“An orphan’s curse would drag to hellA spirit from on high”;
“An orphan’s curse would drag to hellA spirit from on high”;
“An orphan’s curse would drag to hell
A spirit from on high”;
but the orphans of this war must heap curses heaven-high upon the man who consents to see its blood and treasure end in nought.
Such are the grounds for the repudiation of all surrender to Slaveryin the Union. I have also shown that there can be no surrender to Slaveryout of the Union. In either alternative surrender is impossible; but even if possible, it would be most perilous and degrading.
Thus far I have said nothing of platforms or candidates. I desired to present the issue of principle, so that the patriot could choose without embarrassment from party association. Pardon me now, if for one moment I bring platforms and candidates to the touch-stone.
There is the Baltimore platform, with Abraham Lincoln as candidate. No surrender here. In one resolution it is declared that the war must be prosecuted “with the utmost possible vigor tothe complete suppression of the Rebellion.” In another it is declared, “that, as Slavery was the cause, and now constitutes the strength of this Rebellion, and as it must be always and everywhere hostile to the principles of republican government,justice and the national safety demand its utter and complete extirpation from the soil of the Republic.”[411]There is salvation in these words, pronouncing the doom of Slavery in the name of justice and the national safety. The candidate has solemnly accepted them, not only when he accepted his nomination, but yet again, when, in the discharge of official duties, he said briefly, “to whom it may concern,” that there could be no terms of peace, except on the condition of “the integrity of the whole Union and the abandonment of Slavery.”[412]In this letter of the President, unquestionably the best he ever wrote, it is practically declared, in conformity with the Baltimore platform, that there can be no surrender to Slavery in the Union or out of the Union.
Turn to the Chicago platform and its candidate, and what a contrast! There is surrender in both forms.The platform surrenders to Slaveryout of the Union, and, in proposing a “cessation of hostilities,” prepares the way for recognition of the Rebel States. The candidate, in a letter accepting the nomination, surrenders to Slaveryin the Union. The platform plainly looks to disunion. The letter seemingly looks to union; but whether looking to union or not, it plainly surrenders to Slavery.
There is still another surrender in the Chicago platform. While professing formal devotion to the Union, it declines to insist upon “National unity,” or “a union on the basis of the Constitution of the United States.” No such terms are employed; but we are invited to seek peace “on the basis of the Federal Union of the States”: so that, according to this platform, it is not the National Union, that union of the people accepted by Washington and defended by Webster, which we are to have, but a “Federal Union of the States,” where State Sovereignty, as accepted by John C. Calhoun and defended by Jefferson Davis, will be supreme; and all this simply for the sake of Slavery.
Look at the Chicago platform or candidate as you will, and you are constantly brought back to Slavery as the animating impulse. Look at the Baltimore platform or candidate, and you are constantly brought back to Liberty as the animating impulse. And thus again Slavery and Liberty stand face to face,—the slave-ship against the Mayflower.
There is another contrast between the two platforms, which ought not to be forgotten. That of Chicago, while saying nothing against the Rebellion, uses ambiguous language, interpreted differently by different persons; while that of Baltimore is so plain and unequivocalthat it leaves no room for question. This contrast is greater still, when we turn to the two candidates. Perhaps never between two candidates was it presented to the same extent. The Chicago candidate has written a subtle letter, which is interpreted according to the desires of its readers,—some finding peace, and others finding war. And this double-faced proceeding is his bid for the Presidency. I need not remind you that our candidate has never uttered a word of duplicity, and that his speeches and letters can be interpreted only in one way. And these are the two representatives of Slavery and Liberty.
Fellow-citizens, such is the issue of principle, such are the platforms and candidates. And now, I ask frankly, Are you for Slavery, or are you for Liberty? Or, changing the form of the question, Are you for the Rebellion, or are you for your country? For this is the question you must answer by your votes. In your answer, do not forget, I entreat you, its infinite, far-reaching, many-sided importance. This is no ordinary election. It is a battle-field of the war; and victory at the polls will assure victory everywhere. Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Farragut, all are watching for it. Their trumpets are ready to echo back our election bells.
