Abraham Lincoln Papers: Incoming and Contextual Documents Document mal0269000

THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM.
REVISED SPEECH
OF
HON. E. G. SPAULDING, OF NEW YORK,
DELIVERED AT
BUFFALO AND WASHINGTON,
AT MEETINGS HELD TO RATIFY THE NOMINATION OF
ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND HANNIBAL HAMLIN,
FOR PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT.
Republican Platform adopted by the Chicago
Convention, May 17, 1860.
Resolved, That we, the delegated representatives
of the Republican Electors of the United
States, in Convention assembled, in the discharge
of the duty we owe to our constituents
and our country, unite in the following declarations:
First. That the history of the nation during
the last four years has fully established the propriety
and necessity of the organization and
perpetuation of the Republican party, and that
the causes which called it into existence are
permanent in their nature, and now, more than
ever before, demand its peaceful and constitutional
triumph.
Second. That the maintenance of the principles
promulgated in the Declaration of Independence,
and embodied in the Federal Constitution,
is essential to the preservation of our
republican institutions; that the Federal Constitution,
the rights of the States, and the Union
of the States, must and shall be preserved; and
that we reassert "these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal ; that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights; that among these are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. That to
secure these rights, Governments are instituted
among men, deriving their just powers from
the consent of the governed."
Third. That to the Union of the States this
nation owes its unprecedented increase in population;
its surprising development of material
resources; its rapid augmentation of wealth;
its happiness at home and its honor abroad;
and we hold in abhorrence all schemes for disunion,
come from whatever source they may;
and we congratulate the country that no Republican
member of Congress has uttered or
countenanced a threat of disunion, so often
made by Democratic members of Congress
without rebuke and with applause from their
political associates; and we denounce those
threats of disunion, in case of a popular overthrow
of their ascendancy, as denying the vital
principles of a free Government, and, as an
avowal of contemplated treason, which it is the
imperative duty of an indignant people strongly
to rebuke and forever silence.
Fourth. That the maintenance inviolate of
the rights of the States, and especially the right
of each State to order and control its own domestic
institutions, according to its own judgment
exclusively, is essential to that balance
of power on which the perfection and endurance
of our political faith depends; and we
denounce the lawless invasion of armed force
of any State or Territory, no matter under what
pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.
Fifth. That the present Democratic Administration
has far exceeded our worst apprehensions
in its measureless subserviency to the
exactions of a sectional interest, as is especially
evident in its desperate exertions to force the
infamous Lecompton Constitution upon the
protesting people of Kansas - in construing the
personal relation between master and servant
to involve an unqualified property in persons -
in its attempted enforcement everywhere, on
land and sea, through the intervention of Congress
and the Federal courts, of the extreme
pretensions of a purely local interest, and in its
general and unvarying abuse of the power intrusted
to it by a confiding people.
Sixth. That the people justly view with alarm
the reckless extravagance which pervades every
department of the Federal Government; that
a return to rigid economy and accountability is
indispensable to arrest the system of plunder
of the public Treasury by favored partisans;
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while the recent startling developments of fraud
and corruption at the Federal metropolis show
that an entire change of Administration is imperatively
demanded.
Seventh. That the new dogma that the Constitution
of its own force carries slavery into
any of all of the Territories of the United
States, is a dangerous political heresy, at variance
with the explicit provisions of that instrument
itself, with cotemporaneous exposition,
and with legislative and judicial precedent; is
revolutionary in its tendency, and subversive
of the peace and harmony of the country.
Eighth. That the normal condition of all the
territory of the United States is that of Freedom;
that as our republican fathers, when they
had abolished slavery in all our national territory,
ordained that no person should be deprived
of life, liberty, or property, without due process
of law, it becomes our duty, by legislation, whenever
such legislation is necessary, to maintain
this provision of the Constitution against all attempts
to violate it; and we deny the authority
of Congress, of a Territorial Legislature, or of
any individuals, to give legal existence to slavery
in any Territory of the United States.
Ninth. That we brand the recent reopening
of the African slave trade under the cover of
our national flag, aided by perversions of judicial
power, as a crime against humanity, a
burning shame to our country and age; and we
call upon Congress to take prompt and efficient
measures for the total and final suppression of
that execrable traffic.
