September 9

"Stand with anybody that stands RIGHT. Stand with him while he is right and PART with him when he goes wrong."

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President, 1861-1865 Speech at Peoria, October 16, 1854 The build up to the Civil War and emancipation was long, emotional, and convoluted to say the least. Much like today's party evolutions, the Democratic Party was splitting into northern and southern factions and the Whig Party was giving way to the Republican Party. In this speech, given in reply to one given by Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln lays out a history of expansion of the United States in the context of The Declaration of Independence and what he perceived Thomas Jefferson's vision of Freedom was for America. He speaks of the Louisiana Purchase and the expansion into those states and territories, into California after the Gold Rush, and into Texas after the Mexican-American War which ended in 1848. Of course, the burning question was whether slavery should be allowed to expand further, much less exist any longer. "Some men, mostly whigs, who condemn the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, nevertheless hesitate to go for its restoration, lest they be thrown in company with the abolitionist. Will they allow me as an old whig to tell them good humoredly, that I think this is very silly? Stand with anybody that stands RIGHT. Stand with him while he is right and PART with him when he goes wrong. Stand WITH the abolitionist in restoring the Missouri Compromise; and stand AGAINST him when he attempts to repeal the fugitive slave law. In the latter case you stand with the southern disunionist. What of that? you are still right. In both cases you are right. In both cases you oppose [expose?] the dangerous extremes. In both you stand on middle ground and hold the ship level and steady. In both you are national and nothing less than national. This is good old whig ground. To desert such ground, because of any company, is to be less than a whig—less than a man—less than an American."