The Life of Abraham Lincoln for Young People by Harriet Putnam (old books to read txt) 📖
- Author: Harriet Putnam
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“Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our du-ty as we un-der-stand it.”
A tale is told of Lin-coln’s go-ing with a friend, while in New York, to vis-it a Sun-day School at Five Points, a place where waifs were brought each Sab-bath to meet kind men and wom-en whose wish was to help them.
As the good man saw the poor chil-dren from the slums of the cit-y, his ten-der heart was deep-ly touched. His own poor child-hood came up be-fore him, and when urged to speak he said words which brought tears to all eyes. He told them that he, too, had been poor; that his toes stuck out through worn shoes in win-ter, that his arms were out at the el-bows and he shiv-ered with the cold. He said he had found that there was on-ly one rule—“al-ways do the best you can.” He said he had al-ways tried to do the best he could, and that if they would fol-low that rule that they “would get on some-how.” When he felt that he had talked long e-nough and tried to bring his words to a close, there were cries of “Go on!” “Do go on!” and so he told his young hear-ers man-y things that they were glad to hear. Then they sang some of their songs for him, and one of these moved him to tears. He asked for the book where those words were print-ed, and a cop-y hav-ing been giv-en to him he put the lit-tle hym-nal in-to his pock-et, and man-y a time in af-ter days drew it out to read.
At last, as he was leav-ing the school, one teach-er, who had not caught his name, when the head of the Mis-sion, Mr. Pease, gave it out, went up to him as he passed and asked what it was. The great man said, in low and qui-et tones, “A-bra-ham Lin-coln, from Il-li-nois.”
LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS.
Though Lin-coln lost his e-lec-tion as Sen-a-tor he did not seem to care. Doug-las was the choice, and Lin-coln went back to Spring-field and took up his law work. This, too, all turned out well for Lin-coln and the cause he loved, for had he been e-lect-ed Sen-a-tor he might not have tak-en just the part he did in the work of help-ing to form the Re-pub-li-can par-ty. While Lin-coln then gave much work to the Law, he felt the stress of the times so much, and knew the great need of help-ing the side of the right just then, that he did not go out of pol-i-tics. He took an ac-tive in-ter-est in ev-er-y cam-paign and wrote much to aid the cause.
It was in the cold months of 1855 that he went to a meet-ing of Free-soil ed-i-tors at De-ca-tur, Ill., and then and there a move was made to help on the new par-ty which was to do its best to stop sla-ver-y from spread-ing. He worked ear-ly and late for the good of this par-ty try-ing to make men of un-like views a-gree. He said his wish was “to hedge a-gainst di-vis-ions,” and keep all straight to the point of hold-ing back the spread of sla-ver-y.
Work as hard as he might for this great cause there were thou-sands who did not think as Lin-coln did. They said he was wrong and should they fol-low him the land would be in ru-ins and the Un-ion at an end. But all this could not stop this good man, for he knew that he spoke the truth, so threats, a-buse, and sneers could not stir him from his grand work.
Be-fore this, in Ju-ly 1854, moves be-gan in man-y parts of the North to form a new par-ty which should be a-gainst the spread of sla-ver-y. So in June, 1856, most of the States sent del-e-gates to Phil-a-del-phi-a and then and there the Re-pub-li-can par-ty was formed. They chose John C. Fre-mont as their can-di-date for the Pres-i-den-cy. Fre-mont was known as a brave ex-plor-er in the plains of the West, and one who took part in the con-quest of Cal-i-for-ni-a.
There was, al-so, a par-ty called “The A-mer-i-can,” or “Know-noth-ing” and they named as their choice, ex-Pres-i-dent Mil-lard Fill-more. This par-ty grew fast two or three years and then came to an end. Its aim was to keep men from o’er the sea out of of-fice and make them wait more time ere they could vote. The theme of sla-ver-y then came to have a new form and there was no room for oth-er de-bate.
The Dem-o-crat-ic par-ty met in Cin-cin-na-ti and named James Bu-chan-an of Penn-syl-va-ni-a as their choice. Bu-chan-an was e-lec-ted.
Ste-phen A. Doug-las thought he was sure of a nom-i-na-tion for that same place. He had done much work for the men who held slaves but they did not mean to re-ward him for what he had done.
“Shall Kan-sas come in free or not?” was the ques-tion that, then, was up-on the minds of thou-sands up-on thou-sands of the peo-ple of the U-ni-ted States.
A-bra-ham Lin-coln, then, think-ing of the mil-lions of his fel-low-men in sla-ver-y and of that slave-mar-ket in New Or-leans, which had nev-er gone out of his mind, spoke, both in pub-lic and pri-vate, with the force that e-ven he had ne’er used be-fore. He felt God’s time was near at hand when those who had been bought and sold like beasts of the field, should be set free. He did not then see just how it would be done, but he said to a friend;
“Some-times when I am speak-ing I feel that the time is soon com-ing when the sun shall shine and the rain fall on no man who shall go forth to un-re-quit-ed toil. How it will come, I can-not tell; but that time will sure-ly come!”
It was in March 1857, when Bu-chan-an had his in-au-gu-ral ad-dress all writ-ten out with care, and he was read-y to take his seat as Chief in the land, that he was told that a great step was a-bout to be tak-en by the “Su-preme Court,” the high-est court of law in the land. It seems that the jud-ges were then to de-cide in a case which dealt with the rights of men who held slaves un-der the Con-sti-tu-tion.