Tenth. That in the recent vetoes by their
Federal Governors of the acts of the Legislatures
of Kansas and Nebraska, prohibiting slavery
in those Territories, we find a practical
illustration of the boasted Democratic principles
of non-intervention and popular sovereignty,
embodied in the Kansas and Nebraska bill, and
a denunciation of the deception and fraud involved
therein.
Eleventh. That Kansas should of right be
immediately admitted as a State under the Constitution
recently formed and adopted by her
people, and accepted by the House of Representatives.
Twelfth. That while providing revenue for
the support of the General Government by duties
upon imports, sound policy requires such
an adjustment of these duties as to encourage
the development of the industrial interest of the
whole country; and we commend that policy of
national exchanges which secures to the working
men liberal wages, to the agriculture remunerating
prices, to mechanics and manufacturers
an adequate reward for their skill, labor, and
enterprise, and to the nation commercial prosperity
and independence.
Thirteenth. That we protest against any sale
or alienation to others of the public lands held
by actual settlers, and against any view of the
free homestead policy which regards the settlers
as paupers or supplicants for public bounty; and
we demand the passage by Congress of the complete
and satisfactory homestead measure which
has already passed the House.
Fourteenth. That the Republican party is opposed
to any change in our naturalization laws,
or any State legislation by which the rights of
citizenship hitherto accorded to immigrants
from foreign lands shall be abridged or impaired;
and in favor of giving a full and efficient
protection to the rights of all classes of
citizens, whether native or naturalized, both at
home and abroad.
Fifteenth. That the appropriations by Congress
for river and harbor improvements of a
national character, required for the accommodation
and security of an existing commerce,
are authorized by the Constitution and justified
by an obligation of the Government to protect
the lives and property of its citizens.
Sixteenth. That a railroad to the Pacific
Ocean is imperatively demanded by the interests
of the whole country; that the Federal
Government ought to render immediate and
efficient aid in its construction; and that, as preliminary
thereto, a daily overland mail should
be promptly established.
Seventeenth. Finally, having thus set forth
our distinctive principles and views, we invite
the co-operation of all citizens, however differing
on other questions, who substantially agree
with us in their affirmance and support.
Remarks of Mr. Spaulding.
It is very gratifying, fellow-citizens, to witness
the moral force of so large an assemblage
of intelligent men in the capital of the nation.
I am gratified to see that free speech is tolerated
here to-night. It augurs well of the progress
of the Republican cause. I congratulate
you and the country that order reigns here tonight,
and that we may here, in the city of
Washington - the common ground of all the
States - advocate the principles of republican
liberty.
It was my good fortune to attend the Republican
Convention at Chicago, on the 16th inst.
The Convention was composed of able and upright
men - indeed, I may say it was composed
of some of the purest and best men in the
country. It was one of the most talented Conventions
ever held in this country. Full delegations
assembled from all the Northern States,
and from a number of the Southern States.
The Convention was composed of four hundred
and sixty-six members, met together to perform
a patriotic and responsible duty.
The State of New York sent there a unanimous
delegation of seventy good and true men
to speak for her in that great assemblage of
Republican freemen. Their first choice for
President was that patriotic and experienced
statesman, William H. Seward, known to the
world as the friend of liberty and the rights of
man. They urged his selection with firmness

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and dignity, as a nomination fit to be made. I
co-operated with this delegation to secure the
nomination of Gov. Seward, who is my personal
and political friend. He was my first choice.
He was the choice of his native State. His
friends were warm and zealous in his behalf.
He was their chosen leader, who had stood
firm at all times --the foremost advocate of the
Republican platform. The shafts of his enemies
had been heaped upon his devoted head
for more than twelve years ; but during all this time
he stood at his post, unyielding, battling
for the right, and uncompromising as the great
principles of liberty upon which the Republican
party is based are enduring and eternal.
While thus advocating the claims of Gov.
Seward to a nomination, we did not detract at
all from the merits of Republican candidates
presented from other States. We went to the
Convention to advocate affirmatively the merits
of the favorite son of New York, not to undervalue
the services of other true men in the Republican
party. The merits as well as availability
of the several candidates were freely discussed,
and after a full and free interchange of
views and feelings, the balloting commenced.
On the third ballot, Abraham Lincoln of Illinois,
a true and able Republican, received a
majority of all the votes cast, and was chosen
the standard-bearer of the Republican party in
this most important crisis in the history of the
Government.
The moment that a majority of the Convention
declared in favor of Mr. Lincoln, the united
delegation from New York, through their
chairman, Mr. Evarts, moved to make the nomination
unanimous. The action of the Convention
was harmonious throughout, and the nomination
was received with great applause by
the assembled multitude.
All due respect was paid to New York as to
the choice of Vice President ; and when she
indicated a willingness to go for Hannibal
Hamlin, an eminent citizen of Maine, he was
selected, with great unanimity, as the choice
of the Convention for Vice President.
I admire William H. Seward for his genius
and high social qualities, for his exalted statesmanship,
and his fitness to discharge the duties
of any position he may be called upon to
fill. The people of New York love and honor
William H. Seward. His friends everywhere
admire his steadiness of purpose, and devotion
to principle in this great struggle to preserve
the inalienable rights of man ; and they will
continue to love and cherish him ; but while
cherishing William H. Seward, they will not
lose sight of the CAUSE in which we are engaged.
Abraham Lincoln is an able, upright, and
faithful representative of the principles embodied
in the Republican platform. He has
become the chosen standard-bearer of our
party. He is worthy of our support and confidence.
I shall give him a cordial and efficient
support. The people of the district I represent
- old Erie county - supporting him as they
do with great unanimity, will give him not less
than 4,000 majority. The State of New York is
already enlisted in the contest. William H.
Seward, ever self-sacrificing for the good of the
cause, has written a noble letter endorsing the
nominations of Lincoln and Hamlin. This
great State will give them her thirty-five
electoral votes by a majority of not less than
40,000. The American party is coming in
nobly to the support of the Republican platform
and the ticket nominated at Chicago. In
my district, where Mr. Fillmore resides, we
have now a united party. All the opponents
of modern Democracy now joins hands to wrest
the Government from the hands of the present
corrupt, profligate, and imbecile Administration.
Compromises, compacts, and pledges, have
been broken by the Democratic party, led on
by the slave power. The public money has
been squandered. Corruption has crept into
nearly every department of the public service.
Disunion raises its hydra head in the capital
of the nation. The American party, that has
been the last to yield its assent to the necessity
of unitedly resisting the aggressions of the
Slave Democracy, is, I am happy to say, giving
up its organization, to unite with the friends
of Republican liberty, to effect a change in the
administration of the Government. A change is
essential to the stability of the Constitution and
the Union.
We must unitedly resist the Democratic
party, and redeem the country from the thraldom
into which it has been placed by the action
of corrupt leaders. Why should we thus
unite? I answer, because the perilous condition
in which the country is placed demands it.
Who is responsible for the agitation of the
slavery question ? Who obstruct the public
business by agitation ? Who threaten disunion ?
Who are sectional in their speeches
and action ? and who seek to extend the area of
slavery and slave representation in Congress ?
I propose briefly to answer these questions.
There is a wide field for collecting material to
use in this discussion, extending back for more
than twenty-five years, yet I do not propose to
go back of the compromise measures which
were passed in 1850. The passage of the fugitive
slave law ; the Texas boundary bill ; the
donation to Texas of $10,000,000 to purchase
a peace with her, when we owed her nothing ;
the abolition of the slave trade in the District
of Columbia ; and the admission of California
as a free State - known as the " compromise
measures " of 1850 - were regarded as a " final
adjustment and permanent settlement " of the
slavery agitation in Congress. These measures
were passed by the joint co-operation and
votes of both Whigs and Democrats. In 1851
Democrats and Whigs entered into the follow-

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ing written agreement to preserve inviolate the
compromise of 1850:
"The undersigned, members of the Thirty-first
Congress of the United States, believing
that a renewal of sectional controversy upon
the subject of slavery would be both dangerous
to the Union and destructive of its objects,
and seeing no mode by which such controversy
can be avoided, except by a strict adherence
to the settlement thereof effected by the
compromise acts passed at the last session of
Congress, do hereby declare their intention to
maintain the said settlement inviolate, and to
resist all attempts to repeal or alter the acts
aforesaid, unless by the general consent of the
friends of the measure, and to remedy such
evils, if any, as time and experience may develop.
"And for the purpose of making this resolution
effective, they further declare, that they
will not support for office of President or
Vice President, or of Senator or of Representative
in Congress, or as a member of a
State Legislature, any man, of whatever party,
who is not known to be opposed to the disturbance
of the settlement aforesaid, and to
the renewal, in any form, of agitation upon
the subject of slavery.
