The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln (41 page)

The friendship with Speed is waning, and Lincoln regrets seeing it die. The “true philosophic cause” is probably Mrs. Lincoln’s jealousy of Speed combined with the geographical distance that separated the two men. Lincoln had been elected to the United States Congress on August 3 after a bitter campaign against Peter Cartwright, Methodist circuit-riding minister and Illinois pioneer. He had had to wait to see both Hardin and then Baker go to Washington before his own turn finally came. The second son, born on March 10th, is Edward Baker Lincoln, named after Lincoln’s friend. This boy died in infancy on February 1, 1850.

Springfield, October 22, 1846

D
EAR
S
PEED
: You, no doubt, assign the suspension of our correspondence to the true philosophic cause; though it must be confessed by both of us that this is rather a cold reason for allowing a friendship such as ours to die out by degrees. I propose now that, upon receipt of this, you shall be considered in my debt, and under obligations to pay soon, and
that neither shall remain long in arrears hereafter. Are you agreed?

Being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected.

We have another boy, born the 10th of March. He is very much such a child as Bob was at his age, rather of a longer order. Bob is “short and low,” and I expect always will be. He talks very plainly—almost as plainly as anybody. He is quite smart enough. I sometimes fear that he is one of the little rare-ripe sort that are smarter at about five than ever after. He has a great deal of that sort of mischief that is the offspring of such animal spirits. Since I began this letter, a messenger came to tell me Bob was lost; but by the time I reached the house his mother had found him and had him whipped, and by now, very likely, he is run away again. Mary has read your letter, and wishes to be remembered to Mrs. Speed and you, in which I most sincerely join her.

What would have been an important first edition in American literature is projected, but, most unfortunately, it was never carried through. Johnston and Lincoln had planned to publish their own poems. Perhaps some local printer, on second thought, declined to underwrite the venture.

Springfield, February 25, 1847

D
EAR
J
OHNSTON
: Yours of the 2d of December was duly delivered to me by Mr. Williams. To say the least, I am not at all displeased with your proposal to publish the poetry, or doggerel, or whatever else it may be called, which I sent you. I consent that it may be done, together with the third canto, which I now send you. Whether the prefatory remarks in my letter shall be published with the verses, I leave entirely
to your discretion; but let names be suppressed by all means. I have not sufficient hope of the verses attracting any favorable notice to tempt me to risk being ridiculed for having written them.

This is the first of many speculations made by Lincoln regarding the nature of labor and the relationship of government to it. Labor seems to be the one economic factor in which Lincoln, who was no economist, was really interested. Perhaps the fact that he himself had known from first-hand experience what labor was like made him keenly sensitive to its value. These notes may have been written while Lincoln was en route to Washington to take up his first term as Congressman. He arrived at the capital on December 2, and was seated on December 6
.

December 1, 1847[?]

I
N THE
early days of our race the Almighty said to the first of our race, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread”; and since then, if we except the light and the air of heaven, no good thing has been or can be enjoyed by us without having first cost labor. And inasmuch as most good things are produced by labor, it follows that all such things of right belong to those whose labor has produced them. But it has so happened, in all ages of the world, that some have labored, and others have without labor enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits. This is wrong, and should not continue. To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as nearly as possible, is a worthy object of any good government.

But then a question arises, How can a government best effect this? In our own country, in its present condition, will the protective principle advance or retard this object? Upon this subject the habits of our whole species fall into three great classes—useful labor, useless labor, and idleness. Of
these the first only is meritorious, and to it all the products of labor rightfully belong; but the two later, while they exist, are heavy pensioners upon the first, robbing it of a large portion of its just rights. The only remedy for this is to, so far as possible, drive useless labor and idleness out of existence. And, first, as to useless labor. Before making war upon this, we must learn to distinguish it from the useful. It appears to me that all labor done directly and indirectly in carrying articles to the place of consumption, which could have been produced in sufficient abundance, with as little labor, at the place of consumption as at the place they were carried from, is useless labor.

