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.

STATE PAPERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

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Wright, in a letter to the Chicago convention, contributed his, which was
worth something; and I now contribute mine, which may be worth
nothing. At all events, it will mislead nobody, and therefore will do no
harm. I would not borrow money. I am against an overwhelming,
crushing system. Suppose that, at each session, Congress shall first
determine how much money can, for that year, be spared for improvements; then apportion that sum to the most important objects. Sv
far all is easy; but how shall we determine which are the most important? On this question comes the collision of interests. I shall be
slow to acknowledge that your harbur or your river is more important
than mine, and vice versd. To clear this difficulty, let us have that same
statistical information which the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Vinton] suggested at the beginning of this session. In that information we shall have
a stern, unbending basis of facts-a basis in nowise subject to whim,
caprice, or local interest. The pre-limited amount of means will save us
from doing too much, and the statistics will save us from doing what we
do in wrong places. Adopt and adhere to this course, and, it seems to
me, the difficulty is cleared.
One of the gentlemen from South Carolina [Mr. Rhett] very much deprecates these statistics. He particularly objects, as I understand him, to
counting all the pigs and chickens in the land. I do not perceive much
force in the objection. It is true, that if every thing be enumerated, a
portion of such statistics may not be very useful to this object. Such
products of the country as are to be consumed where they are produced,
need no roads and rivers, no means of transportation, and have no very
proper connection with this subject. The surplus, that which is produced
in one place to be consumed in another; the capacity of each locality for
producing a greater surplus; the natural means of transportation, and
their susceptibility of improvement; the hindrances, delays, and losses of
life and property during transportation, and the causes of each, would he
among the most valuable statistics in this connection. From these it
would readily appear where a given amount of expenditure would do the
most good. These statistics might be equally accessible, as they would
Ie equally useful, to both the Nation and the States. In this way, and by
I hese means, let the Nation take hold of the larger works, and the States
the smaller ones; and thus, working in a meeting direction, discreetly,
hut steadily and firmly, what is made unequal in one place may be equalized in another, extravagance avoided, and the whole country put on that
career of prosperity which shall correspond with its extent of territory,
its natural resources, and the intelligence and enterprise of its people.
The nomination of General Taylor as the Whig candidate for the Presidency, by the Convention of that party
at Philadelphia, to which Mr. Lincoln was a delegate,
fairly opened the campaign, and Congress prolonged its