Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Fragment of Speech, [late-October 1858]1

My friends, to-day closes the discussions of this canvass–2 The planting and the culture are over; and there remains but the preparation, and the harvest–

I stand here surrounded by friends—some political, all personal friends, I trust– May I be indulged, in this closing scene, to say a few words of myself– I have borne a laborious, and, in some respects to myself, a painful part in the contest– Through all, I have neither assailed, nor wrestled with any part of the constitution– The legal right of the Southern people to reclaim their fugitives I have constantly admitted– The legal right of Congress to interfere with slavery ^their institution^ in the states, I have constantly denied. In resisting the spread of slavery to new teritory, and with that, what appears to me to be a tendency to subvert the first principle of free government ^itself^ my whole effort has consisted–3 To the best of my judgment I have labored for, and not against the union– As I have not felt, so I have not expressed any harsh sentiment towards our Southern bretheren– I have constantly declared, as I really believed, the only difference between them and us, is the difference of circumstances–

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I have meant to assail the motives of no party, or individual; and if I have, in any instance (of which I am not conscious) departed from my purpose, I regret it–

I have said that in some respects the contest has been painful to me– Myself, and those with whom I act have been constantly accused of a purpose to destroy the union;4 and bespattered with every immaginable odious epithet; and some who were friends, as it were but yesterday have made themselves most active in this–5 I have cultivated patience, and made no attempt at a retort– Ambition has been ascribed to me– God knows how sincerely I prayed from the first that this field of ambition might not be opened– I claim no insensibility to political honors; but ^today^ could the Missouri restriction be restored, and the whole slavery question replaced on the old ground of "toleration by necessity where it exists, with unyielding hostility to the spread of it, on principle, I would, in consideration, gladly agree, that Judge Douglas should [n]ever be out, and I never in, an office, so . . . as we be both or either, live–6

1Abraham Lincoln wrote this fragment, but did not date it. Roy P. Basler, editor of The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, dated the item October 30, 1858, but did not supply reasoning for the date aside from inferring that the fragment is from the conclusion of a speech Lincoln delivered in Springfield, Illinois, on that date. The text of that October 30 Springfield speech is no longer extant; therefore, it is not possible to be certain this fragment is a portion of that speech.
Furthermore, Lincoln notes in this fragment that “to-day [sic] closes the discussions of this canvass .” In the 1858 campaign, Lincoln ran as the Illinois Republican Party’s candidate to replace incumbent Democrat Stephen A. Douglas in the U.S. Senate. Otto R. Kyle, author of Abraham Lincoln in Decatur, claims that Lincoln delivered another speech in Decatur, Illinois, on November 1, but Kyle does not supply evidence for this date and no copies of a Decatur speech from this date are extant. Illinois held its local elections on November 2, so technically November 1 was the close of the campaign season. In its October 29 issue, the Chicago Daily Democrat noted that Lincoln was scheduled to speak in Decatur on Monday, November 1, but the paper did not mention the speech again in subsequent issues. Other sources note that Lincoln spoke in Decatur close to the end of the campaign, but make no mention of an exact date. Newspapers published out of Decatur around the close of the election appear to be no longer extant.

Although the exact date Lincoln wrote this fragment is unknown, he likely wrote it quite close to the end of the campaign; therefore, the editors date it late-October 1858.
Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 3:334-35; Summary of Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Summary of Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Chicago Daily Democrat (IL), 29 October 1858, 1:1; Otto R. Kyle, Abraham Lincoln in Decatur (New York: Vantage Press, 1957), 98-99; Jesse W. Weik, The Real Lincoln: A Portrait (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1922), 276; Decatur Herald (IL), 7 February 1909, 16:1; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 2 November 1858, 2:1-2; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:458.

2Lincoln is referring to canvassing for both the Illinois state elections and the 1858 Federal Election.

3Throughout the campaign of 1858, including during the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Lincoln consistently asserted that because the U.S. Constitution included protections for slavery where it existed, he supported adherence to the law with regard to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 even though he desired due process for accused fugitive slaves and disliked the requirement that northern civilians participate in the capture of accused fugitive slaves. Lincoln also consistently agreed with the widely-held belief among antislavery northerners at the time that the Constitution did not grant Congress the power to interfere with slavery within the states—that is, to abolish slavery where it already existed. During the debate in Freeport, Illinois, on August 27, Lincoln did, however, insist that Congress had the constitutional power to abolish slavery within the District of Columbia, an assertion he also made in 1849 while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and proposing a bill for gradual emancipation in the District. Lincoln was also consistent throughout the 1858 campaign in insisting that the expansion of slavery into U.S. territories not just something he personally opposed, but went against the intentions and wishes of the nation’s founders. He advocated for a national majority to carefully contemplate and decide the issue, rather than allow pro-slavery forces to propel and decide the issue.
Lincoln held and voiced many of these beliefs well before the campaign of 1858.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:502-3; Second Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Freeport, Illinois; Second Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Freeport, Illinois; Second Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Freeport, Illinois; James Oakes, The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution (New York: W. W. Norton, 2021), xxiii, 19, 70-71, 73, 82-83; Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery (New York: W. W. Norton, 2010), 68, 78, 89, 96-97, 112.

4Throughout the campaign, Douglas accused Lincoln and his fellow Republicans of trying to foment civil war, often citing Lincoln’s arguments in his famous “House Divided” speech: “‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” Lincoln delivered these remarks during the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention, upon his acceptance of the Illinois Republican Party’s nomination of him as their candidate to replace Douglas in the U.S. Senate. Douglas deliberately misrepresented Lincoln’s remarks on the campaign trail by casting aside the remainder of Lincoln’s central argument—that he did not “expect the Union to be dissolved,” but rather believed that either the opponents of slavery would arrest the spread of slavery, or the advocates of slavery would use various methods to make slavery national.
Report of Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Report of Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Fragment of A House Divided Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Report of Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:461-66; 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; Second Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Freeport, Illinois; Second Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Freeport, Illinois; Second Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Freeport, Illinois.

5Lincoln lost the political support, and, in some cases, the friendship, of several prominent former members of the Whig Party and conservative Republicans during the course of the 1858 campaign, such as T. Lyle Dickey.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:456-57, 542-44.

6In Illinois’s local elections of 1858, Republicans ultimately won a majority of all votes cast in the state, but pro-Douglas Democrats retained control of the Illinois General Assembly and Douglas won reelection to the U.S. Senate. Despite the loss, Lincoln’s participation in the senate race—and in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates in particular—propelled him to national prominence and helped him win the presidential contest of 1860.
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.