Page:Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln, v3.djvu/31

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1837]
STATE BANK
9

in common with others, to dig canals and construct railroads without borrowing money and paying the interest on it.

If alive on the first Monday in November, I shall vote for Hugh L. White for President.[1]

Very respectfully,

A. Lincoln.


Perils of Mobocracy.

Speech Before the Illinois Legislature Upon a Resolution to Inquire Into the Management of the State Bank.[2]

. . . I now proceed to the resolution. By examination it will be found that the first thirty-three lines, being precisely one third of the whole, relate exclusively to the distribution of the stock by the commissioners appointed by the State. Now, sir, it is clear that no question can arise on this portion of the resolution, except a question between capitalists in regard to the ownership of stock. Some gentlemen have their stock in their hands, while others, who have more money than they know what to do with, want it; and this, and this alone, is the question to settle which we are called on to squander thousands of the peo-

  1. Judge Hugh L. White, Democratic Senator from Tennessee, 1825 to 1839, was nominated by a combination of Whigs and anti-Jackson Democrats for President in 1836. He received the electoral votes of Tennessee and Georgia.
  2. This speech appeared in the Vandalia Free Press sometime in January, 1837. It was copied by the Sangamon Journal of January 28, 1837. It is here given in part, the omitted portions dealing largely with local and transitory conditions.