It is only adverted to here to complete the links of the historic chain, and for the purpose of quoting from his Springfield speech of June 17, 1858, the sentences so often quoted by friends and foes:

"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."

The result of the contest has been noticed. Mr. Lincoln did not enter the Senate. Providence hath its own hour and its own way of raising up the leaders for great crises, and one of these was upon the country. Mr. Lincoln had grown up among the people and not in a political hot-bed. He had a native, vigorous logic, not inaptly symbolled by his physique. He was one of the people. He came not from titled or moneyed aristocracy, but was of the hard-handed nobility of toil. He knew at once the dignity and the value of a freeman's labor, and God raised up this man, this vigorous, coolbrained, warm-hearted, strong-handed laborer, to be the leader of free men in the battle between freedom and slavery. On that rugged homely face was written an honest character. In him was a simplicity which more than matched the subtilty of his opponents. He was written as the Moses who should lead the children of this Israel through a deep Red Sea into the promised land of freedom.

THE NOMINATION.

The Republican National Convention of 1860 met in Chicago on the 16th of May. A huge building, called "the wigwam," had been erected by the citizens for the occasion. The names of Gov. Chase, Mr. Bates, and Mr. Cameron had been pressed, but it was evident from the first hour that the contest was between W. H. Seward, of New York, and Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois.

The one had spoken of the "irresistible conflict," the other of the "divided house." Their names now connected were to be written together in succeeding chapters of pregnant history. These men were to stand shoulder to shoulder through the most momentous struggle of the world's annals. On the third ballot Mr. Lincoln received 354 votes and was nominated. On motion of Mr. Evarts, of New York, the nomination was made unanimous. The contest came and Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States.

FOR WASHINGTON.

On the 11th of February the President elect left his Illinois home for Washington, there to meet such difficulties as had never con

FAREWELL TO HIS NEIGHBORS.

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fronted a Chief Magistrate. An organized conspiracy, ripened into an extensive secession, sought to prevent him in the exercise of the functions of the high office to which he had been chosen as President of the whole country. War rolled up in the near future, and how long, how terrible, and with what results none could prophesy with surety. At the Springfield depot he thus bade farewell to his neighbors:

I

"MY FRIENDS:—No one not in my position can appreciate the sadness I feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century; here my children were born, and here one of them lies buried. know not how soon I shall see you again. A duty devolves upon me which is, perhaps, greater than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of WASHINGTON. He never would have succeeded except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same Divine aid which sustained him; on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support, and I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that Divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain. Again, I bid you all an affectionate farewell."

The rec

These few, simple words thrilled the country through. ognition of Divine aid made so honestly, and his desire to be remembered in the prayers of the people so expressive of a childlike faith in God, at once won the Christian sympathy of the land.

Crowds

From Springfield to Baltimore was one long ovation. gathered at the stations and greeted him warmly. He was cautious and guarded in his expressions, as the declaration of a policy upon his part would have been premature and might have been injurious. Yet the policy was foreshadowed in his remarks to the members of the Indiana Legislature, who called upon him at the Bates House, in Indianapolis, on the evening of the 11th:

"FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE STATE OF INDIANA:-I am here to thank you much for this magnificent welcome, and still more for the generous support given by your State to that political cause which I think is the true and just cause of the whole country and the whole world.

"Solomon says there is 'a time to keep silence,' and when men wrangle by the mouth with no certainty that they mean the same thing while they use the same word, it, perhaps, were as well if they would keep silence.

"The words 'coercion' and 'invasion' are much used in these days, and often with some temper and hot blood. Let us make sure, if we can, that we do not misunderstand the meaning of those who use them. Let us get exact definitions of these

words--not from dictionaries, but from the men themselves, who certainly deprecate the things they would represent by the use of words. What, then, is coercion ?' What is 'invasion?' Would the marching of an army into South Carolina, without the consent of her people, and with hostile intent toward them, be 'invasion ?' I certainly think it would, and it would be 'coercion,' also, if the South Carolinians were forced to submit. But if the United States should merely hold and retake its own forts and other property, and collect the duties on foreign importations, or even withhold the mails from places where they were habitually violated, would any or all these things be 'invasion' or 'coercion?' Do our professed lovers of the Union, but who spitefully resolve that they will resist coercion and invasion, understand that such things as these on the part of the United Sates, would be coercion or invasion of a State? If so, their idea of means to preserve the object of their affections would seem exceedingly thin and airy. If sick, the little pills of the homeopathist would be much too large for it to swallow. In their view, the Union, as a family relation, would seem to be no regular marriage, but a sort of 'free love' arrangement, to be maintained only on 'passional attraction.'

