Date: 1858-06-16
President: Abraham Lincoln

Mr. PRESIDENT and Gentlemen of the Convention.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.We are now far into the fifth  year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed  object, and confident  promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation.Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented.In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached and passed."A house divided against itself cannot stand."I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave  and half free.I do not expect the Union to be dissolved--I do not expect the house to fall--but I do  expect it will cease to be divided.It will become all  one thing, or all  the other.Either the opponents  of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates  will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all  the States, old  as well as new--North  as well as South.Have we no tendency  to the latter condition?Let any one who doubts, carefully contemplate that now almost complete legal combination--piece of machinery  so to speak--compounded of the Nebraska doctrine, and the Dred Scott decision. Let him consider not only what work  the machinery is adapted to do, and how well  adapted; but also, let him study the history  of its construction, and trace, if he can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace the evidences of design, and concert of action, among its chief bosses, from the beginning.But, so far, Congress  only, had acted; and an indorsement  by the people, real  or apparent, was indispensable, to save  the point already gained, and give chance for more.The new year of 1854 found slavery excluded from more than half the States by State Constitutions, and from most of the national territory by Congressional prohibition.Four days later, commenced the struggle, which ended in repealing that Congressional prohibition.This opened all the national territory to slavery, and was the first point gained.This necessity had not been overlooked; but had been provided for, as well as might be, in the notable argument of "squatter sovereignty," otherwise called "sacred right of self government," which latter phrase, though expressive of the only rightful basis of any government, was so perverted in this attempted use of it as to amount to just this: That if any one  man, choose to enslave another, no third  man shall be allowed to object.That argument was incorporated into the Nebraska bill itself, in the language which follows: "It being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or state, not exclude it therefrom; but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States."Then opened the roar of loose declamation in favor of "Squatter Sovereignty," and "Sacred right of self government.""But," said opposition members, "let us be more specific--let us amend  the bill so as to expressly declare that the people of the territory may  exclude slavery." "Not we," said the friends of the measure; and down they voted the amendment.While the Nebraska bill was passing through congress, a law case, involving the question of a negroe's freedom, by reason of his owner having voluntarily taken him first into a free state and then a territory covered by the congressional prohibition, and held him as a slave, for a long time in each, was passing through the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Missouri; and both Nebraska bill and law suit were brought to a decision in the same month of May, 1854. The negroe's name was "Dred Scott," which name now designates the decision finally made in the case.Before  the then  next Presidential election, the law case came to, and was argued in  the Supreme Court of the United States; but the decision  of it was deferred until after  the election. Still, before  the election, Senator Trumbull, on the floor of the Senate, requests the leading advocate of the Nebraska bill to state his opinion  whether the people of a territory can constitutionally exclude slavery from their limits; and the latter answers, "That is a question for the Supreme Court."The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, and the indorsement , such as it was, secured. That was the second  point gained. The indorsement, however, fell short of a clear popular majority by nearly four hundred thousand votes, and so, perhaps, was not overwhelmingly reliable and satisfactory.The outgoing  President, in his last annual message, as impressively as possible echoed back  upon the people the weight  and authority  of the indorsement.The Supreme Court met again; did not  announce their decision, but ordered a re-argument.The Presidential inauguration came, and still no decision of the court; but the incoming  President, in his inaugural address, fervently exhorted the people to abide by the forthcoming decision, whatever it might be.Then, in a few days, came the decision.The reputed author of the Nebraska bill finds an early occasion to make a speech at this capitol indorsing the Dred Scott Decision, and vehemently denouncing all opposition to it.The new President, too, seizes the early occasion of the Silliman letter to indorse  and strongly construe  that decision, and to express his astonishment  that any different view had ever been entertained.At length a squabble springs up between the President and the author of the Nebraska bill, on the mere  question of fact, whether the Lecompton constitution was or was not, in any just sense, made by the people of Kansas; and in that squabble the latter declares that all he wants is a fair vote for the people, and that he cares  not whether slavery be voted down  or voted up. I do not understand his declaration that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up, to be intended by him other than as an apt definition  of the policy  he would impress upon the public mind--the principle  for which he declares