Henry Clay. H. A. Bullard
Howell Cobb. C. H. Williams.
C. S. Morehead. T. S. Haymond.
William Duer. J. Phillips Phoenix.
Robert L. Rose. A. H. Sheppard.
H. S. Foote. A. M. Schermerhorn.
W. C. Dawson. David Breck.
James Brooks. John R. Thurman.
Thomas J. Rusk. James L. Johnson.
A. H. Stephens. D. A. Bokee.
Jeremiah Clemens. J. B. Thompson.
Robert Toombs. George R. Andrews.
James Cooper. J. M. Anderson.
M. P. Gentry. W. P. Mangum.
Thomas G. Pratt. John B. Kerr.
Henry W. Hilliard. Jeremiah Morton.
William M. Gwin. J. P. Caldwell.
F. E. McLean. R. I. Bowie.
Samuel Eliot. Edmund Deberry.
A. G. Watkins. E. C. Cabell.
David Outlaw. Humphrey Marshall.
Alexander Evans. Allen F. Owen. "

In 1852, the Whig and Democratic National
Conventions, which put in nomination General
Scott and General Pierce for President, both
approved of these measures, and agreed to them
as a final settlement of the Slavery question,
both in Congress and out of it. The Democratic
party in their National Convention at
Baltimore, in 1852 pledged themselves to the
nation, as follows, to wit:
"That Congress has no power under the Constitution
to interfere with or control the domestic
institutions of the several States, and that
such States are the sole and proper judges of
everything appertaining to their own affairs,
not prohibited by the Constitutions; that all
efforts made to induce Congress to interfere
with questions of slavery, or to take incipient
steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead
to the most alarming and dangerous consequences;
and that all such efforts have an inevitable
tendency to diminish the happiness of
the people, and endanger the stability and permanency
of the Union, and ought not to be
countenanced by any friend of our political
institutions.
"That the foregoing proposition covers, and
was intended to embrace, the whole subject of
the slavery agitation in Congress; and therefore,
the Democratic party of the Union, standing
upon the national platform, will abide by
and adhere to the faithful execution of the
acts known as the compromise measures settled
by the last Congress, the act for the reclaiming
of fugitives from service included,
which act, being designed to carry out an express
provision of the Constitution, cannot
with fidelity thereto be repealed or so changed
as to destroy or impair its efficiency.
"Resolved, that we will resist all attempts
at renewing, in Congress or out of it, the
slavery agitation, under whatever shape and
color the attempt may be made."
And the Whig party in the same year, at the
same place, resolved and pledged themselves
as follows, to wit:
"That the series of measures commonly
known as the compromise, including the fugitive
slave law, are acquiesced in by the
Whig party of the United States, as a settlement,
in principle and substance, a final settlement
of the dangerous and exciting questions
which they embrace; and so far as
the fugitive slave law is concerned, we will maintain
the same, and insist on its strict enforcement,
until time and experience shall demonstrate
the necessity of further legislation to
guard against evasion or abuse, not impairing
its present efficiency; and we deprecate all
further agitation of slavery questions as dangerous
to our peace, and will discountenance
all efforts at the renewal or continuance of
such agitation, in Congress or out of it, whatever,
wherever, or however the attempt may
be made; and we will maintain this system as
essential to the nationality of the Whig party
and the integrity of the Union."
On the assembling of the Thirty-second Congress,
in December, 1851, Lynn Boyd, a Southern
slaveholder and Democrat, was promptly
elected Speaker, without any agitation of slavery,
or any filibustering for delay on part
of the Whigs, who were then in a minority.
Soon after the organization of the House, the
following resolutions were offered by Mr. Jackson
of Georgia, and subsequently passed by
the joint votes of Whigs and Democrats, viz:
"I. Resolved, That we recognise the binding
efficacy of the compromises of the Constitution,
and believe it to be the intention of the
people generally, as we declare it to be ours

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individually, to abide such compromises, and
to sustain the laws necessary to carry them
out; the provision for the delivery of fugitive
slaves, and the act of the last Congress for
that purpose, included; and that we deprecate
all further agitation of the question growing
out of that provision of the questions embraced
in the acts of the last Congress known as the
compromise, and of questions generally connected
with the institution of slavery, as unnecessary,
useless, and dangerous.
