Life of Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth President of the United StatesCrosby, Frank
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Life of Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth President of the United States
Crosby, Frank
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
“It appears extraordinary that Judge Douglas should make such a
statement. He knows that, by the law, no one can vote who has
not been registered; and he knows that the Free State men place
their refusal to vote on the ground that but few of them have been
registered. It is possible this is not true, but Judge Douglas
knows it is asserted to be true in letters, newspapers, and public
speeches, and borne by every mail, and blown by every breeze to the
eyes and ears of the world. He knows it is boldly declared, that
the people of many whole counties, and many whole neighborhoods
in others, are left unregistered; yet he does not venture to
contradict the declaration, or to point out how they can vote
without being registered; but he just slips along, not seeming to
know there is any such question of fact, and complacently declares,
‘There is every reason to hope and believe that the law will be
fairly and impartially executed, so as to insure to every bona fide
inhabitant the free and quiet exercise of the elective franchise.’
“I readily agree that if all had a chance to vote, they ought to
have voted. If, on the contrary, as they allege, and Judge Douglas
ventures not particularly to contradict, few only of the Free State
men had a chance to vote, they were perfectly right in staying from
the polls in a body.
“By the way, since the Judge spoke, the Kansas election has come
off. The Judge expressed his confidence that all the Democrats in
Kansas would do their duty--including ‘Free State Democrats’ of
course. The returns received here, as yet, are very incomplete;
but, so far as they go, they indicate that only about one-sixth
of the registered voters, have really voted; and this, too, when
not more, perhaps, than one-half of the rightful voters have been
registered, thus showing the thing to have been altogether the
most exquisite farce ever enacted. I am watching with considerable
interest, to ascertain what figure ‘the Free State Democrats’ cut
in the concern. Of course they voted--all Democrats do their
duty--and of course they did not vote for Slave State candidates.
We soon shall know how many delegates they elected, how many
candidates they have pledged to a free State, and how many votes
were cast for them.
“Allow me to barely whisper my suspicion, that there were no
such things in Kansas as ‘Free State Democrats’--that they were
altogether mythical, good only to figure in newspapers and speeches
in the free States. If there should prove to be one real, living
free State Democrat in Kansas, I suggest that it might be well
to catch him, and stuff and preserve his skin, as an interesting
specimen of that soon to be extinct variety of the genus Democrat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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