Part 13 (2/2)
At least it may be said that he was not the aggressor or the sole partic.i.p.ant in such a ”scathing and withering style,”[245] nor is it at all hard to find like statements and oratory in every period of our history. This is almost the last time that the historian need halt in his comment on the expression of Lincoln. Years of experience brought him to a higher conception of public utterances. When the subject matter bade exalted expression he grew to the occasion with amazing avidity.
[245] _Ibid._, 139.
This speech revealed Lincoln to Congress. It gained prestige among the fulminations of the session. The _Baltimore American_ named it the ”crack speech of the day.” It labeled Lincoln as a very able, acute, uncouth, honest, upright man and a tremendous, wag withal.[246]
[246] Tarbell, 1, 217.
His reputation as a Congressman and orator, begot him the honorable privilege of addressing in September, the same audience in the east that often listened to the triumphant Webster. Only a faint echo of these speeches of the Illinois representative remains.
A representative Boston newspaper reports him as saying that the people of Illinois agreed entirely with the people in Ma.s.sachusetts on the slavery question, except, that they did not think about it as constantly; that all agreed that slavery was an evil, which could not be affected in the slave states; but that the question of the _extension_ of slavery to new territories was under control. In opposition to this extension Lincoln believed that the self-named ”Free Soil” party was far behind the Whigs; that the ”Free Soil” men in claiming that name, indirectly attempted a deception, by implying that Whigs were not free soil men; that in declaring that they would ”do their duty and leave the consequences to G.o.d,” merely gave an excuse for taking a course they were not able to maintain by fair argument. Making this declaration, he further argued, did not show what their duty was, that if it did there would be no use for judgment; that men might as well be made without intellect, and when divine or human law did not clearly point their duty, they had no means of finding out what it was by using their most intellectual judgment of the consequences, and that if there were divine law or human law for voting for Martin Van Buren, then he would give up the argument.[247]
[247] _Ibid._, 2, 297-298.
New England testified to its liking for the western advocate of Taylor.
The _Boston Advertiser_ stated that at the close of his masterly speech, the audience gave three enthusiastic cheers for Illinois, and three more for the eloquent Whig member from that state.[248] His Boston speech was so effective ”that several Whigs who had gone off on the 'Free Soil' fizzle returned again to the Whig ranks.”[249]
[248] Tarbell, 2, 299.
[249] _Ibid._, 1, 128.
Ida Tarbell contends that at this time Lincoln first experienced the full meaning of the ”Free Soil” sentiment, as Ma.s.sachusetts was then quivering under the impa.s.sioned protests of the great Abolitionists, and Sumner was beginning to devote his life to freedom and was speaking often at riotous meetings. Miss Tarbell further maintains Lincoln was sensitive to every shade of popular feeling in New England, and was stirred as never before on the question of slavery; that he heard Seward's speech in Tremont Temple, and that night, as the two men sat talking, said gravely to the great anti-slavery advocate:
”Governor Seward, I have been thinking about what you said in your speech. I reckon you are right. We have got to deal with this slavery question, and got to give much more attention to it hereafter than we have been doing.”[250]
[250] _Ibid._, 224.
This evidence does not prove that Lincoln then began to take radical ground on the slavery question. Ten years before in the Illinois Legislature, he made his protest, and later at every opportunity when circ.u.mstances favored. His hatred to slavery had long been kindled. He needed little inspiration from the New York orator on New England soil to start his indignation. His statement to Seward shows that he was ready for radical conduct as soon as the event permitted the onslaught.
He rejoiced at the growth of the public opinion that betokened the doom of the artificial inst.i.tution. But he did not need to sit at the feet of eastern teachers. The New England trip was an incident, not an epoch in his career.
The second session of this Congress was rather free from turbulence.
Lincoln was a silent spectator. He went with his party on the main issues and voted for the Wilmot Proviso ”about 42 times.”[251] The Northern Democrats in the House returned in a resentful spirit at the support rendered Taylor by eight slave states. They were not backward in supporting legislation to exclude slavery from California and New Mexico.[252] The Senate, true to its love of vested interests speedily disposed of the proposal.
[251] Lamon, 309.
[252] Nicolay & Hay, 1, 283-284.
During the session a New York representative let loose a resolution with the clanging preamble of a ”law rooting out the slave trade in the District of Columbia.”[253] Lincoln was one of three or four northern Whigs who voted to lay this exuberant measure on the table.[254]
[253] _Ibid._, 286.
[254] Lamon, 308.
As the sole Whig representative of his State, coming from a const.i.tuency hardly distinguished for its anti-slavery sentiments, while most Whigs even from the New England states were silent; no external duty beckoned him; no powerful organization called him to ride the storm by branding the jealous inst.i.tution. Selfish ambition whispered prudence and calmed the voice of protest.
But within the very shade of the Capitol, the slave girl was coined into drachmas. He felt the world shame that had come upon the nation by this blot on its professions. The desire to strike another blow grew strong in him. As he tried a decade before in the legislative halls of Illinois, so now in the national a.s.sembly, in a very home of slavery, he rang forth his hate of the old injustice. Still he did not give way to an outburst of vengeance; he husbanded his anger; thought only of the consequence, planned with wisdom the most effective stab at the national disgrace.
The politician walked hand in hand with the patriot. He gathered discordant elements to the support of a common cause calling forth admiration at the unrivalled policy. He consecrated to the high purpose of dedicating the national Capitol to a free citizens.h.i.+p, a devotion and sagacity that made him the peer of any strategist of his day. He conceived and carried out a daring plan of securing the support to his astounding proposal of the Mayor of Was.h.i.+ngton, a representative of the intelligent slave-holding citizens of that community. With equal skill, he secured the reinforcement of the radical Giddings, who says in his diary that Lincoln's bill to abolish slavery was approved by all; that he believed it as good a bill as we could get at this time, and was willing to pay for slaves in order to save them from the southern market, as he supposed every man in the District would sell his slaves if he saw that slavery was to be abolished.[255] Lincoln held together two such leaders in advocacy of the same measure affecting the sore subject, thus revealing the supreme tactician, who in later years held to the public service a Seward, a Stanton and a Chase in the same cabinet.
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