LINCOLN FOR THE AGES: SELECTIONS
FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S PAPERS AT THE ILLINOIS STATE HISTORICAL
LIBRARY
Compiled by Thomas F. Schwartz,
Illinois State Historian
On Political Ambition
“Every man is said to have his
peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that
I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow
men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall
succeed in gratifying this ambition, is yet to be developed. I am
young and unknown to many of you. I was born and have ever remained
in the most humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or popular
relations to recommend me. My case is thrown exclusively upon the
independent voters of this county, and if elected they will have
conferred a favor upon me, for which I shall be unremitting in my
labors to compensate. But if the good people in their wisdom shall
see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too familiar with
disappointments to be very much chagrined.”
Printed communication by Lincoln in the
Sangamo Journal, March 9, 1832
On the Will of the People
“I go for all sharing the privileges
of government, who assist in bearing its burdens…If elected, I
shall consider the whole people of Sangamon my constituents, as well
as those that oppose, as those that support me. While acting as
their representative, I shall be governed by their will, on all
subjects upon which I have the means of knowing what their will is;
and upon all others, I shall do what my own judgment teaches me will
best advance their interests.”
Printed communication by Lincoln in the
Sangamo Journal, June 13, 1836
The Perpetuation of Our Political
Institutions
“Passion has helped us; but can do so
no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason, cold, calculating
unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future
support and defense. Let those materials be molded into general
intelligence, sound morality and, in particular, a reverence for the
constitution and laws…”
Young Men’s Lyceum Address, January
27, 1838
On Public Morality
“I do not think I could myself, be
brought to support a man for office, whom I knew to be an open enemy
of, and scoffer at, religion. Leaving the higher matter of eternal
consequences, between him and his Maker, I still do not think any man
has the right thus to insult the feelings, and injure the morals, of
the community in which he may live.”
Lincoln handbill replying to charges of
infidelity, July 31, 1846
On Litigation
“Discourage litigation. Persuade
your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how
the nominal winner is often a real loser in fees, expenses, and waste
of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer as a superior opportunity of
being a good man. There will still be business enough.”
Printed notes for a law lecture, July
1, 1850?
Legitimate Object of Government
“The legitimate object of
government, is ‘to do for the people, what needs to be done, but
which they can not, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well,
for themselves.’ There are many such things—some of them exist
independently of the injustice in the world. Making and maintaining
roads, bridges, and the like; providing for the helpless young and
afflicted; common schools; and disposing of deceased men’s
property, are instances.”
Published fragment, April 1, 1854?
On White Supremacy
“I am not a Know-Nothing. That is
certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression
of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our
progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a
nation, we began by declaring that ‘all men are created equal.’
We now practically read it ‘all men are created equal, except
negroes.’ When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read
‘all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and
catholics.’ When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating
to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty—to
Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without
the base alloy of hypocracy.”
Copy of Lincoln to Joshua F. Speed,
August 24, 1855
House Divided Speech
“If we could first know where
we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge
what to do, and how to do it.”
Lincoln’s House Divided Speech, June
16, 1858
Public Sentiment Is Everything
“In this and like communities, public
sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail;
without it nothing can succeed. Consequently he who moulds public
sentiment, goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces
decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to
be executed.”
From the Lincoln-Douglas Debate at
Ottawa, August 21, 1858
Adversity
“It is said an Eastern monarch once
charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view,
and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations.
They presented him the words: ‘And this, too, shall pass
away.’”
Lincoln’s Address before the
Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, September 30, 1859
On Political Honesty
“I am told that during my absence
last week, you passed through this place, and stated publicly, that
you were in possession of a fact or facts, which if known to the
public, would entirely destroy the prospects of N. W. Edwards and
myself at the ensuing election; but that, through favour to us, you
should forbear to divulge them.
No one has needed favours more than I,
and generally, few have been less unwilling to accept them; but in
this case, favour to me, would be injustice to the public and
therefore I must beg your pardon in declining it.”
Lincoln to Robert Allen, June 21, 1836
On Marriage
“My old Father used to have a saying
that ‘If you make a bad bargain, hug it the tighter’; and
it occurs to me, that if the bargain you have just closed can
possibly be called a bad one, it is certainly the most pleasant
one for applying that maxim to, which my fancy can, by any
effort, picture.”
Lincoln to Joshua F. Speed, February
25, 1842
Opposing the Annexation of Texas
“What was their [abolitionist]
process of reasoning, I can only judge from what a single one of them
told me. It was this; ‘We are not to do evil that good
may come.’ This general, proposition is doubtless correct; but did
it apply? If by your votes you could have prevented the extension,
&c. of slavery, would it not have been good and not evil
so to have used your votes, even though it involved the casting of
them for a slaveholder? By the fruit the tree is to be known.
An evil tree can not bring forth good fruit. If the fruit of
electing Mr. Clay would have been to prevent the extension of
slavery, could the act of electing have been evil?”
Lincoln to Williamson Durley, October
3, 1845
On Loneliness
“Dear Mary,
In this troublesome world, we are never
quite satisfied. When you were here, I thought you hindered me some
in attending to business; but now, having nothing but business—no
variety—it has grown exceedingly tasteless to me. I hate to sit
down and direct documents, and I hate to stay in this old room my
myself.”
