CW, 2:482
In this fragment from an unknown speech, Lincoln evoked the storied accomplishments of the British antislavery movement in order to underscore his own views on the abolition of slavery. The rhetorical tone of the text and the opening statement concerning public office clearly establish its context within the series of speeches delivered during Lincoln’s unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. Senate in the summer and fall of 1858. In this text, Lincoln spoke of a higher cause for the nation’s political leaders. He used the word “republican” to refer, if not solely to the recently founded Republican Party itself, then in the more general sense to a polity based on universal principles of liberty. His reference to the British antislavery movement, which had successfully banned the slave trade fifty years earlier, embodied Lincoln’s support for the abolition of slavery. It recalled the political context of the British precedent, referring to William Wilberforce as the major power in Parliament behind the antislavery bill and to Granville Sharp, a lawyer—like Lincoln—and popular antislavery leader. Lincoln positioned himself as the ardent follower of these pioneer opponents of slavery and recalled that history remembered their noble actions but forgot their proslavery opponents. His mention of the “don’t care” opponents refers to Stephen A. Douglas, who professed not to care whether slavery “was voted up or down” by residents of the territories. Lincoln underscored the transcendent nature of abolition, which surpassed the usual scope of human affairs. In closing, he used the rhetorical device of self-abnegation to stress the magnitude of the issue.
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 “dont care” opponents; it’s dollar and cent opponents; it’s inferior race opponents; its negro equality opponents; and its religion and good order opponents; that all these opponents got offices, and their adversaries got none. But I have also remembered that 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 [sic], 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 the term of my 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 not last to see.