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.

spread of it may be arrested, and that it may be placed where the public
mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimiate extinction.
I have expressed that as my wish. I entertain the opinion, upon evidence
sufficient to my mind, that the fathers of this Government placed that institution where the public mind did rest in the belief that it was in the
course of ultimate extinction. Let me ask why they made provision that
the source of slavery-the African slave-trade-should be cut off at the
end of twenty years? Why did they make provision that in all the new
territory we owned at that time, slavery should be forever inhibited?
Why stop its spread in one direction and cut off its source in another, if
they did not look to its being placed in the course of ultimate extinction?
Mr. Lincoln then demonstrated that the whole controversy turned upon the vital question whether slavery
was wrong or not, and proved that the sentirnent of the
Democratic party, as it then existed, was that it was not
wrong, and that Douglas and those wlho sympathized
with him did not desire or ever expect to sec tile country
freed from this gigantic evil. Upon this point lie said:
The sentiment that contemplates the institution of slavery in this country as a wrong is the sentiment of the Republican party. It is the sentiment around which all their actions-all their arguments circle-from
which all their propositions radiate. They look upon it as being a moral,
social, and political wrong; and while they contemplate it as such, they
nevertheless have due regard for its actual existence among us, and the
difficulties of getting rid of it in any satisfactory way, and to all the constitutional obligations thrown about it. Yet, having a due regard for
these, they desire a policy in regard to it that looks to its not creating
any more danger. They insist that it should, as fir as may be, be treated
as a wrong, and one of the methods of treating it as a wrong is to make
provision that it shall grow no larger. They also desire a policy that
looks to a peaceful end of slavery at some time, as being wrong. These
are the views they entertain in regard to it, as I understand themn; and all
their sentiments-all their arguments and propositions are brought within
this range. I have said, and I repeat it here, that if there be a man amongst
us who does not think that the institution of slavery is wrong, in any one
of the aspects of which I have spoken, he is misplaced, and ought not to be
with us. And if there be a man amongst us who is so impatient of it as a
wrong as to disregard its actual presence among us, and the difficulty of
getting rid of it suddenly in a satisfactory way, and to disregard the constitutional obligations thrown about it, that man is misplaced, if he is on
our platform. We disclaim sympathy with hiln in practical action. Hie
is not placed properly with us.