Lincoln to Mary Todd Lincoln, April 16,
1848
On Youth
“I now almost regret writing the
serious long faced letter, I wrote yesterday; but let the past as
nothing be. Go it while you’re young!...I will send you about
eight different speeches this evening; and as to kissing a pretty
girl, [I] know one very pretty one, but I guess she wont let me kiss
her.”
Lincoln to William H. Herndon, July 11,
1848
On Father’s Illness
“I sincerely hope Father may yet
recover his health; but at all events tell him to remember to call
upon and confide in, our great and good, and merciful Maker; who will
not turn away from him in any extremity. He notes the fall of a
sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads; and He will not forget
the dying man, who puts his trust in Him.”
Lincoln to John D. Johnston
[step-brother], January 12, 1851
On Payment of Debt
“As the dutch Justice said, when he
married folks ‘Now, vere ish my hundred tollars.”
Lincoln to Andrew McCallen, July 4,
1851
On Work
“Now do not misunderstand this
letter. I do not write it in any unkindness. I write it in order, if
possible, to get you to face the truth—which truth is, you
are destitute because you have idled away all your time. Your
thousand pretences for not getting along better, are all
non-sense—they deceive no body but your self. Go to work is
the only cure for your case.”
Lincoln to John D. Johnston, November
4, 1851
Plain Facts
“This is as plain as the adding up of
the weights of three small hogs.”
Lincoln to Thomas Hull, September 8,
1856
Definition of Democracy
“As I would not be a slave, so
I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no
democracy.”
Lincoln note, August 1, 1858
On Becoming a Lawyer
“If you wish to be a lawyer, attach
no consequence to the place you are in, or the person
you are with; but get books, sit down anywhere, and go to reading for
yourself. That will make a lawyer of you quicker than any other
way.”
Lincoln to William H. Grigsby, August
3, 1858
On Persistence
“The fight must go on. The cause of
civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one, or
even, one hundred defeats.”
Lincoln to Henry Asbury, November 19,
1858
Unity
“We are not enemies, but friends. We
must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not
break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory,
stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every hear
and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus
of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the
better angels of our nature.”
First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861
A People’s Contest
“This is essentially a People’s
contest. On the side of the Union, it is a struggle for maintaining
in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading
object is, to elevate the condition of men—to life artificial
weights from all shoulders—to clear the paths of laudable pursuit
for all—to afford all, an unfettered start, and a fair chance, in
the race of life. Yielding to partial, and temporary departures,
from necessity, this is the leading object of the government for
whose existence we contend.”
Message to Congress, July 4, 1861
The Struggle of Today
“The struggle of today, is not
altogether for today—it is for a vast future also. With a
reliance on Providence, all the more firm and earnest, let us proceed
in the great task which events have devolved upon us.”
Annual message to Congress, December 3,
1861
On Alleged Domestic Invasions
“Your letter of the 19th.
Inst. in which you ‘urge the removal from the limits of Kentucky
of the military force now organized, and in camp within said State’
is received… In all I have done in the premises, I have acted upon
the urgent solicitation of many Kentuckians, and in accordance with
what I believed, and still believe, to be the wish of the majority of
all the Union-loving people of Kentucky…I most cordially sympathize
with your Excellency, in the wish to preserve the peace of my own
native State, Kentucky; but it is with regret I search , and can not
find, in your not very short letter, and declaration, or intimation,
that you entertain any desire for the preservation of the Federal
Union.”
Lincoln to Governor Beriah Magoffin,
August 24, 1861
On Fatigued and Sore Tongued Horses
“I have just read your dispatch about
sore tongued and fatigued horses. Will you pardon me for asking what
the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that
fatigue anything?”
Lincoln to George B. McClellan, October
24, 1862
Can we all do better?
“We can succeed only by concert. It
is not ‘can any of us imagine better?’ but ‘can
we all do better?’ Object whatsoever is possible, still the
question recurs ‘can we do better?’ The dogmas of the quiet
past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled
high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our
case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must
disenthrall our selves, and then we shall save our country.”
Annual message to Congress, December 1,
1862
Emancipation Proclamation
“And by virtue of the power, and for
the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held
as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are,
and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of
the United States, including the military and naval authorities
thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.”
Printed copy signed by Lincoln, January
1, 1863
Selection from the Gettysburg
Address
“Fore score and seven years ago our
fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in
Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created
equal.”
Copy written by Lincoln and given to
Edward Everett, November 19, 1863
Resolution Submitting the Thirteenth
Amendment to the States
“Section 1. Neither Slavery nor
involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United
States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.”
Commemorative copy signed by Lincoln,
February 1, 1865
We Cannot Escape History…
“Fellow-citizens, we cannot
escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be
remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or
insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial
through which we pass, will light us down, in honor, or dishonor, to
the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world
will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union.
The world knows we do know how to save it. We—even we here—hold
the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to
the slave, we assure freedom to the free—honorable
alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or
meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed;
this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just—a
way which , if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must
forever bless.”
Ending of Second Annual Message to
Congress, December 1, 1862