October 16, 1854
Speech on Kansas-Nebraska Act, Abraham Lincoln
“I particularly object to the NEW position which the avowed principle of this Nebraska law gives to slavery in the body politic. I object to it because it assumes that there CAN be MORAL RIGHT in the enslaving of one man by another. I object to it as a dangerous dalliance for a free people—a sad evidence that, feeling prosperity we forget right—that liberty, as a principle we have ceased to revere. I object to it because the fathers of the republic eschewed, and rejected it. The argument of “Necessity” was the only argument they ever admitted in favor of slavery; and so far, and so far only as it carried them, did they ever go. They found the institution existing among us, which they could not help; and they cast blame upon the British King for having permitted its introduction. BEFORE the constitution, they prohibited its introduction into the north-western Territory—the only country we owned, then free from it. At the framing and adoption of the constitution, they forbore to so much as mention the word “slave” or “slavery” in the whole ins rumen. In the provision for the recovery of the fugitives, the slave is spoken as a “PERSON HELD TO SERVICE OR LABOR.” In that prohibiting the abolition of the african slave trade for twenty years, that made is spoken of as “The migration or importation of such persons as any of the Sates NOW EXISTING, shall think proper to admit,” &c. These are the only provisions alluding to slavery. Thus, the thing is hid away, in the constitution, just as an afflicted man hides away a wen or a cancer, which he dares not cut out at once, let he bleed to death; with the promise, nevertheless, that the cutting may begin at the end of a given time. Less than this our fathers COULD not do; and farther, they would not go. But this is not all. The earliest Congress, under the constitution, took the same view of slavery. They hedged and hemmed it in on the narrowest limits of necessity.
In 1794, they prohibited an out-going slave trade—that is the taking of slaves FROM the United States to sell.
In 1798, they prohibited the bringing of slaves from Africa, INTO the Mississippi Territory—this territory then compromising what are now the states of Mississippi and Alabama. This was TEN YEARS before they had the authority to do the same thing as the States existing at the adoption of the constitution.
In 1800 they prohibited AMERICAN CITIZENS from trading in slaves between foreign countries—as, for instance, from Africa to Brazil.
In 1803 they passed a law in aid of one or two State laws, in restraint of the internal slave trade.
In 1807, in apparent hot haste, they passed the law, nearly a year in advance, to take effect the first day of 1808—the very first day the constitution would permit—prohibiting the African slave trade by heavy pecuniary and corporal penalties.
In 1820, finding these provisions ineffectual, they declared the trade piracy, and annexed to it, the extreme penalty of death. While all this was passing in the general government, five or six of the original slave States had adopted systems of gradual emancipation; and by which the institution was rapidly becoming extinct within these limits.
Thus we see, the plain unmistakable spirit of that age, towards slavery, was hostility to the PRINCIPLE, and toleration, ONLY BY NECESSITY.
But now it is to be transformed into a “sacred right.” Nebraska brings it forth, places it on the high road to extension and perpetuity; and, with a pat on its back, says to it, “Go, and God speed you.” Henceforth it is to be the chief jewel of the nation—the very figure-head of the ship of State. Little by little, but steadily as man’s march to the grave, we have been giving up the OLD for the NEW faith. Near eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration, that for SOME men to enslave OTHERS is a “sacred right of self government.” These principles cannot stand together. They are opposite as God and mammon; and whoever holds to one, must despise the other…
…Let no one be deceived. The spirit of seventy-six and the spirit of Nebraska, are utter antagonisms; and the former is being rapidly displaced by the latter.
Fellow countrymen—Americans south, as well as north, shall we make no effort to arrest this? Already the liberal party throughout the world, express he apprehension “that the one retrograde institution in America, is undermining the principles of progress, and fatally violating the noblest political system the world ever saw.” This is not the taunt of enemies, but the warning of friends. Is it quite safe to disregard it—to despise it? Is there no danger to liberty itself, in discarding the earliest practice, and first precept of our ancient faith?…
…Our republican robe is soiled, and trailed in the dust. Let us repurify it. Let us turn and wash it white, in the spirit, if not the blood, of the Revolution. Let us turn slavery from its claims of “moral right,” back upon its existing claims of “moral right,” back upon its existing legal rights, and its arguments of “necessity.” Let us return it to the position our fathers gave it; and there let it rest in peace. Let us re-adopt the Declaration of Independence, and with it, the practices, and policy, which harmonize with it. Let north and south-let all Americans—let all lovers of liberty everywhere—join in the great and good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union; but we shall have so saved it, as to make, and to keep it, forever worthy of the saving. We shall have so saved it, that the succeeding millions of free happy people, the world over, shall rise up, and call us blessed, to the last generations.”
To the Hindu, the Buddhist, the Muslim, and the Jew; to the atheist and the Christian, and unto all the people of all races, diverse creeds, and walks of life: the United States of America was purposed as a land of liberty. That within these liberties, and in the practice of maintaining them, justice would be rendered unto all starting upon that critical foundation that is our original first document, that Declaration of Independence. It serves as the anchor of our national faith as equal citizens. The fundamental liberties that proclaim we are all created equal, that we have a right to life, a right to be safe and happy in our persons are intrinsic to what America is. It is this Judeo-Christian beginning that has created the space of freedom for the glory of the nations to flock to our land, and together with us, become a people of one nation. But now that we are all here, it is important that this foundation of liberty not be hindered, nor the fountains that have made this land a free land for all be stopped, altered, or diverted unto the interest of a few, but that liberty abound unto all, that the goodness of our shared freedoms abound unto all.
With a solemn heart and a sound mind, you are implored to study and keep close to heart the work and meaning of all those who have fought the good fight to keep this land a free and welcoming place, that through our shared awareness we become these sentinels of individual liberty; understanding the solemnity of thought and feeling that should be given to the original spirit of 1776.
We must find and endeavor together to reach straightforward clarity in the reasoning of those written words in our Declaration of Independence that we may arrive together upon the focus of how the defense of our individual liberty produces and sustains our national union. Our individual rights are not a license to govern the rights of others, no matter how small or stage of life they be in. Abraham Lincoln’s critical thinking, as he adhered his mind to that 1776 Declaration of Independence regarding the sanctity of human life, was clearly and respectfully put before you. Will you disregard him and it? Will you become an enemy to liberty then, or will you join in the raising of the true banners of liberty and stand shoulder to shoulder for the protection of human life? Make yourselves not estranged, nor ignorant to the spirit and words of that Declaration, but amicable and sure friends onto it that we may all clearly see where you stand. Because you need not leave your Hindu faith, my brother, and you need not leave of your Muslim roots, my sister, only, you need to pledge genuine allegiance to that liberty as it is exactly placed before us in that Declaration of Independence. In that national faith, your religion; your way of life; will not be supplanted, but in it you and I will find peace, joy, and camaraderie as fellow Americans.
“And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.”
James 3:18
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