_Mr. Turnham, as Constable, loaned Lincoln the Revised Statutes of Indiana, the first law-book he ever studied._]
An Ancient Institution—The Evils of Slavery—Lincoln Always Opposed to Slavery—Relic of "Cruel Slavery Days"—Discussions, Laws, and Compromises—The Missouri Compromise—The Fugitive Slave Law—The Kansas-Nebraska Bill—Lincoln Aroused—He Answers Douglas—R. L. McCord Names Lincoln His Candidate for President—A New Political Party—"Bleeding Kansas"—The Dred Scott Decision—"The Underground Railroad"—The John Brown Raid—The Approaching Crisis.
It may be wondered what future generations will think when they read the history of our country and learn that within the memory of many of those who now live this Government tolerated and protected that "sum of all villainies"—human slavery. Slavery arose at an early period in the world's history out of the accident of capture in war. As an institution it has existed in many countries for ages. Unfortunately, in the first settling of the United States, slavery was tolerated, and allowed to spread as the country developed. This was especially true of the Southern States.
The many attendant evils of slavery cannot here be mentioned. Slaves were largely kept in ignorance. In some States it was considered a crime, with heavy penalties, for any white person to teach a colored person to read or write.
The traffic in human beings, as it then existed, is awful to think of. Husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters were often sold and separated never to meet again. When the master died, his negroes were sold to the highest bidder, just like other property.
Abraham Lincoln was always opposed to slavery. When a young man he witnessed the cruelties of a slave market in New Orleans, where men, women, and children were sold like brutes. He then and there said, "If I ever have a chance to hit that institution, I will hit it hard." In 1837, when he was only twenty-eight years old, he heard a sermon preached by a noted minister, in Illinois, on the interpretation of prophecy in its relation to the breaking down of civil and religious tyranny. The sermon greatly impressed Mr. Lincoln, and he at that time said to a friend, "Odd as it may seem, when he described those changes and revolutions, I was deeply impressed that I would be somehow strangely mixed up with them."