Mr. Bu-chan-an thought it would be well to put a few words more in-to his ad-dress, and these up-on the theme then brought up to him. So he wrote that he hoped the steps that were to be tak-en would “for-ev-er set-tle that vex-a-tious slave ques-tion.”
In a few days Rog-er B. Ta-ney of Ma-ry-land, Chief Jus-tice, gave the peo-ple of the U-ni-ted States a great sur-prise in what he had to say a-bout two slaves.
A sur-geon in the ar-my, Dr. Em-er-son, of St. Lou-is, owned Dred Scott and his wife Har-ri-et. He took them to Rock Is-land, in I-o-wa, to Fort Snell-ing, Min-ne-so-ta, and then back to St. Lou-is. As they had been tak-en in-to a Free Ter-ri-to-ry the slaves made a claim that they were en-ti-tled to their lib-er-ty un-der the com-mon law of the coun-try. Five of the nine jud-ges of that court were from the Slave States. Sev-en of the jud-ges were of the same mind that the Con-sti-tu-tion “re-cog-nized slaves as prop-er-ty and noth-ing more.” The jud-ges held that as the blacks were not and nev-er could be cit-i-zens, they could not bring a suit in an-y court of the U-ni-ted States. The claim of Dred and Har-ri-et Scott would have to be set-tled by the Court of Mis-sou-ri. It was de-cid-ed that some laws made in 1820 and 1850 which could have helped the case of these two poor blacks, were “un-con-sti-tu-tion-al,” not le-gal or so as to a-gree with the law. They said all this showed, plain-ly, that a slave had no more rights than a cow or pig, and that be-ing the case sla-ver-y could not on-ly be in the Ter-ri-tor-ies, but just as well in the Free States. This sort of be-lief up-set the i-de-as that Mr. Doug-las taught, for he had told all to whom he made his great speech-es that on-ly those who lived in a Ter-ri-to-ry had a right to say wheth-er they would or would not have sla-ver-y.
Out of all these nine jud-ges there were but two who were brave, wise, and just e-nough to hold to the point that it was up-on free-dom and not up-on sla-ver-y that the na-tion had been found-ed. The names of those two men were Mr. Cur-tis of Mas-sa-chu-setts, and Mr. Mc-Lean of O-hi-o.
The peo-ple rose in great wrath at what the sev-en jud-ges had said. With the blood of free-dom in their veins they plain-ly stat-ed that those un-just jud-ges had “de-cid-ed” what they did in the in-ter-ests of sla-ver-y.
The eyes of thou-sands of peo-ple o-pened. They saw now that there was much hard work to be done if there were to be a “Free Kan-sas,” and so they gave their votes and la-bor on the “free” side. Then when the slave-hold-ers felt there were more folks who want-ed Kan-sas free, they sent men from oth-er states in-to Kan-sas and this got in vast num-bers of votes that had no right to be put in-to the bal-lot-box-es.
The two sets had con-ven-tions, the Free States at To-pe-ka and the slave-hold-ers at Le-comp-ton. The pa-pers drawn up in these two pla-ces were sent to Wash-ing-ton. In the cit-y there were men who did their best to get Bu-chan-an to try to have Kan-sas made a state where there could be slaves.
Then it was that Ste-phen A. Doug-las went to see Pres-i-dent Bu-chan-an and have a talk with him. Doug-las was an-gry at what the un-just jud-ges said. The Pres-i-dent said that he, him-self, was in fa-vor of the Le-comp-ton pa-per, that for slaves in Kan-sas. Then Doug-las told him that he should work a-gainst the views there held, and Bu-chan-an told him that a Dem-o-crat could not have i-de-as that would dif-fer from those held by the pres-i-dent and lead-ers of his own par-ty, with-out be-ing crushed by them. So Doug-las went a-way. He knew the slave pow-er would not for-give him for the stand he took, but he al-so knew that if he did not work a-gainst hav-ing slaves in Kan-sas he would lose his own re-e-lec-tion to the Se-nate.
So a new al-ly a-gainst the spir-it of sla-ver-y was gained, though Doug-las did not work in the same har-ness as those who had formed the new par-ty of which we have spok-en—the Re-pub-li-can.
THE PEOPLE ASK LINCOLN TO BE THEIR PRESIDENT.
All this time A-bra-ham Lin-coln was go-ing on do-ing his work in law and help-ing as much as he could to fix in the minds of the peo-ple right i-de-as for the gui-dance of the na-tion.
Those who could un-der-stand the true needs of the hour, and saw how strong they were, felt that if they could place this man, who had ris-en up in the land to lead the for-ces to lib-er-ty, in a post where he could have full sway and do his best, they must name him for just that work, so, when the “Na-tion-al Re-pub-li-can Con-ven-tion” met at Chi-ca-go, May 16th, 1860, to pro-pose some one for their Chief, they named A-bra-ham Lin-coln, and said he was the man whom they want-ed to be the next Pres-i-dent of the U-ni-ted States.
Not on-ly was this a great thing for Lin-coln, but it was, al-so, a bless-ed tri-umph for the A-mer-i-can
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