“Think nothing of me,”—
said he, afterward martyr,—
“take no thought for the political fate of any man whomsoever, but come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independence. You may do anything with me you choose, if you will but heed these sacred principles. You may not only defeat me for the Senate, but you may take me and put me to death. While pretending no indifference to earthly honors, I do claim to be actuated in this contest by something higher than an anxiety for office. I charge you to drop every paltry and insignificant thought for any man’s success. It is nothing, I am nothing, Judge Douglas is nothing; but do not destroy that immortal emblem of humanity, the Declaration of American Independence.”[155]
How apt are these words now! “Do not destroy that immortal emblem of humanity, the Declaration of American Independence.”
Then, again, as he was on his way to Washington, stopping at Philadelphia to raise the flag of his country over the Hall of Independence, he uttered these pathetic, though unpremeditated words:—
“All the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, from the sentiments which originated in, and were given to the world from, this Hall. I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.
…
“Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon that basis? If it can, I shall consider myself one of the happiest men in the world, if I can help to save it.… But if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it.”[156]
And yet that is the principle which the Senate is now about to give up,—that principle which Abraham Lincoln said, rather than give up he would be assassinated on the spot.