"II. Resolved, That the series of acts passed
during the first session fo Thirty-first Congress,
known as the compromise, are regarded
as a FINAL ADJUSTMENT AND A PERMANENT
SETTLEMENT of the questions therein embraced,
and should be maintained and executed
as such."
The final vote was taken on these resolutions
April 5, 1852, and among the names recorded
in their favor, (Congressional Globe, pages 982,
983,) I find Thomas S. Bocock, Democratic
candidate for Speaker, John S. Caskie, Henry
A. Edmundson, Chalres J. Faulkner, John
Letcher, and Thomas H. Bayly, of Virginia;
John S. Phelps, of Missouri; Thomas B. Florence,
of Pennsylvania; Thomas L. Clingman, of
North Carolina; Alexander H. Stephens, of
Georgia; Williams R. W. Cobb, George S.
Houston, and William R. Smith, of Alabama;
John C. Breckingridge and R. H. Stanton, of Kentucky;
Willis Allen and William A. Richardson,
of Illiniois; Harry Hibbard, of New Hampshire;
Colin M. Ingersoll, of Connecticut; Geo.
W. Jones and Frederick P. Stanton, of Tennessee;
John G. Davis, C. L. Dunham, and Thomas
A. Hendricks, of Indiana; and Moses McDonald,
of Maine.
Here was a solemn promise on the part of all
the above-named Democrats that they would
keep the peace, and not agitate any more the
dangerous and exciting subject of slavery. It
was declared to be a "finality," and a "permanent
settlement" of the whole subject of slavery
agitation. This mutual bond of peace was
given in the most solemn form between Whigs
and Democrats, by a vote of 100 to 65. There
was a seeming concurrence of the two great
leading parties of the country in what had
been done, and an apparent determination, on
the part of both, that no subject should again
be introduced into Congress to reopen this prolific
source of discord between the different sections
of the Union.
In common with many others, I did not approve
of the fugitive slave law, the Texas
boundary bill, nor the donation of $10,000,000
to Texas; but inasmuch as they had become
established laws of the land, I tacitly acquiesced
in the them; there was a general acquiescence in
them on the part of the people and a disposition
to look forward with hope that our beloved
country would have a peaceable and
prosperous course for many years.
How suddenly were all these promises broken!

Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Millard Fillmore,
and a few others, agreed to this compromise in
good faith, and would have gladly seen it adhered
to, but, most unfortunately, very few of
the men engaged in it had sufficient firmness
to resist subsequent events.
Suddenly, and without the least necessity or
provocation, the country was starled with a
proposition to reopen the slavery agitation in
a more aggravated form than ever before.
The Kansas-Nebraska bill was introduced by
Senator DOUGLAS, Chairman of the Committee
on Territories, sustained as a Democratic
measure by President Pierce, and adopted by
Democratic and Southern Whig votes. The
bond of peace agreed to in 1850-'51-'52, was
broken, and broken, too, by the very men who
had pledged themselves not again to agitate
the slavery questions. Among the members
who had voted for the compromise resolutions,
declaring that the adjustment should be a
"final settlement," I find the following names
recorded in favor of repealing the Missouri
compromise - (Congressional Globe, 1854, page
1254) - viz: Thomas S. Bocock, John S. Caskie,
Henry A. Edmundson, Charles J. Faulkner,
John Letcher, and Thomas H. Bayly, of Virginia;
John S. Phelps, of Missouri; Thomas B.
Florence, of Pennsylvania; Thomas L. Clingman,
of North Carolina; A. H. Stephens, of
Georgia; W. R. W. Cobb, George S. Houston,
and William R. Smith, of Alabama; John C.
Breckenridge and R. H. Stanton of Kentucky;
Willis Allen and William A. Richardson, of
Illinois; harry Hibbard, of New Hampshire;
Collin M. Ingersoll, of Connecticut; George W.
Jones and F. P. Stanton, of Tennessee; John
G. Davis, E. L. Dunham, and Thomas A. Hendricks,
of Indiana; and Moses McDonald, of
Maine. The final vote on the passage of the
bill was taken in the House of Representatives
May 22, 1854. This breach of faith broke
down the old Whig party, nearly ruined the
Democratic party, and threw the flood-gates of
agitation wide open. As Mr. Fillmore justly observes,
Pandora's box was opened, and no measure
was passed so fruitful of evil as has been
the passage of this bill. Agitation has been rife
ever since, and no human being can foretell the
time when fraternal feeling, concord, and harmony,
will again be restored to the country.