When Lincoln took his seat in Congress, the Mexican War had dragged on for twenty months. The country was sick of it; Whigs and anti-slavery people generally were opposing it. Lincoln was a new and green member of the House; he surprised everybody by getting up and delivering these Resolutions questioning the administration’s war policy. Lincoln’s query as to the exact location of the spot on which American blood had first been shed, and as to whether that spot was on Mexican or United States territory, was to cause him much trouble. Illinois had been particularly energetic in supporting the war with Mexico; she had sent many troops and important men to lead them. On January 12, 1848 (see below) Lincoln again spoke against the war—and completely alienated his own constituents
.

December 22, 1847

W
HEREAS
, the President of the United States, in his message of May 11, 1846, has declared that “the Mexican Government not only refused to receive him [the envoy of the United States], or to listen to his propositions, but, after a
long-continued series of menaces, has at last invaded our territory and shed the blood of our fellow-citizens on our own soil.”

And again, in his message of December 8, 1846, that “we had ample cause of war against Mexico long before the breaking out of hostilities; but even then we forebore to take redress into our own hands until Mexico herself became the aggressor, by invading our soil in hostile array, and shedding the blood of our citizens.”

And yet again, in his message of December 7, 1847, that “the Mexican Government refused even to hear the terms of adjustment which he [our minister of peace] was authorized to propose, and finally, under wholly unjustifiable pretexts, involved the two countries in war, by invading the territory of the State of Texas, striking the first blow, and shedding the blood of our citizens on our own soil.”

And whereas
, This House is desirous to obtain a full knowledge of all the facts which go to establish whether the particular spot on which the blood of our citizens was so shed was or was not at that time our own soil; therefore,

Resolved
, By the House of Representatives, that the President of the United States be respectfully requested to inform this House—

F
IRST
. Whether the spot on which the blood of our citizens was shed, as in his message declared, was or was not within the territory of Spain, at least after the treaty of 1819 until the Mexican revolution.

S
ECOND
. Whether that spot is or is not within the territory which was wrested from Spain by the revolutionary Government of Mexico.

T
HIRD
. Whether that spot is or is not within a settlement of people, which settlement has existed ever since long before the Texas revolution, and until its inhabitants fled before the approach of the United States Army.

F
OURTH
. Whether that settlement is or is not isolated from any and all other settlements by the Gulf and the Rio Grande
on the south and west, and by wide uninhabited regions on the north and east.

F
IFTH
. Whether the people of that settlement, or a majority of them, or any of them, have ever submitted themselves to the government or laws of Texas or of the United States, by consent or by compulsion, either by accepting office, or voting at elections, or paying tax, or serving on juries, or having process served upon them, or in any other way.

S
IXTH
. Whether the people of that settlement did or did not flee from the approach of the United States Army, leaving unprotected their homes and their growing crops,
before
the blood was shed, as in the message stated; and whether the first blood, so shed, was or was not shed within the inclosure of one of the people who had thus fled from it.

S
EVENTH
. Whether our citizens, whose blood was shed, as in his message declared, were or were not, at that time, armed officers and soldiers, sent into that settlement by the military order of the President, through the Secretary of War.

E
IGHTH
. Whether the military force of the United States was or was not so sent into that settlement after General Taylor had more than once intimated to the War Department that, in his opinion, no such movement was necessary to the defense or protection of Texas.

In this letter, Lincoln speaks too soon. He discusses, rather coyly, his prospects for re-election. Four days later, his Mexican War speech completely blasted any chance of his being returned to Congress
.

Washington, January 8, 1848

D
EAR
W
ILLIAM
: Your letter of December 27 was received a day or two ago. I am much obliged to you for the trouble
you have taken, and promise to take in my little business there. As to speech-making, by way of getting the hang of the House I made a little speech two or three days ago on a post-office question of no general interest. I find speaking here and elsewhere about the same thing. I was about as badly scared, and no worse, as I am when I speak in court. I expect to make one within a week or two, in which I hope to succeed well enough to wish you to see it.