Lincoln Honors Wilberforce and the Abolitionist Cause

Lincoln eloquently states his opposition to slavery as an inhumane practice in this undated speech fragment believed to be from the Lincoln-Douglas Senate race of 1858 (GLC 05302). Through his moving rhetoric Lincoln clearly states his belief in the ultimate demise of slavery while acknowledging the nation’s economic dependence to the institution. Though Lincoln spoke frequently during this campaign – a time in his career when he came to the political forefront and that helped shape him into a presidential candidate – very few Lincoln manuscripts survived from this period. In this fragment, Lincoln compares the United States’ struggle to abolish slavery to Great Britain’s toil. He notes that English abolitionists had fought for nearly one hundred years in Parliament discussing the same arguments that American abolitionists now faced and he praises their efforts; “School-boys know that Wilbe[r]force … helped the [abolitionist] cause forward; but who can now name a single man who labored to retard it?” Reading this speech one observes that Lincoln felt the abolition of slavery would be a slow process and that he might not live to see the end of slavery in his lifetime. Considering this, he still proclaims strongly his unwavering belief that its end must come. Lincoln also champions his commitment to the cause and the pride he holds for his minor, though what would become enormous, involvement, "I am proud, in my passing speck of time, to contribute an humble mite to that glorious consummation, which my own poor eyes may not last to see."

Krista Rupe, Special Projects Manager
Gilder Lehrman Collection

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GLC 05302. Abraham Lincoln, Speech fragment concerning the abolition of slavery, c. July 1858.

I have never professed an indifference to the honors of official station; and were I to do so now, I should only make myself ridiculous. Yet I have never failed – do not now fail – to remember that in the republican cause there is a higher aim than that of mere office – I have not allowed myself to forget that the abolition of the Slave-trade by Great Brittain [sic], was agitated a hundred years before it was a final success; that the measure had it’s open fire-eating opponents; it’s stealthy “don’t care” opponents; it’s dollars and cent opponents; it’s inferior race opponents; it’s negro equality opponents; and it’s religion and good order opponents; that all these opponents got offices, and their adversaries got none – But I have also remembered that [inserted: though] they blazed, like tallow-candles for a century, at last they flickered in the socket, died out, stank in the dark for a brief season, and were remembered no more, even by the smell – School-boys know that Wilbe[r]force, and Granville Sharpe, helped that cause forward; but who can now name a single man who labored to retard it? Remembering these things I can not but regard it as possible that the higher object of this contest may not be completely attained within [2] the term of my [inserted: natural] life. But I can not doubt either that it will come in due time. Even in this view, I am proud, in my passing speck of time, to contribute an humble mite to that glorious consummation, which my own poor eyes may [struck: never] [inserted: not] last to see –

For a list of books that have won the Institute's prestigious Lincoln Book Prize, visit: http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historians/fellowship2.html
 
Other resources include:

Basler, Roy P., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln Vol. 2: 482 (Princeton, 1953).

Fehrenbacher, Don. Prelude to Greatness: Lincoln in the 1850s and The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics (Stanford University Press, 1997).

Lincoln, Abraham, Abraham Lincoln : Speeches and Writings 1832-1858 (Library of America, 1989).