CHAPTER LX

Who should call upon me the next morning after my arrival in Chicago but Yarnell?  I had not seen him now for several years.  And he was a delegate to the Republican convention.

“How is this?” I asked him.  “I remember yet what you said to me about slavery when we came to America more than twenty-five years ago.”  “Oh,” he replied, “that makes no difference.  The Republican party is not going to disturb slavery where it is.  It only proposes to keep it out from what it isn’t.  The platform will refer to the Declaration of Independence, and all that.  But it will also have a tariff plank.  The Democrats have beaten the Morrill tariff bill; and we want a tariff—­Pennsylvania wants a tariff for iron.  And we will nominate Seward and elect him.”

“What if the Southern States secede?”

“That suits us.  That will give the Republican party complete control.  With the Southern States out, we will have the Senate and the House as well as the President, and we can dominate everything, and gather in all the offices—­postmasters, marshals, Federal judges, everything.  The northern Democrats will have nothing to say.  Your friend Douglas will have nothing to say.  He is already a played-out horse.  He won’t be able to even whinny in the Senate.  And the world and the fullness thereof will be ours.”

“How about Seward being too radical?”

“No, he isn’t.  Look at what it comes to.  Kansas will come in as a free state.  The work is already done for that.  California came in as a free state.  Minnesota, Oregon, Wisconsin, have all come in as free states under the Democratic party and with Douglas on top as Senator.  There won’t be any more slave states no matter who is elected.”

“That’s what I think.”

“I only say this to show that this talk of the radicalism of Seward is nonsense.  He spoke of the higher law, to be sure, but Douglas has been talking of nature and nature’s God.  What’s the difference?”

“No difference except that Douglas’ law of nature means something and the higher law means nothing.  We can see what the law of nature is; we don’t know what the higher law is, unless you can fathom the mind of the fanatic; of Thoreau, of John Brown, and Garrison.  I will tell you something:  Lincoln of this state is not so far apart from Douglas.  He has rejected the higher law of Seward in a recent letter.  He is for the irrepressible conflict, because it is the same thing as the house divided against itself.  He must stand by his own doctrine—­and the Bible.  He is as practical as Douglas.”

“That’s the point,” said Yarnell.  “The Abolitionists don’t like Lincoln.  He said right here in the debates that he was not in favor of giving the nigger a vote or making him a citizen.  He isn’t for the Declaration of Independence when it comes to things like that.  But he is of no moment.  He’s not known.  He’s only a local man.  He’s a country jake, isn’t he?”