The life and public services of Abraham Lincoln ... together with his state papers, including his speeches, addresses, messages, letters, and proclamations, and the closing scenes connected with his life and death. By Henry J. Raymond. To which are added anecdotes and personal reminiscences of President Lincoln, by Frank B. Carpenter.

196 TIE LIFE, PUBLIC SERVICES, AND
It may well be questioned whether there is to-day a majority of the
legally qualified voters of any State, except, perhaps, South Carolina, in
favor of disunion. There is much reason to believe that the Union mien
are the majority in many, if not in every other one, of the so-called seceded States. The contrary has not been demonstrated in any one of them.
It is ventured to affirm this even of Virginia and Tennessee; for the result
of an election held in military camps, where the bayonets are all on one
side of the question voted upon, can scarcely be considered as demonstrating popular sentiment. At such an election, all that large class who are
at once for the Union and against coercion would be coerced to vote against
the Union.
It may be affirmed, without extravagance, that the free institutions we
enjoy have developed the powers and improved the condition of our whole
people beyond any example in the world. Of this we now have a striking and an impressive illustration. So large an army as the Government
has now on foot was never before known without a soldier in it but who
had taken his place there of his own free choice. But more than this:
there are many single regiments whose members, one and another, possess
full practical knowledge of all the arts, sciences, professions, and whatever else, whether useful or elegant, is known in the world; and there is
scarcely oli from whicll tlhere could not be selected a President, a Cabinet, a Congress, and perliaps a court, abundantly competent to administer
the Government itself: Nor do I say this is not true also in the army of
our late friends, now adversaries in this contest; but if it is, so much
better the reason wly the Government which has conferred such benefits
on both t llhe, and us should not be broken up. Whoever, in any section,
proposes to abandon such a Government, would do well to consider in
deference to what principle it is that he does it; what better lie is likely to
get in its stead; whether the substitute will rive, or be intended to give,
so much of good to the people? There are some foreshadowings on this
subject. Our adversaries have adopted some declarations of independence,
in which, unlike the good old one, penned by Jefferson, they omit the
words, 'all men are created equal." Why? They have adopted a teraporary national constitution, in the preamble of which, unlike our good
old one, signed by Washington, they omit " We, the People," and substitute, "We, the deputies of the sovereign and independent States."
Why? Why this deliberate pressing out of view the rights of men and
the authority of the people?
This is essentially a people's contest. On the side of the Union it is a
struggle for maintaining in the world that formn and substance of Government whose leading objet is to elevate the condition of men; to lift artificial weights from all shoulders; to clear the paths of laudable pursuits
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.