Lincoln Letter June 1863
If I be wrong on this question of constitutional power, my error lies in believing that certain
proceedings are constitutional when, in cases of rebellion or Invasion, the public Safety
requires them, which would not be constitutional when, in absence of rebellion or invasion,
the public Safety does not require them -- in other words, that the constitution is not in it's
application in all respects the same, in cases of Rebellion or invasion, involving the public
Safety, as it is in times of profound peace and public security. The constitution itself makes
the distinction; and I can no more be persuaded that the government can constitutionally
take no strong measure in time of rebellion, because it can be shown that the same could
not be lawfully taken in time of peace, than I can be persuaded that a particular drug is not
good medicine for a sick man, because it can be shown to not be good food for a well one.
Nor am I able to appreciate the danger, apprehended by the meeting, that the American
people will, by means of military arrests during the rebellion, lose the right of public
discussion, the liberty of speech and the press, the law of evidence, trial by jury, and
Habeas corpus, throughout the indefinite peaceful future which I trust lies before them, any
more than I am able to believe that a man could contract so strong an appetite for emetics
during temporary illness, as to persist in feeding upon them through the remainder of his
healthful life.
Lincoln’s House Divided Speech 1858
Lincoln Douglas Debates
A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot
endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be
dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be
divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of
slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall
rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will
push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new —
North as well as South.
LINCOLN: ". . .I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States
where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. I have no purpose
to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is a physical difference
between the two, which, in my judgement, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing
of perfect equality, and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as
Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position.
I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the
world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence-the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white
man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many respects--certainly not in color, perhaps not in
intellectual and moral endowments; but in the right to eat the bread without the leave of any body else which
his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man."
Herman Melville “Moby Dick”
The hours wore on; - Ahab now shut up within his cabin; anon, pacing the deck, with the
same intense bigotry of purpose in his aspect.
It drew near the close of day. Suddenly he came to a halt by the bulwarks, and inserting his
bone leg into the auger-hole there, and with one hand grasping a shroud, he ordered
Starbuck to send everybody aft.
"Sir!" said the mate, astonished at an order seldom or never given on ship-board except in
some extraordinary case.
"Send everybody aft," repeated Ahab. "Mast-heads, there! come down!"
When the entire ship's company were assembled, and with curious and not wholly
unapprehensive faces, were eyeing him, for he looked not unlike the weather horizon when
a storm is coming up, Ahab, after rapidly glancing over the bulwarks, and then darting his
eyes among the crew, started from his standpoint; and as though not a soul were nigh him
resumed his heavy turns upon the deck. With bent head and half-slouched hat he continued
to pace, unmindful of the wondering whispering among the men; till Stubb cautiously
whispered to Flask, that Ahab must have summoned them there for the purpose of
witnessing a pedestrian feat. But this did not last long. Vehemently pausing, he cried: "What do ye do when ye see a whale, men?"
"Sing out for him!" was the impulsive rejoinder from a score of clubbed voices.
"Good!" cried Ahab, with a wild approval in his tones; observing the hearty animation into
which his unexpected question had so magnetically thrown them.
"And what do ye next, men?"
"Lower away, and after him!"
"And what tune is it ye pull to, men?"
"A dead whale or a stove boat!"
More and more strangely and fiercely glad and approving, grew the countenance of the old
man at every shout; while the mariners began to gaze curiously at each other, as if
marvelling how it was that they themselves became so excited at such seemingly
purposeless questions.
But, they were all eagerness again, as Ahab, now half-revolving in his pivot-hole, with one
hand reaching high up a shroud, and tightly, almost convulsively grasping it, addressed
them thus: "All ye mast-headers have before now heard me give orders about a White Whale. Look ye!
d'ye see this Spanish ounce of gold? - holding up a broad bright coin to the sun - it is a
sixteen dollar piece, men. D'ye see it? Mr. Starbuck, hand me yon top- maul."
While the mate was getting the hammer, Ahab, without speaking, was slowly rubbing the
gold piece against the skirts of his jacket, as if to heighten its lustre, and without using any
words was meanwhile lowly humming to himself, producing a sound so strangely muffled
and inarticulate that it seemed the mechanical humming of the wheels of his vitality in him.
