Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/251
LINCOLN
endangered. There never has been any reasonable
cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most
ample evidence to the contrary has ail the while
existed and been open to their inspection. It
is found in nearly all the published speeches of
him who now addresses you. I do but quote
from one of those speeches when I declare that
"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." Those who nominated and elected me
did so with full knowledge that I had made this
and many similar declarations, and had never
recanted them. And more than this, they placed
fortable, that I could not help pitying him. Reaching the platform, his discontent was visibly increased by not knowing what to do with the hat and cane; and so he stood there the target for ten thousand eyes, holding cane in one hand and hat in the other, the very picture of helpless embarrassment. After some hesitation he pushed the cane into a corner of the railing, but could not find a place for the hat, except on the floor where I could see that he did not like to risk it. Douglas, who fully took in the situation, came to the rescue of his old friend and rival, and held the precious hat until the owner needed it again—a service which, if predicted two years before, would probably have astonished him." "In the central group of this inauguration ceremony," say Nicolay and Hay," there confronted each other four historic personages in the final act of a political drama which, in its scope, completeness, and consequences, will bear comparison with those most famous In human record— Senator Douglas, the author of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, representing the legislative power of the American government; Chief Justice Taney, author of the Dred Scott decision, representing the influence of the judiciary, and President Buchanan, who, by his Lecompton measures and messages, had used the full executive power and patronage to intensify and perpetuate the mischiefs born of the repeal and the dictum." Slightly abridged.
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