Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Henry Asbury to Abraham Lincoln, 28 July 18581
Quincy Ills July 28 1858Hon A LincolnSpringfield IllsDr[Dear] Sir
The issues in politics are being narrowed. If the constitution of the U[United] States establishes slavery in all our Territories in accordance with the Dred Scott decision which M^r Douglas endorses. Then we have no free territory, nor can ever have any until that decision is reversed2 Popular sovreignty means that slavery is lawful in all our territories.3 Will you get Mr Douglas to say how slavery is protected in the Territories. By what laws?4 What claim of the US constitution? Will he answer that if the people of the Territories dont like slavery, they will not protect it by local law. Now slavery cannot exist in our Territories without some law to protect it. Will the south be content with the assertion of a mere barren right, with no machinery of law to uphold that right, no laws to put down abolitionists in the territories. The constitution of the U States does not in any part of it point out how a man— an abolitionist shall be punished if he interferes with slavery in the Territories.

Does Mr Douglass contend that Congress has no power to prove by law the

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institution of slavery carried into our Territories by the Constitution! And if he thinks congress has power to provide by law for the protection of the institution in the Territories, does he also think they have no power to prohibit slavery there.5

Does Mr Douglas, think the Territorial legislatures have power to protect slavery by law and that they have no power to prohibit slavery there.

Our brethren of the South whom we can always understand contend that both Congress and the Territorial legislatures have power to make laws to protect slavery in the Territories, but possess no power to prohibit it.

Let us narrow this issue. does Mr Douglass have any position upon these points. Both the North and the South wish to hear from him definitely on this head. Dont let him dodge here; he must come out here, no one cares how, but let him speak.6

Excuse this trespass upon your time from yours
very RespectfullyHenry Asbury

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[Envelope]

QUINCY Ill.[ILLINOIS]
JUL[JULY] 29 1858Hon A LincolnSpringfieldIllinois

[ docketing ]
Lincoln, Abraham (President)

Henry Asbury.7

1Henry Asbury wrote and signed this letter, including the name and address on the envelope.

2In his June 16, 1858, “House Divided” speech, Abraham Lincoln asserted regarding the Dred Scott decision that while the, “Constitution of the United States neither permits Congress nor a Territorial Legislature to exclude Slavery from any United States Territory, they all omit to declare whether or not the same Constitution permits a State, or the people of a State, to exclude it.” He went on to argue that this omission left room for another Supreme Court decision declaring that the U.S. Constitution does not permit a state to exclude slavery from its limits. Steven A. Douglas responded in his July 9, 1858, speech in Chicago that he took issue with any criticism of a Supreme Court ruling, and opined that once a Supreme Court decision was issued, “all other opinions must yield to the majesty of that authoritative adjudication.”
Report of Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Report of Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Fragment of A House Divided: Speech at Springfield, Illinois; Robert W. Johannsen, ed., The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), 28, 31.

3Before 1857, Douglas believed that the Supreme Court had the authority to decide if the people of a territory could exclude slavery. In his July 9, 1858 speech, Douglas expounded on his belief in the doctrine that states and territories should be governed by popular sovereignty, meaning that the said states or territories were free to choose their status in regard to slavery. Lincoln disagreed, stating in debate between the two men on August 21 in Ottawa, “my understanding is that Popular Sovereignty, as now applied to the question of Slavery, does allow the people of a Territory to have Slavery if they want to, but does not allow them not to have it if they do not want it.”
Robert W. Johannsen, ed., The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, 22-31; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:513-14; 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.

4Asbury is undoubtedly referring to Lincoln’s strategy in the upcoming Lincoln-Douglas Debates. The debates were held in Ottawa on August 21, Freeport on August 27, Jonesboro on September 15, Charleston on September 18, Galesburg on October 7, Quincy on October 13, and Alton on October 15. Lincoln and Douglas debated in the context of the campaign for U.S. Senate. Lincoln was challenging Douglas, the incumbent, for the seat. See 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; 1858 Federal Election.

Stephen A. Douglas to Abraham Lincoln.

5Lincoln believed that the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, establishing popular sovereignty as a means of deciding slave status for southwestern territories, was part of a larger conspiracy to make slavery perpetual and national. In the Freeport debate on August 27, Lincoln asked Douglas, “Can the people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State Constitution?” Douglas responded by establishing what became called his “Freeport Doctrine.” The central belief he espoused stated that slavery could not exist without “friendly legislation” to protect it. Therefore, Douglas argued, the people of a territory, prior to establishing a state constitution, could determine their slave status by either passing legislation to protect it or by passing legislation “unfriendly” to slavery. In the same debate, Lincoln stated, “I am impliedly, if not expressly, pledged to the belief in the right and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the United States Territories.”

Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:513-14; 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.

6Lincoln responded on July 31, telling Asbury that he was mistaken to believe that no one cared how Douglas would answer. “This implies," Lincoln wrote, " that it is equal with him whether he is injured here or at the South– That is a mistake– He cares nothing for the South— he knows he is already dead there–”

7Lincoln wrote this docketing.