Receiving the top-maul from Starbuck, he advanced towards the main-mast with the
hammer uplifted in one hand, exhibiting the gold with the other, and with a high raised voice
exclaiming: Whosoever of ye raises me a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a
crooked jaw; whosoever of ye raises me that white-headed whale, with three holes
punctured in his starboard fluke - look ye, whosoever of ye raises me that same white
whale, he shall have this gold ounce, my boys!
"Huzza! huzza!" cried the seamen, as with swinging tarpaulins they hailed the act of nailing
the gold to the mast.
It's a white whale," I say, resumed Ahab, as he threw down the top-maul; a white whale.
"Skin your eyes for him, men; look sharp for white water; if ye see but a bubble, sing out."
All this while Tashtego, Daggoo, and Queequeg had looked on with even more intense
interest and surprise than the rest, and at the mention of the wrinkled brow and crooked jaw
they had started as if each was separately touched by some specific recollection.
"Captain Ahab," said Tashtego, "that white whale must be the same that some call Moby
Dick."
"Moby Dick?" shouted Ahab. "Do ye know the white whale then, Tash?"
"Does he fan-tail a little curious, sir, before he goes down?" said the Gay-Header
deliberately.
"And has he a curious spout, too," said Daggoo, "very bushy, even for a parmacetty, and
mighty quick, Captain Ahab?"
"And he have one, two, tree - oh! good many iron in him hide, too, Captain," cried
Queequeg disjointedly, "all twiske-tee betwisk, like him - him - " faltering hard for a word,
and screwing his hand round and round as though uncorking a bottle - "like him - him - "
"Corkscrew!" cried Ahab, "aye, Queequeg, the harpoons lie all twisted and wrenched in him;
aye, Daggoo, his spout is a big one, like a whole shock of wheat, and white as a pile of our
Nantucket wool after the great annual sheep-shearing; aye, Tashtego, and he fan-tails like a
split jib in a squall. Death and devils! men, it is Moby Dick ye have seen - Moby Dick - Moby
Dick!"
"Captain Ahab," said Starbuck, who, with Stubb and Flask, had thus far been eyeing his
superior with increasing surprise, but at last seemed struck with a thought which somewhat
explained all the wonder. "Captain Ahab, I have heard of Moby Dick - but it was not Moby
Dick that took off thy leg?"
"Who told thee that?" cried Ahab; then pausing, "Aye, Starbuck; aye, my hearties all round;
it was Moby Dick that dismasted me; Moby Dick that brought me to this dead stump I stand
on now. Aye, aye," he shouted with a terrific, loud, animal sob, like that of a heart-stricken
moose; "Aye, aye! it was that accursed white whale that razeed me; made a poor pegging
lubber of me for ever and a day!" Then tossing both arms, with measureless imprecations
he shouted out: "Aye, aye! and I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the horn, and
round the norway maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up. And this is
what ye have shipped for, men! to chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all
sides of earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out. What say ye, men, will ye splice
hands on it, now? I think ye do look brave."
"Aye, aye!" shouted the harpooneers and seamen, running closer to the excited old man: "A
sharp eye for the White Whale; a sharp lance for Moby Dick!"
"God bless ye," he seemed to half sob and half shout. "God bless ye, men. Steward! go
draw the great measure of grog. But what's this long face about, Mr. Starbuck; wilt thou not
chase the white whale? art not game for Moby Dick?"
"I am game for his crooked jaw, and for the jaws of Death too, Captain Ahab, if it fairly
comes in the way of the business we follow; but I came here to hunt whales, not my
commander's vengeance. How many barrels will thy vengeance yield thee even if thou
gettest it, Captain Ahab? it will not fetch thee much in our Nantucket market."
In consequence of all the various delays, it was about three-quarters of an hour after Eliza
had laid her child to sleep in the village tavern that the party came riding into the same
place. Eliza was standing by the window, looking out in another direction, when Sam's quick
eye caught a glimpse of her. Haley and Andy were two yards behind. At this crisis, Sam
contrived to have his hat blown off, and uttered a loud and characteristic ejaculation, which
startled her at once; she drew suddenly back; the whole train swept by the window, round to
the front door.
