In anticipation of his nomination as Senator, Lincoln had carefully prepared an address of acceptance. It was delivered on the 17th of June, 1858, in the presence of an immense audience at Springfield. At the time, it was perhaps the most radical speech that had yet burst forth from a Republican statesman. It is not strange that it astounded his friends. It baffled their comprehension to find him at a single stride in the front rank of the radicals. Herndon, the aggressive abolitionist, was alike bewildered, saying of the first paragraph that it was true; but asking if it was entirely politic to read or speak it as it was written. Lincoln said that it made no difference; that it was a truth of all human experience; that he wanted to use some universally known figure, expressed in simple language as universally known that might strike home to the minds of men, in order to rouse them to the peril of the times; that he would rather be defeated with that expression in the speech, and have it held up and discussed before the people, than to be victorious without it.[346]

Lamon questioned whether Lincoln had a clear right to indulge in such a venture, as a representative party man in a close contest, having other interests than his own in charge, and bound to respect the opinions, and secure the success of his party. Lamon states that at the Bloomington Convention he uttered the same ideas in almost the same words; and their recognition of a state of incipient civil war in a country for the most part profoundly peaceful,—these, and the bloody work which might come of their acceptance by a great party, had filled the minds of some of his hearers with the most painful apprehensions; the theory was equally shocking to them, whether as partisans or as patriots. Begged to suppress such speech in the future, he vindicated his utterance, but after much persuasion, promised at length not to repeat it.[347]

The night before its delivery, at a gathering of his close friends, Lincoln slowly read the first paragraph. No uncertain, unsparing criticisms followed. It was called "a fool utterance," ahead of the time, a statement that would frighten many voters.[348] Only one auditor, his partner, approved the far-reaching statement, saying, "Lincoln, deliver it just as it reads. It is in advance of the times, let us—you and I, if no one else—lift the people to the level of this speech now, higher hereafter. The speech is true, wise and politic, and will succeed now or in the future. Nay, it will aid you, if it will not make you President of the United States."

Then Lincoln rose from his chair, walked backwards and forwards in the hall, stopped and said that he had thought about the matter a great deal, had weighed the question from all corners, and was thoroughly convinced the time had come when it should be uttered; and that if he must go down because of that speech, he would go down linked to truth, and would say again and again that the nation could not live on injustice.[349]

This speech stands alone among American orations. Captivating in its logic, marvellous in its directness, condensed in utterance, it is as true to Lincoln as the reply to Hayne was to Webster. It is one of the most momentous addresses in American history. It became the angry battle ground of local and general campaigns. It directed the issues of national parties. In a transitional period with the hand of genius it peerlessly traced party demarcation lines. For the moment in advance of the national progress it soon became the very gospel of multitudes, the war cry of the friends of the Union. Plainer to the average man than the fine phrase of Seward as to "the irrepressible conflict," it brought home to the daily worker the issues of the hour, put him face to face with the deep meaning of the whole struggle going on in his very presence. Its strength was in this—that it put in clear speech the question that was agitating the common mind and thus gave it form and being before other men. With prophetic solemnity he indulged in the philosophic utterance that the slavery agitation would not cease until a crisis should be reached and passed, saying: "'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 that 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 the course of ultimate distinction, or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the states,—old as well as new, North as well as South."[350]

Lincoln in the loneliness of his soul passed upon the solemn issue that the hour for speech and action had come; that the time of compromise was over; that justice would no longer be trifled with; that the law of humanity spurned further outrage. He gave voice to the hitherto silent sentiments of many. The period for the judicious utterance of radical truth had come. In a few years what then seemed the outburst of a perverted attitude became the common thought of the multitude.

And so again Lincoln showed his keen sense of the drift of events. In this he was wiser than the pure politicians. When events justified his foresight, some were found who cherished the notion that Lincoln was guided by self-seeking motives in his radical advocacy. Two biographers think that Lincoln was quietly dreaming of the Presidency, and edging himself to a place in advance, where the tide might take him up in 1860; that as sectional animosities, far from subsiding, were growing deeper and stronger with time, Lincoln knew that the next nominee of the exclusively Northern party must be a man of radical views, and so the speech was intended to take the wind out of Seward's sails.[351]

The biographer who sees a plotting, scheming Lincoln in all this is far from understanding the real man. For mingled with his political sagacity was a sublime communion with the mighty spirit of world justice. Elated at the approaching clash of freedom and slavery, believing that out of the conflict would come a better humanity, he rejoicingly dwelt in the pure realm of the unfettered utterance of a truth, far above the stifling valley of commonplace diplomacy. To him it was a rare moment of utter freedom without calculation, moving through regions of unclouded justice and righteous outlook.

Criticism bitter and biting of political friends did not shake his serenity or his belief in his diagnosis of the national disease. He lived so long with the solution, that he showed the calmness of a historian in judging passing events. Slow to value highly his own service, he was proudly aware of the intrinsic worth of this utterance. To a friend who said that the foolish speech would kill him, Lincoln replied that if he had to draw a pen across, and erase his whole life from existence, and he had one poor gift or choice left, as to what he would save from the wreck, he would choose that speech, and leave it to the world unerased.[352]

Withal, the speech was wisely framed. It aroused the fear of the Northerners with the statement that they would lie down pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri were on the verge of making their State free, and they would awake to the reality instead that the Supreme Court had made Illinois a slave state.[353] The dread that slavery might invade the free States of the North, as it ceased to be something more than a possibility, haunted and horrified the North. Some who bore with complacency the servitude of the black men in the distance fumed with anger as they contemplated even a prospect of a closer relation of the institution. Thus the self interest of the North was played upon. This practical danger more than all abstract arguments awakened free communities. Douglas saw the danger of this appeal. He could no longer hold North and South. It put him on the defensive. Lincoln forced the fighting. It became necessary for Douglas to make the speech of Lincoln the basis of his discussion.

Lincoln weighed his speech at its soul value, and measured its truth and worth in lonely struggle. No counsel could stay his purpose. He had come upon another crisis in his career. He could no longer compromise with himself in safety, the hour of decision could not be delayed. He faced defeat in all its darkness but afar he saw the star of simple duty. If he had faltered or cringed he might have become Senator, but that distinction only would have crowned him. He had the rare perception of knowing when to be firm as the earth beneath, of distinguishing between policy and principle, of ever keeping his integrity unsullied by barter or bargain. It is noteworthy that the very speech politicians deemed the graveyard of his career in reality became his apotheosis. The politician of Illinois became a national leader. From that time, he loomed large in the history of the Republican party and was regarded as wise in counsel and brave in speech. Before Seward, he put in concrete utterance the very philosophy of Republicanism. And that party had reason to regard him with favor as a possible guide in the gathering contest.

This speech gave Lincoln a prominence that led to the dramatic debates with Douglas and that fastened the attention of the nation on the combat. The Lincoln-Douglas controversy was the fruition of this Springfield speech. This address is the most fitting line of demarcation between Lincoln the Citizen of Illinois and Lincoln the Citizen of the United States.