Meanwhile, despite all this semblance of indecision, of feebleness, there were signs that the real inner Lincoln, however clouded, was still alive.  By way of offset to his fatuous utterances, there might have been set, had the Country been in a mood to weigh with care, several strong and clear pronouncements.  And these were not merely telling phrases like that characteristic one about the bookkeeping of the front door.  His mind was struggling out of its shadow.  And the mode of its reappearance was significant.  His reasoning upon the true meaning of the struggle he was about to enter, reached a significant stage in the speech he made at Harrisburg.(8)

“I have often inquired of myself,” he said, “what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy (the United States) so long together.  It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty not alone to the people of the country but hope to all the world for all future time.  It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men and that all should have an equal chance.  This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence.  Now, my friends, can this country be saved on that basis?  If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the world, if I can help to save it.  If it can not be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful.  But if this country can not be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it.  Now, in my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of bloodshed and war.  There is no necessity for it I am not in favor of such a course, and I may say in advance that there will be no bloodshed unless it is forced upon the government.  The government will not use force unless force is used against it.”

The two ideas underlying this utterance had grown in his thought steadily, consistently, ever since their first appearance in the Protest twenty-four years previous.  The great issue to which all else—­slavery, “dominion status,” everything—­was subservient, was the preservation of democratic institutions; the means to that end was the preservation of the Federal government.  Now, as in 1852, his paramount object was not to “disappoint the Liberal party throughout the world,” to prove that Democracy, when applied on a great scale, had yet sufficient coherence to remain intact, no matter how powerful, nor how plausible, were the forces of disintegration.