Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Fragment of Abraham Lincoln to James N. Brown, [October 1858]1

. . .I do not perceive how I can more plainly express myself than ^I have done^ in the foregoing extracts–2 In four of them I have expressly disclaimed all intention to produce social and political equality between the whites and blacks; and in all the rest I have done the same thing by clear implication–3

I have made it equally plain that I believe the nego is included in the word "men" and in the Declaration of Independence–

I believe the declaration that "all men are created equal" is the great fundamental principle upon which our free institutions rest–

That negro slavery is violative of that principle; but that, by our frame of government, that principle has not been made one of legal obligation– That by our frame of government, the States which have slavery are to retain or disown it, at their own pleasure; and therefore that all others — individuals, free-states, and national government, — are constitutionally bound to leave them alone about it– That our government was thus framed because of the necessity springing from the actual presence of slavery, when it was framed–

That such necessity does not exist in the Teritories where slavery is not present–4

In his Mendenhall speech M^r Clay says: "Now, as an abstract principle, there is no doubt of the truth of that declaration" (of indepen ^that all men are created equal")^ and it is desirable, in the original construction of society, and in organized societies, to keep it in view, as5 . . .

1Abraham Lincoln wrote this fragment, but did not date it. It is either a draft or a partial copy of a letter Lincoln wrote James N. Brown October 18, 1858. A full copy of Lincoln’s letter to Brown appears in a small notebook or scrapbook containing newspaper clippings of his 1858 campaign speeches on the topic of slavery. There are only minor differences in the text and punctuation of the copy of this October 18 letter to Brown and this fragment. Although it is not possible to know for certain when Lincoln wrote this fragment, it was most likely close to the time that he penned his original October 18 letter to Brown. The editors therefore date this fragment October 1858. Lincoln ran in the 1858 Federal Election as the Illinois Republican Party’s candidate to supplant Democratic incumbent Stephen A. Douglas in the U.S. Senate and delivered some of the speeches referenced in this fragment as part of that campaign.
John G. Nicolay and John M. Hay, Lincoln’s former secretaries and the editors of the Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, printed a portion of Lincoln’s letter to Brown that is also almost a verbatim match for much of the text of this fragment.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:458; John G. Nicolay and John Hay, eds., Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, new and enlarged ed. (New York: Francis D. Tandy, 1905), 4:88.

2This is a reference to extracts from speeches Lincoln provided in the aforementioned small notebook or scrapbook. These extracts appear in the form of newspaper clippings of coverage of some of Lincoln’s public addresses between 1854 and 1858, as well as from two of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. The clippings appear in the small notebook or scrapbook immediately preceding the handwritten copy of the letter Lincoln wrote Brown on October 18, also mentioned above. The speeches that Lincoln provided newspaper extracts of include: his address in Peoria, Illinois, on October 16, 1854; his speech in Springfield, Illinois, on June 26, 1857; a speech he delivered in Chicago, Illinois, on July 10, 1858; the first Lincoln-Douglas Debate (in Ottawa, Illinois), and the fourth Lincoln-Douglas Debate (in Charleston, Illinois).
Extracts from Speeches on Slavery; Report of Speech at Chicago, Illinois; Report of Speech at Chicago, Illinois; Report of Speech at Chicago, Illinois; First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois; First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois; First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois; Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois; Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois; Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois.

3The four speeches Lincoln provided excerpts of in the small notebook or scrapbook in which he explicitly stated that he did not support full social and political equality of the races were: the October 1854 speech in Peoria, the June 1857 speech in Springfield, the debate in Ottawa, and the debate in Charleston.
First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois; First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois; First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois; Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois; Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois; Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois.

4Each of the excerpted speeches Lincoln included in the aforementioned small notebook or scrapbook contains one or both of the following: an expression of his belief that the Declaration of Independence’s ideal of equality applied to all men—not just to white men—and an expression of his belief that the nation’s founders desired an end to slavery and therefore deliberately crafted the nation’s founding documents and legislation pertaining to federal territories with the intention to prevent the expansion of slavery, even as they left it alone where it already existed.
Report of Speech at Peoria, Illinois; Report of Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Report of Speech at Chicago, Illinois; Report of Speech at Chicago, Illinois; Report of Speech at Chicago, Illinois; First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois; First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois; First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois; Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois; Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois; Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois.

5The “Mendenhall speech” is a reference to a speech Henry Clay delivered to a large audience in Richmond, Indiana, on October 1, 1842 in response to a petition Hiram Mendenhall delivered to him urging him to emancipate the enslaved people he owned. Clay responded by lambasting Mendenhall personally as well as abolitionists in general. Some believe Clay’s Mendenhall speech cost him the presidency in 1844 by alienating northern anti-slavery voters. The quote Lincoln gives from the Mendenhall speech was part of Clay’s larger argument that the affirmation of equality in the Declaration of Independence was true and fundamental to the United States: “It is a general declaration in the act announcing to the world the independence of the thirteen American colonies, that all men are created equal. Now, as an abstract principle, there is no doubt of the truth of that declaration; and it is desirable, in the original construction of society, and in organized societies, to keep it in view as a great fundamental principle.”
In Illinois’s local elections of 1858, Republicans won a majority of all votes cast in the state, but pro-Douglas Democrats retained control of the Illinois General Assembly and Douglas ultimately won reelection to the U.S. Senate. Through the campaign, however, and in particular through his participation in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Lincoln gained national recognition and standing within the Republican Party.
Robert Seager, ed., The Papers of Henry Clay (Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1988), 9:777-85; William H. Coffin, Charles W. Osborn, and Charles F. Coffin, “Henry Clay at Richmond: The Abolition Petition,” The Indiana Quarterly Magazine of History 4 (September 1908), 117, 121-22; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:556-57; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 414.