Lincoln on Democracy

"I SHOULD DESERVE TO BE DAMNED"

Lincoln and Democracy, 1863-1865 325 Now, the unconditional Union men, North and South, perceive its importance, and embrace it. In the joint names of Liberty and Union, let us labor to give it legal form, and practical effect. "THE PEOPLE'S BUSINESS" Informal Remarks on the Election, the White House [AUGUST 1864] Hearing a "discouraging account" ofhis reelection prospects in New York State, Lincoln offered these trenchant comments "with grim earnestness, " as recorded by artist-in-residence Francis B. Carpenter. Well, I cannot run the political machine; I have enough on my hands without that. It is the people's business,-the election is in their hands. If they turn their backs to the fire, and get scorched in the rear, they'll find they have got to ''sit'' on the "blister!" "I SHOULD DESERVE TO BE DAMNED" Conversation with Wisconsin Politicians, the Soldiers' Home, Outside Washington [AUGUST 1864] By mid-1864, black Union soldiers had amply proven their bravery in the field. Apparently, however, there were still some Northern politicians who thought that compromise on emancipation might still shorten the war and 326 LINCOLN ON DEMOCRACY save white lives. Lincoln angrily rebuked such a strategy in this conversation with former Wisconsin governor Alexander W. Randall, held at the Soldiers' Home, the President's summer residence some two miles north of Washington. The conversation was witnessed by a Wisconsin judge, who laterpublished it in the Gray County Herald, recalling that Lincoln spoke these words with a "gushing sympathyfor those who offered their lives for their country. " There have been men base enough to propose to me to return to slavery the black warriors of Port Hudson and Olustee [battles in Louisiana and Florida, respectively, where "colored" regiments had fought bravely-eds.] and thus win the respect of the masters they fought. Should I do so, I should deserve to be damned in time and eternity. Come what will, I will keep my faith with friend and foe. My enemies pretend I am now carrying on this war for the sole purpose of Abolition. So long as I am President, it shall be carried on for the sole purpose of restoring the Union. But no human power can subdue this rebellion without the use of the emancipation policy, and every other policy calculated to weaken the moral and physical forces of the rebellion . Freedom has given us two hundred thousand men raised on Southern soil. It will give us more yet. Just so much it has subtracted from the enemy, and instead of alienating the South, there are now evidences of a fraternal feeling growing up between our men and the rank and file of the rebel soldiers. Let my enemies prove to the country that. the destruction of slavery is not necessary to a restoration of the Union. I will abide the issue. ...