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that in consenting to address you on this occasion, I have not yielded in the slightest degree to the busy slanders of those who have unnecessarily and maliciously sought to injure me in this community, on one hand by denouncing me as a “negro-worshiping abolitionist,” and on the other hand by stigmatizing me as a “Copperhead.” I have, I think, shown my indifference to such slanders. They do not affect me; I pass them by “as the idle wind which I regard not.” Nor can I be prevented from speaking to you on such subjects as I deem proper, by the appeals of friends who think that I ought to abstain from expressing my opinions on certain points for fear of damage to my political prospects. Political prospects! Who ever knew me to conceal or disguise my political opinions with a view to personal advancement? Who ever knew me as an office-seeker? Those in high places who now have the giving of offices, know whether I have sought or refused offices. I have no ambition except to remain a citizen of this great and prosperous Union. I shall, therefore, regardless of all outside influences, be they “wicked or charitable.” speak to you from the honest convictions of my heart and mind, whether my remarks be received with applause or disapproval.
I can hardly say anything on the glorious theme of the Union which you have not already heard. On that subject I have frequently addressed you. The patriotic inscriptions which surround us on these walls, and the stars and stripes which hang over us, bear testimony to the patriotism of those who now meet in this Hall, and stand out in strong contrast with the appearance of this place when the Secession Convention of Louisiana plotted treason within this chamber. However pleasant might be the general theme of the Union, I feel that there are now other questions of an important and practical character which should engage our attention. I will, however, say that, if any man wishes to know how I stand politically, I will inform him that I stand fully and squarely on the platform of Abraham Lincoln. Call him “Abolitionist,” or call him “Copperhead,” with him I am ready to stand or to fall. Let him be as true in the future as he has been in the past, and whatever he, in his honest discretion, shall deem good for the preservation of the Union, I will approve, and whatever he shall denounce as injurious to the Union, I will condemn. I bitterly regretted the defeat of my standard-bearer in the last Presidential election—the noble Douglas—yet I have had opportunities of studying the character, moral and intellectual, of our present beloved Chief Magistrate, and I can sincerely give it as my opinion, that a better man than Abraham Lincoln could not have been elected.
My friends, I regret to see the Union men of this State so much and so bitterly divided on a number of incidental questions, as to almost cause the question of the Union to occupy a subordinate position. I regret that before the rebel army has yet been entirely swept from our State, and while there is still so much necessity for harmony among the friends of the Union, you should allow your feelings and prejudices on minor questions to lead you so far astray as to resort to all manner of personal and political abuse, bickerings and divisions, calculated to seriously retard the progress of the Union cause, embarrass the officers of the Government, and delay the restoration of civil power in our midst. I can truly say that I have not aided in getting up any such divisions; and, so help me God, I shall not raise any of the questions which are the cause of so many bitter contentions among you, over and above the question of the Union. It needs no argument to show that the man who does not go for the Union unless slavery is abolished, or unless slavery is preserved, annexes conditions to his Unionism, and is, therefore, not an unconditional Union man. On this subject I agree with Owen Lovejoy, of Illinois. In a debate which occurred in the House of