"By the way, in what consists the special sacredness of a State? I speak not of the position assigned to a State in the Union, by the Constitution; for that, by the bond, we all recognize. That position, however, a State cannot carry out of the Union with it. I speak of that assumed primary right of a State to rule all which is less than itself and ruin all which is larger than itself. If a State and a county, in a given case, should be equal in extent of territory, and equal in number of inhabitants, in what, as a matter of principle, is the State better than the county ? Would an exchange of names be an exchange of rights upon principle? On what rightful principle may a State, being not more than one fiftieth part of the nation, in soil and population, break up the nation and then coerce a proportionally larger subdivision of itself, in the most arbitrary way? What mysterious right to play tyrant is conferred on a district of country, with its people, by merely calling it a State ?

Fellow-citizens, I am not asserting any thing; I am merely asking questions for you to consider. And now allow me to bid you farewell.

Again, he thus spoke in Cincinnati on the 12th:

"Mr. Mayor anD FELLOW-CITIZENS:-I have spoken but once before this in Cincinnati. That was a year previous to the late Presidential election. On that occasion, in a playful manner, but with sincere words, I addressed much of what I said to the Kentuckians. I gave my opinion that we, as Republicans, would ultimately beat them, as Democrats, but that they could postpone that result longer by nominating Senator Douglas for the Presidency than they could in any other way. They did not, in any true sense of the word, nominate Mr. Douglas, and the result has come certainly as soon as ever I expected. I also told them how I expected they would be treated after they should have been beaten; and I now wish to call their attention to what I then said upon that subject. I then said, 'When we do as we say, beat you, you perhaps want to know what we will do with you. I will tell you, as

REPLY TO MAYOR WOOD.

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far as I am authorized to speak for the opposition, what we mean to do with you. We mean to treat you, as near as we possibly can, as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison treated you. We mean to leave you alone, and in no way to interfere with your institutions; to abide by all and every compromise of the Constitution; and, in a word, coming back to the original proposition, to treat you so far as degenerate men, if we have degenerated, may, according to the example of those noble fathers, Washington, JEFFERSON, and MADISON. We mean to remember that you are as good as we; that there is no difference between us, other than the difference of circumstances. We mean to recognize and bear in mind always that you have as good hearts in your bosoms as other people, or as we claim to have, and treat you accordingly.'

“Fellow-citizens of Kentucky! friends! brethren, may I call you in my new position? I see no occasion, and feel no inclination to retract a word of this. If it shall not be made good, be assured the fault shall not be mine."

Passing several short speeches we quote his remarks in New York in response to the reception by Mayor Wood:

"MR. MAYOR:-It is with feelings of deep gratitude that I make my acknowledgments for the reception that has been given me in the great commercial city of New York. I cannot but remember that it is done by the people, who do not, by a large majority, agree with me in political sentiment. It is the more grateful to me, because in this I see that for the great principles of our Government the people are pretty nearly or quite unanimous. In regard to the difficulties that confront us at this time, and of which you have seen fit to speak so becomingly and so justly, I can only say that I agree with the sentiments expressed. In my devotion to the Union I hope I am behind no man in the nation. As to my wisdom in conducting affairs so as to tend to the preservation of the Union, I fear too great confidence may have been placed in me. I am sure I bring a heart devoted to the work. There is noth ing that could ever bring me to consent--willingly to consent to the destruction of this Union (in which not only the great city of New York, but the whole country, has acquired its greatness), unless it would be that thing for which the Union itself was made. I understand that the ship is made for the carrying and preservation of the cargo; and so long as the ship is safe with the cargo, it shall not be abandoned. This Union shall never be abandoned, unless the possibility of its existence shall cease to exist, without the necessity of throwing passengers and cargo overboard. So long, then, as it is possible that the prosperity and liberties of this people can be preserved within this Union, it shall be my purpose at all times to preserve it. And now, Mr. Mayor, renewing my thanks for this cordial reception, allow me to come to a close. [Applause.]"

At Trenton, after briefly addressing the Senate, he repaired to the Assembly Chamber, where, in reply to the Speaker, he said:

And

"MR. SPEAKER AND GENTLEMEN:-I have just enjoyed the honor of a reception by the other branch of this Legislature, and I return to you and them my thanks for