Certainly not till the Republican party takes
control of Government.
Mr. Fillmore, in his patriotic letter to the
Union Committee in New York, justly observes:
"All must remember that in 1849 and 1850
the country was severely agitated on the disturbing
question of slavery. That contest
grew out of the acquisition of new territory
from Mexico, and a contest between the
North and the South as to whether slavery
should be tolerated in any part of that territory.
Mixed up with this was a claim, on
the part of the slaveholding States, that the
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provision of the Constitution for the rendition
of fugitives from service should be
made available, as the law of 1793 on that
subject, which depended chiefly on the States'
officers for its execution, had become inoperative,
because States' officers were not obliged
to perform that duty.
"After a severe struggle, which threatened
the integrity of the Union, Congress finally
passed laws settling these questions; and the
Government and the people for a time seemed
to acquiesce in that compromise as a final
settlement of this exciting question; and it is
exceedingly to be regretted that mistaken
ambition, or the hope of promoting a party
triumph, should have tempted any one to
raise this question again. But in an evil
hour this Pandora's box was again opened
by what I conceive to be an unjustifiable
attempt to force slavery into Kansas by a
repeal of the Missouri compromise, and the
floods of evils now swelling and threatening to
overthrow the Constitution, and sweep away
the foundation of the Government itself, and
deluge this land with fraternal blood, may all
be traced to this unfortunate act. Whatever
might have been the motive, few acts have
ever been so barren of good, and so fruitful
of evil.
"The contest has exasperated the public
mind, North and South, and engendered feelings
of distrust, and I may say hate, that I
fear it will take years to wear away. The
lamentable tragedy at Harper's Ferry is
clearly traceable to this unfortunate controversy
about slavery in Kansas; and while
the chief actor in this invasion has exhibited
some traits of character which challenge our
admiration, yet his financial zeal seems to
have blinded his moral perceptions, and hurried
him into an unlawful attack upon the
lives of a peaceful and unoffending community
in a sister State, with the evident intention
of raising a servile insurrection, which
no one can contemplate without horror; and
few, I believe very few, can be found so indifferent
to the consequences of his acts, or so
blinded by fanatical zeal, as not to believe
that he justly suffered the penalty of the law
which he had violated."
The Whig party of North and South having
been completely broken up by the perpetration
of this great wrong, and the subsequent attempt
of the slave power, backed up by the
President of the United States, to force slavery
upon an unwilling people in Kansas, and by
fraud and violence to make Kansas a slave
State, a new phase was given to public affairs
and to the parties in the country. The Democratic
party became greatly divided and distracted
by this outrage, and would also have
been entirely demolished, if Southern States
had not rallied to the support of that party.
All the Southern States, with the exception of
Maryland, having gone over to the support of
the Democratic party, and the aggressions of
the Southern propagandists of slavery in their
attempt to send slavery everywhere, the Democratic
party, inasmuch as very few public men
South, of either party, could be sustained by
their constituents in opposing these outrageous
measures in Congress, and the frauds and rascalities
committed in Kansas. All the compacts,
resolutions, and agreements, to keep the
peace, so recently made, having been broken,
confidence was greatly impaired, indeed I
may say entirely destroyed, in the Democratic
party, and in this state of things a new party
was formed, called the REPUBLICAN PARTY, to
resist the Democratic party in its new and
alarming attitude of pro-slavery aggression.
This new party was made up of Northern
men from the ruins of the old Whig party, the
Free-Soil Democracy and all friends of true republican
liberty who desired to see the Sham
Democracy overthrown, and the National Government
brought back to the principles of
Washington and Jefferson and the fathers of
the Republic.
The Republic party recognises the right of
the majority to govern, and their power to enforce
that right against all attempts at disunion,
come from what quarter they may. It is
based upon the great fundamental principle
upon which the National Government rests,
that the Constitution, and all laws made in pursuance
thereof, are to be faithfully observed
and enforced, and it demands economy and a
rigid accountability on the part of all public
officers.
The Republican party insists that slavery
originated in force, by the stronger against the
weaker party, and not by natural right;
that it is maintained and upheld by oppression
and wrong, and against the law of nature.
This usurped ownership in man is not that
kind of property which is recognised by the
general consent of mankind. The advanced
state of civilized society does not recognise
the right of one man to own another man
against his will. The inalienable right of life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, is conceded
to all. The right of every man to himself,
to enjoy the fruits of his own ingenuity
and industry, are among the natural rights of
every person made in the image of God. The
Constitution of the United States does not recognise
any vested right of property in slaves.
It treats them as persons held to service or
labor, and not property. The word slave
does not occur in the Constitution, and I will
not go one step beyond the provisions of the
Constitution to uphold this usurpation and
wrong.
The Republican party was organized in
1854-'55, upon the platform of liberty and
independence, to maintain the union of the
States and the rights of the States; freedom
of speech and the press; to resist the spread

7
of slavery and the aggressions of the slave
power; the equal rights of all persons to impartial
protection at home and abroad, and
in the enjoyment of religious freedom; and of
all American citizens, whether native or naturalized,
to the free exercise of the elective
franchise and the enjoyment of its benefits;
and requiring no test for office except honesty,
capacity, and devotion to American institutions.
Accessions have continually been made to
the Republican party, ever since its organization.
It has won to the support of its principles
good men, from time to time, from all the
other parties, until now embraces the best
men of the country. It has become a compact
and overshadowing organization, sufficiently
powerful to take possession of and to administer
the Government, upon the great principles
of liberty, equality, and justice, as embodied in
the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
of the United States.
The prospect of success for any party was
never more flattering. All the doubtful States
are now considered certain for Lincoln and
Hamlin. Illinois is waking up to the importance
of the contest. Her prairies are on fire
for honest old Abe, and will give a rousing
majority. The same is true in regard to Indiana.
The Fillmore men of 1856, in these two
States, come in noble to the support of Lincoln
and Hamlin. Ohio was never doubtful for
any Republican candidate. The people of
Pennsylvania, the keystone State of the Union,
are awake to the importance of redeeming
their State from the thraldom of 1856, and the
frauds and corruptions of President Buchanan's
Administration. They will not be likely
to play again into the hands of the Democrats
by supporting any third-party candidates. In
New Jersey, the Jersey Blues are organizing,
and will speak for themselves in due time.
The Republican cause is onward. Every
man who desires good government has an important
political duty to perform, and, with a
united and determined effort, the country will
be redeemed from the misrule of modern Democracy.

Extract from a Speech of Hon. Abraham Lincoln

It will not be innappropriate for us to add to
this hasty sketch an extract from on of Mr.
Lincoln's extempore speeches in the campaign
of 1858, which was republished in our columns
a few days since, and elicited the highest encomiums
from delegates and visiters from
other States. The Declaration of Independence
has rarely received a more thoughtful
and at the same time a more glowing tribute:
"The Declaration of Independence was
formed by the representatives of American
liberty from thirteen States of the Confederacy,
twelve of which were slaveholding communities.
We need not discuss the way or
the reason of their becoming slaveholding
communities. It is sufficient for us that all
of them greatly deplored the evil and that
they placed a provision in the Constitution
which they supposed would gradually remove
the disease, by cutting off its source. This
was, the abolition of the slave trade. So general
was the conviction - the public determination
- to abolish the African slave trade,
that the provision which I have referred to
as being placed in the Constitution, declared
that it should not be abolished prior to the
year 1808. A constitutional provision was
necessary to prevent the people, through
Congress, from putting a stop to the traffic
immediately a the close of the war. Now, if
slavery had been a good thing, would the
Fathers of the Republic have taken a step
calculated to diminish its beneficent influences
among themselves, and snatch the
bond wholly from their prosperity? These
communities, by their representatives in old
Independence Hall, said to the whole world
of men, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident:
that all men are created equal; that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable rights; that among these are
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'
This was their majestic interpretation of the
economy of the Universe. This was their
lofty and wise and noble understanding of the
justice of the Creator to His creatures. [Applause.]
Yes, gentlemen, to all His creatures,
to the whole great family of man. In
their enlightened belief, nothing stamped
with the Divine image and likeness was sent
into the world to be trodden on, degraded,
and imbruted, by its fellows. They
grasped not only the whole race of man then
living, but they reached forward and seized
upon the farthest posterity. They erected a
beacon to guide their children and their children's
children, and the countless myriads
who should inhabit the earth in other ages.
Wise statesmen as they were, they knew the
tendency of prosperity to breed tyrants; and
so they established these self-evident truths,
that when, in the distant future, some man,
some faction, some interest, should set up the
doctrine that none but rich men, or none but
white men, or none but Anglo-Saxons, were
entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness, their posterity might look up again
to the Declaration of Independence, and take
courage to renew the battle which their
fathers began, so that truth, and justice, and
mercy, and all the humane and Christian virtues,
might not be extinguished from the
land; so that no man hereafter would dare to
limit and circumscribe the great principles
on which the temple of Liberty was being
built. [Loud cheers.]
"Now, my countrymen, if you have been
taught doctrines conflicting with the great
[*2693*]

8
landmarks of the Declaration of Independence;
if you have listened to suggestions
which would take away from its grandeur,
and mutilate the symmetry of its proportions;
if you have been inclined to believe that all
men are not created equal in those inalienable
rights enumerated by our chart of liberty,
let me entreat you to come back. Return to
the fountain whose waters spring close by the
blood of the Revolution. Think nothing of
me - take no thought for the political fate of
any man whomsoever - but come back to the
truths that are in the Declaration of Independence.
You may do anything with me
you choose, if you will but heed these sacred
principles. You may not only defeat me for
the Senate, but you may take me and put me
to death. While pretending no indifference
to earthly honors, I do claim to be actuated,
in this contest, by something higher than an
anxiety for office. I charge you to drop every
paltry and insignificant thought for any man's
success. It is nothing; I am nothing; Judge
Douglas is nothing. But do not destroy that
immortal emblem of Humanity, the Declaration
of American Independence."
________________
Letter from Mr. Lincoln.
_____
The Illinois Staats Anzeiger gives publicity
to the following letter of Mr. LINCOLN, written
about a year ago, upon a question of public
policy which was then discussed in several of
the States, and which is disapproved in one of
the declarations of the Chicago platform:
"SPRINGFIELD, May 17, 1859.
"DEAR SIR: Your letter, in which you inquire,
on your own account and in behalf of
certain other German citizens, whether I approve
or oppose on the constitutional provision
in relation to naturalized citizens which was
lately enacted in Massachusetts, and whether
I favor or oppose a fusion of the Republicans
with the other Opposition elements in the
campaign of 1860, has been received.
"Massachusetts is a sovereign and independent
State, and I have no right to advise
her in her policy. Yet, if any one is desirous
to draw a conclusion as to what I would do
from what she has done, I may speak without
impropriety. I say, then, that so far as I understand
the Massachusetts provision, I am
against its adoption, not only in Illinois, but
in every other place in which I have the right
to oppose it. As I understand the spirit of
our institutions, it is designed to promote the
elevation of men. I am, therefore hostile to
anything that tends to their debasement. It
is well known that I deplore the oppressed
condition of the blacks, and it would, therefore,
be very inconsistent for me to look with
approval upon any measure that infringes upon
the inalienable rights of white men, whether
or not they are born in another land or speak
a different language from our own.
"In respect to a fusion, I am in favor of it
whenever it can be effected on Republican
principles, but upon no other condition. A
fusion upon any other platform would be as
insane as unprincipled. It would thereby lose
the whole North, while the common enemy
would still have the support of the entire
South. The question in relation to men is
different. There are good and patriotic men
and able statesmen in the South whom I
would willingly support if they would place
themselves on Republican ground; but I
shall oppose the lowering of the Republican
standard even by a hair's-breadth.
"I have written in haste, but I believe that
I have answered your questions substantially.
"Respectfully, yours,
"ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
"Dr. THEODOR CANISIUS."

PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860.
REPUBLICAN EXECUTIVE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE.
Hon. Preston King, N.Y. (Chairman,) J. W. Grimes, Iowa, L. F. S. Foster, Conn., on the part of the Senate; Hon. E.
B. Washburne, Illiniois, John Covode, Penn., (Treasurer,) E. G. Spaulding, N. Y., J. B. Alley, Mass., David Kilgore, Ind.,
J. L. N. Stratton, N.J., on the part of the House of Representatives.
During the Presidential Campaign, Speeches and Documents will be supplied at the following reduced prices: Eight
pages, per 100, 50 cents; sixteen pages, per 100, $1.00; twenty-four pages, per 100, $1.50. Address either of the above
Committee GEORGE HARRINGTON, Secretary