he has suffered much, and is ready to suffer to the end.And well may he cling to that principle. If he has any parental feeling, well may he cling to it. That principle, is the only shred  left of his original Nebraska doctrine. Under the Dred Scott decision, "squatter sovereignty" squatted out of existence, tumbled down like temporary scaffolding--like the mould at the foundry served through one blast and fell back into loose sand--helped to carry an election, and then was kicked to the winds. His late joint  struggle with the Republicans, against the Lecompton Constitution, involves nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That struggle was made on a point, the right of a people to make their own constitution, upon which he and the Republicans have never differed.The several points of the Dred Scott decision, in connection with Senator Douglas' "care not" policy, constitute the piece of machinery, in its present  state of advancement. This was the third point gained.The working  points of that machinery are:First, that no negro slave, imported as such from Africa, and no descendant of such slave can ever be a citizen  of any State, in the sense of that term as used in the Constitution of the United States.This point is made in order to deprive the negro, in every possible event, of the benefit of this provision of the United States Constitution, which declares that--"The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States."Secondly, that "subject to the Constitution of the United States," neither Congress  nor a Territorial Legislature  can exclude slavery from any United States territory.This point is made in order that individual men may fill up  the territories with slaves, without danger of losing them as property, and thus to enhance the chances of permanency  to the institution through all the future.Thirdly, that whether the holding a negro in actual slavery in a free State, makes him free, as against the holder, the United States courts will not decide, but will leave to be decided by the courts of any slave State the negro may be forced into by the master.This point is made, not to be pressed immediately; but, if acquiesced in for a while, and apparently indorsed  by the people at an election, then  to sustain the logical conclusion that what Dred Scott's master might lawfully do with Dred Scott, in the free State of Illinois, every other master may lawfully do with any other one, or one thousand  slaves, in Illinois, or in any other free State.Auxiliary to all this, and working hand in hand with it, the Nebraska doctrine, or what is left of it, is to educate  and mould  public opinion, at least Northern  public opinion, to not care  whether slavery is voted down  or voted up.This shows exactly where we now are; and partially  also, whither we are tending.It will throw additional light on the latter, to go back, and run the mind over the string of historical facts already stated. Several things will now  appear less dark  and mysterious  than they did when  they were transpiring. The people were to be left "perfectly free" "subject only to the Constitution." What the Constitution  had to do with it, outsiders could not then  see. Plainly enough now, it was an exactly fitted niche, for the Dred Scott decision to afterwards come in, and declare the perfect freedom  of the people, to be just no freedom at all.Why was the amendment, expressly declaring the right of the people to exclude slavery, voted down? Plainly enough now, the adoption of it, would have spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott decision.Why was the court decision held up? Why, even a Senator's individual opinion withheld, till after  the Presidential election? Plainly enough now, the speaking out then  would have damaged the "perfectly free" argument upon which the election was to be carried.Why the outgoing  President's felicitation on the indorsement? Why the delay of a reargument? Why the incoming President's advance  exhortation in favor of the decision?These things look  like the cautious patting  and petting  a spirited horse, preparatory to mounting him, when it is dreaded that he may give the rider a fall.And why the hasty after indorsements of the decision by the President and others?We can not absolutely know  that all these exact adaptations are the result of preconcert. But when we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which we know have been gotten out at different times and places and by different workmen--Stephen, Franklin, Roger and James, for instance--and when we see these timbers joined together, and see they exactly make the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mortices exactly fitting, and all the lengths and proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a piece too many or too few--not omitting even scaffolding--or, if a single piece be lacking, we can see the place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared to yet bring such piece in--in such  a case, we find it impossible to not believe  that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James all understood one another from the beginning, and all worked upon a common plan  or draft  drawn up before the first lick was struck.It should not be overlooked that, by the Nebraska bill, the people of a State  as well as Territory, were to be left "perfectly free" "subject only to the Constitution."Why mention a State? They were legislating for territories, and not for  or about  States. Certainly the people of a State are  and ought to be  subject to the Constitution of the United States; but why is mention of this lugged  into this merely territorial  law? Why are the people of a territory  and the people of a state  therein lumped  together, and their relation to the Constitution therein treated as being precisely  the same?While the opinion of the Court, by Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott case, and the separate opinions of all the concurring Judges, expressly declare that 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.Possibly, this was a mere omission; but who can be quite  sure, if McLean or Curtis had sought to get into the opinion a declaration of unlimited power in the people of a state  to exclude slavery from their limits, just as Chase and Macy sought to get such declaration, in behalf of the people of a territory, into the Nebraska bill--I ask, who can be quite sure  that it would not have been voted down, in the one case, as it had been in the other.The nearest approach to the point of declaring the power of a State over slavery, is made by Judge Nelson. He approaches it more than once, using the precise idea, and almost  the language too, of the Nebraska act. On one occasion his exact language is, "except in cases where the power is restrained by the Constitution of the United States, the law of the State is supreme over the subject of slavery within its jurisdiction."In what cases  the power of the states is  so restrained by the U.S. Constitution, is left an open  question, precisely as the same question, as to the restraint on the power of the territories  was left open in the Nebraska act. Put that  and that  together, and we have another nice little niche, which we may, ere long, see filled with another Supreme Court decision, declaring that the Constitution of the United States does not permit a state  to exclude slavery from its limits.And this may especially be expected if the doctrine of "care not whether slavery be voted down  or voted up," shall gain upon the public mind sufficiently to give promise that such a decision can be maintained when made.Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being alike lawful in all the States.Welcome or unwelcome, such decision is  probably coming, and will soon be upon us, unless the power of the present political dynasty shall be met and overthrown.We shall lie down  pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri  are on the verge of making their State free; and we shall awake  to the reality, instead, that the Supreme  Court has made Illinois  a slave  State.To meet and overthrow the power of that dynasty, is the work now before all those who would prevent that consummation.That is what  we have to do.But how  can we best do it?There are those who denounce us openly  to their own  friends, and yet whisper us softly, that Senator Douglas  is the aptest  instrument there is, with which to effect that object. They  do not  tell us, nor has he  told us, that he wishes  any such object to be effected. They wish us to infer  all, from the facts, that he now has a little quarrel with the present head of the dynasty; and that he has regularly voted with us, on a single point, upon which, he and we, have never differed.They remind us that he  is a very great man , and that the largest of us  are very small ones. Let this be granted. But "a living dog  is better than a dead lion." Judge Douglas, if not a dead  lion for this work, is at least a caged  and toothless  one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don't care  anything about it. His avowed mission is impressing  the "public heart" to care  nothing about it.A leading Douglas Democratic newspaper thinks Douglas' superior talent will be needed to resist the revival of the African slave trade.Does Douglas believe an effort to revive that trade is approaching? He has not said so. Does he really  think so? But if it is, how can he resist it? For years he has labored to prove it a sacred right  of white men to take negro slaves into the new territories. Can he possibly show that it is less  a sacred right to buy  them where they can be bought cheapest? And, unquestionably they can be bought cheaper in Africa  than in Virginia .He has done all in his power to reduce the whole question of slavery to one of a mere right of property; and as such, how can he  oppose the foreign slave trade--how can he refuse that trade in that "property" shall be "perfectly free"--unless he does it as a protection  to the home production? And as the home producers  will probably not ask  the protection, he will be wholly without a ground of opposition.Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man may rightfully be wiser to-day  than he was yesterday--that he may rightfully change  when he finds himself wrong.But, can we for that reason, run ahead, and infer  that he will  make any particular change, of which he, himself, has given no intimation? Can we safely  base our  action upon any such vague  inference?Now, as ever, I wish to not misrepresent  Judge Douglas' position, question his motives, or do ought that can be personally offensive to him.Whenever, if ever, he and we can come together on principle  so that our great cause  may have assistance from his great ability, I hope to have interposed no adventitious obstacle.But clearly, he is not now  with us--he does not pretend  to be--he does not promise  to ever  be.Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by its own undoubted friends--those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work--who do care  for the result.Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thousand strong.We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance against us.Of strange, discordant, and even, hostile  elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed  and fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy.Did we brave all then, to falter  now?--now--when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered and belligerent?The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail--if we stand firm, we shall not fail.   Wise councils may accelerate  or mistakes delay  it, but, sooner or later the victory is sure  to come.The source for this text is: The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln.