Reference to a few of his speeches, made before his election to the presidency, will give a clear idea of his political Americanism, to which was entrusted the definition and the destiny of the greatest democracy in the world.
The Illinois legislature of 1854, by the union of Whigs and Know-Nothings, indorsed him for senator and sent a committee to notify him. The Know-Nothings were especially strong on the slogan of “America for Americans,” and wanted to shut out immigration.
In the reply to the delegation or committee of notification, he said, “Who are the native Americans? Do they not wear the breech-clout and carry a tomahawk! Gentlemen, your principle is wrong. It is not American. For instance, I had an Irishman named Patrick working my garden. One morning I went out to see how Pat was getting along.
“‘Mr. Lincoln,’ he said, ‘what d’ye think of these Know-Nothing fellers?’ I explained their ideas and asked him if he had been born in America.”
“‘Faith, to be sure,’ Pat replied, ‘I wanted to be, very much, but me mother wouldn’t let me. It’s no fault of mine.’”
Lincoln and Pat thus together believed that every baby, born anywhere on earth, is a good American until its mind is moulded into some man-made shape.
Referring to the thirteen original colonies and what they stood for, he said, “These communities by their representatives in old Independence Hall said to the world of men: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ This was their lofty and wise and noble understanding of the justice of the Creator to his creatures. In their enlightened belief nothing stamped with the Divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be trodden on and degraded and imbruted by its fellows. They grasped not only the race of men then living, but they reached forward and seized upon the farthest posterity. They created a beacon to guide their children and their children’s children, and the countless myriads who should inhabit the earth in other ages.”
Among the many familiar quotations from these great speeches that made him known to the nation may be mentioned a few that should never be forgotten.