In every aspect the contest is vast. It is vast in its relations to our own country,—vaster still in its relations to other countries. Overthrow Slavery here, and you overthrow it everywhere,—in Cuba, Brazil, and wherever a slave clanks his chain. The whole execrable pretension of “property in men,” wherever it now shows its audacious front, will be driven back into kindrednight. Nor is this all. Overthrow Slavery here, and our Republic ascends to untold heights of power and grandeur. Thus far its natural influence has been diminished by Slavery. Let this shameful obscuration cease, and our example will be the day-star of the world. Liberty, everywhere, in all her struggles, will be animated anew, and the down-trodden in distant lands will hail the day of deliverance. But let Slavery prevail, and our Republic will drop from its transcendent career, while the cause of liberal institutions in all lands is darkened. There have been great battles in the past, on which Human Progress has been staked. There was Marathon, when the Persian hosts were driven back from Greece; there was Tours, when the Saracens were arrested midway in victorious career by Charles Martel; there was Lepanto, when the Turks were brought to a stand in their conquests; there was Waterloo. But our contest is grander. We are fighting for national life, assailed by belligerent Slavery; yet such is the solidarity of nations, and so are mankind knit together, that our battle now is for the liberty of the world. The voice of victory here will resound through the ages.
Never was grander cause or sublimer conflict. Never holier sacrifice. Who is not saddened at the thought of precious lives given to Liberty’s defence? The soil of the Rebellion is soaked with patriot blood, its turf is bursting with patriot dead. Surely they have not died in vain. The flag they upheld will continue to advance. But this depends upon your votes. Therefore, for the sake of that flag, and for the sake of the brave men that bore it, now sleeping where no trumpet of battle can wake them, stand by the flag.
Tell me not of “failure.” There can be but one failure, and that is the failure to make an end of Slavery; for on this righteous consummation all else depends. Let Liberty be with us, and no power can prevail against us. Let Slavery be acknowledged, and there is no power which will not mock and insult us. Such is the teaching of history, in one of its greatest examples. Napoleon, when compelled to exchange his empire for a narrow island prison, exclaimed in bitterness of spirit, “It is not the Coalition which has dethroned me, but liberal ideas.” Not the European Coalition, marshalling its forces from the Don to the Orkneys, toppled the Man of Destiny from his lofty throne; but that Liberty which he had offended. He saw and confessed the terrible antagonist, when he cried out, “I cannot reëstablish myself; I have shocked the people; I have sinned againstliberal ideas, and I perish.” Memorable words of instruction and warning! Ideas rule the world, and, unlike batteries and battalions, they cannot be destroyed or cut in pieces. May we so press this contest as not to shock mankind or sin against Liberty! May we so close this contest as to win God’s favor! Nature has placed the eye in the front, that man shall lookforward and upward; and it is only by contortion that he is able to look behind. Therefore, in looking forward and upward, we follow Nature. An ancient adventurer, escaping from the realms of Death, looked behind, and he failed. We, too, shall fail, if we look behind. Forward, not backward, is the word,—firmly, courageously, faithfully. There must be no false sentiment or cowardice, no fear of “irritating” Rebels. When the Almighty Power hurled Satan and his impious peers
“headlong flaming from the ethereal sky,With hideous ruin and combustion, downTo bottomless perdition, there to dwellIn adamantine chains and penal fire,”
“headlong flaming from the ethereal sky,With hideous ruin and combustion, downTo bottomless perdition, there to dwellIn adamantine chains and penal fire,”
“headlong flaming from the ethereal sky,
With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire,”
no Chicago platform proposed “a cessation of hostilities, with a view to a convention or other peaceable means”; nor was there any attempt to save the traitors from Divine vengeance. Personal injuries we may forgive; but Government cannot always forgive. There are cases where pardon is out of place. Society that has been outraged must be protected. That beautiful land now degraded by Slavery must be redeemed, while a generous statesmanship fixes forever its immutable condition. If the chiefs of the Rebellion are compelled to abdicate in favor of emigrants from the North and from Europe, swelling population, creating new values, and opening new commerce,—if “poor whites” are reïnstated in rights,—if a whole race is lifted to manhood and womanhood,—if roads are extended,—if schools are planted,—there will be nothing inconsistent with that just clemency which I rejoice to consider a public duty. Liberty is the best cultivator, the truest teacher, and the most enterprising merchant. The whole country will confess the new-born power, and those commercial cities now sympathizing so perversely with belligerent Slavery will be among the earliest to enjoy the quickening change. Beyond all question, the overthrow of this portentous crime, besides immeasurable contributions to civilization everywhere, will accomplish two things of direct material advantage: first, it will raise the fee-simple of the whole South; and, secondly, it will enlarge the commerce of the whole North.
In this faith I turn in humble gratitude to God,as I behold my country at last redeemed and fixed in history, the Columbus of Nations, once in chains, now hailed as benefactor and discoverer, who gave a New Liberty to mankind. Foreign powers watch the scene with awe; saints and patriots from their home in the skies look down with delight; and Washington, who set free his own slaves, exults that the Republic, which revered him as Father, now follows his example.