– Politics –

Fellow-Citizens:

I presume you all know who I am. I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by many friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are short and sweet, like the old woman’s dance. I am in favor of a national bank. I am in favor of the internal improvement system, and a high protective tariff. These are my sentiments and political principles. If elected, I shall be thankful; if not it will be all the same.

—First Political Speech, Pappsville, Illinois, March 1832. Lincoln, aged 23, did not win the election; it was the only time he was ever defeated by popular vote.

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition, is yet to be developed. I am young and unknown to many of you. I was born and have ever remained in the most humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or popular relations to recommend me. My case is thrown exclusively upon the independent voters of this county, and if elected they will have conferred a favor upon me, for which I shall be unremitting in my labors to compensate. But if the good people in their wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined.

—Letter entitled “To the People of Sangamon County,” March 9, 1832, while a candidate for the Illinois State Legislature

Considering the great degree of modesty which should always attend youth, it is probable I have already been more presuming than becomes me. However, upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but holding it a sound maxim, that it is better to be only sometimes right, than at all times wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.

—Letter entitled “To the People of Sangamon County,” March 9, 1832, while a candidate for the Illinois State Legislature

Politicians [are] a set of men who have interests aside from the interests of the people, and who, to say the most of them, are, taken as a mass, at least one long step removed from honest men. I say this with the greater freedom because, being a politician myself, none can regard it as personal.

—Speech before Illinois legislature, January 11, 1837

It would astonish if not amuse, the older citizens of your County who twelve years ago knew me a strange, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working on a flat boat—at ten dollars per month to learn that I have been put down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family distinction.

—Letter to Martin S. Morris, March 26, 1843

My dear Sir:

The election is over, the session is ended and I am not Senator. . . . I started with 44 votes and T. [Trumbull] with 5. It is rather hard for the 44 to have to surrender to the 5 and a less good humored man than I, perhaps, would not have consented to it,—and it would not have been done without my consent. I could not, however, let the whole political result go to smash, on a point merely personal to myself.

—Letter to W. H. Henderson, February 21, 1855

Born, February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky.

Education defective.

Profession, a lawyer.

Have been a captain of volunteers in Black Hawk War.

Postmaster at a very small office.

Four times a member of the Illinois legislature, and was a member of the lower house of Congress.

—Lincoln’s sketch of his life provided for the Dictionary of Congress, June 1858

Then came the Black-Hawk war; and I was elected a Captain of Volunteers—a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since. I went the campaign, was elated, ran for the Legislature the same year (1832) and was beaten—the only time I ever have been beaten by the people. The next, and three succeeding biennial elections, I was elected to the Legislature. I was not a candidate afterwards. During this Legislative period I had studied law, and removed to Springfield to practice it. In 1846 I was once elected to the lower House of Congress. Was not a candidate for re-election. From 1849 to 1854, both inclusive, practiced law more assiduously than ever before. Always a whig in politics, and generally on the whig electoral tickets, making active canvasses. I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again.

—Autobiographical sketch, December 20, 1859

In this age, and this country, public sentiment is every thing. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever moulds public sentiment, goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces judicial decisions. He makes possible the enforcement of these, else possible.

—Notes for Lincoln-Douglas debate at Ottawa, Illinois, August 1858

What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried?

—Speech at Cooper Union, New York City, February 27, 1860

I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.

—Address in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, February 22, 1861

I distrust the wisdom if not the sincerity of friends who would hold my hands while my enemies stab me.

—Letter to Reverdy Johnson, July 26, 1862

[I feel] somewhat like the boy in Kentucky who stubbed his toe while running to see his sweetheart. The boy said he was too big to cry, and far too badly hurt to laugh.

—Lincoln’s reply to question of how he felt about the Democrats winning the New York State elections, quoted in Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly, November 22, 1862