“You inquire where I now stand.  That is a disputed point.  I think I am a Whig; but others say there are no Whigs, and that I am an Abolitionist.  When I was at Washington I voted for the Wilmot Proviso as good as forty times; and I never heard of any one attempting to un-Whig me for that.  I now do no more than oppose the extension of slavery.  I am not a Know-Nothing, that is certain.  How could I be?  How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes be in favour of degrading classes of white people?  Our progress in degeneracy appears to me pretty rapid.  As a nation we began by declaring that ’all men are created equal.’  We now practically read it, ’all men are created equal, except negroes.’  When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read, ’all men are created equal, except negroes and foreigners and Catholics.’  When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty—­to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.

“Mary will probably pass a day or two in Louisville in October.  My kindest regards to Mrs. Speed.  On the leading subject of this letter I have more of her sympathy than I have of yours; and yet let me say I am

“Your friend forever,

“A.  LINCOLN.”

The shade of doubt which this letter suggests related really to the composition of political parties and the grouping of political forces, not in the least to the principles by which Lincoln’s own actions would be guided.  He has himself recorded that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise meant for him the sudden revival in a far stronger form of his interest in politics, and, we may add, of his political ambition.  The opinions which he cherished most deeply demanded no longer patience but vehement action.  The faculties of political organisation and of popular debate, of which he enjoyed the exercise, could now be used for a purpose which satisfied his understanding and his heart.

From 1854 onwards we find Lincoln almost incessantly occupied, at conventions, at public meetings, in correspondence, in secret consultation with those who looked to him for counsel, for the one object of strengthening the new Republican movement in his own State of Illinois, and, so far as opportunity offered, in the neighbouring States.  Some of the best of his reported and the most effective of his unreported speeches were delivered between 1854 and 1858.  Yet as large a part of his work in these years was done quietly in the background, and it continued to be his fate to be called upon to efface himself.