A thousand lives seemed to be concentrated in that one moment to Eliza. Her room
opened by a side door to the river. She caught her child, and sprang down the steps
towards it. The trader caught a full glimpse of her, just as she was disappearing down the
bank; and throwing himself from his horse, and calling loudly on Sam and Andy, he was
after her like a hound after a deer. In that dizzy moment her feet to her scarce seemed to
touch the ground, and a moment brought her to the water's edge. Right on behind they
came; and, nerved with strength such as God gives only to the desperate, with one wild cry
and flying leap, she vaulted sheer over the turbid current by the shore, on to the raft of ice
beyond. It was a desperate leap—impossible to anything but madness and despair; and
Haley, Sam, and Andy, instinctively cried out, and lifted up their hands, as she did it.
The huge green fragment of ice on which she alighted pitched and creaked as her weight
came on it, but she staid there not a moment. With wild cries and desperate energy she
leaped to another and still another cake;—stumbling—leaping—slipping—springing
upwards again! Her shoes are gone—her stockings cut from her feet—while blood marked
every step; but she saw nothing, felt nothing, till dimly, as in a dream, she saw the Ohio
side, and a man helping her up the bank.
"Yer a brave gal, now, whoever ye ar!" said the man, with an oath.
Eliza recognized the voice and face of a man who owned a farm not far from her old home.
"O, Mr. Symmes!—save me—do save me—do hide me!" said Eliza.
"Why, what's this?" said the man. "Why, if 'tan't Shelby's gal!"
"My child!—this boy!—he'd sold him! There is his Mas'r," said she, pointing to the Kentucky
shore. "O, Mr. Symmes, you've got a little boy!"
"So I have," said the man, as he roughly, but kindly, drew her up the steep bank. "Besides,
you're a right brave gal. I like grit, wherever I see it."
When they had gained the top of the bank, the man paused.
"I'd be glad to do something for ye," said he; "but then there's nowhar I could take ye. The
best I can do is to tell ye to go thar," said he, pointing to a large white house which stood by
itself, off the main street of the village. "Go thar; they're kind folks. Thar's no kind o' danger
but they'll help you,—they're up to all that sort o' thing."
"The Lord bless you!" said Eliza, earnestly.
"No 'casion, no 'casion in the world," said the man. "What I've done's of no 'count."
"And, oh, surely, sir, you won't tell any one!"
"Go to thunder, gal! What do you take a feller for? In course not," said the man. "Come,
now, go along like a likely, sensible gal, as you are. You've arnt your liberty, and you shall
have it, for all me." The woman folded her child to her bosom, and walked firmly and swiftly
away. The man stood and looked after her.
John Brown’s Speech to the court I have, may it please the Court, a few words to say. In the first place, I deny everything but what I have all along admitted, the design on my part to free the slaves. I intended certainly to have made a clean thing of that matter, as I did last winter, when I went into Missouri and there took slaves without the snapping of a gun on either side, moved them through the country, and finally left them in Canada. I designed to have done the same thing again, on a larger scale. That was all I intended. I never did intend murder, or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite or incite slaves to rebellion, or to make insurrection. I have another objection; and that is, it is unjust that I should suffer such a penalty. Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved (for I admire the truthfulness and candor of the greater portion of the witnesses who have testified in this case), had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-­‐called great, or in behalf of any of their friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right; and every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment. This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament. That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me, further, to "remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them." I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done as I have always freely admitted I have done in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit; so let it be done! Let me say one word further. I feel entirely satisfied with the treatment I have received on my trial. Considering all the circumstances. it has been more generous than I expected. But I feel no consciousness of guilt. I have stated from the first what was my intention and what was not. I never had any design against the life of any person, nor any disposition to commit treason, or excite slaves to rebel, or make any general insurrection. I never encouraged any man to do so, but always discouraged any idea of that kind. Let me say, also, a word in regard to the statements made by some of those connected with me. I hear it has been stated by some of them that I have induced them to join me. But the contrary is true. I do not say this to injure them, but as regretting their weakness. There is not one of them but joined me of his own accord, and the greater part of them at their own expense. A number of them I never saw, and never had a word of conversation with, till the day they came to me; and that was for the purpose I have stated. Now I have done. John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859. Before he died, Brown issued these final, seemingly prophetic
words in a note he handed to his jailer:
“Charlestown, Va, 2nd, December, 1859
I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty, land: will never be purged away; but with
Blood. I had as I now think: vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed; it might be done.”
Within one year, the first Southern state would secede from the Union.