This speech was in favor of a tariff, not only for revenue, but to encourage American manufacturers and to protect American workingmen. Lincoln knew then as well as we do now, that everything, to the limits of the possible, that Americans use should be produced by the energy, skill and ingenuity of Americans. He knew that the more industries we had, the greater variety of things we made, the greater would be the development of the American brain. And he knew that great men and great women are the best things that a nation can produce,--the finest crop a country can possibly raise. He knew that a nation that sells raw material will grow ignorant and poor, while the people who manufacture will grow intelligent and rich. To dig, to chop, to plow, requires more muscle than mind, more strength than thought. To invent, to manufacture, to take advantage of the forces of nature--this requires thought, talent, genius. This develops the brain and gives wings to the imagination. It is better for Americans to purchase from Americans, even if the things purchased cost more. If we purchase a ton of steel rails from England for twenty dollars, then we have the rails and England the money; But if we buy a ton of steel rails from an American for twenty-five dollars, then America has both the rails and the money. Judging from the present universal depression and the recent elections, Lincoln, in his first speech, stood on solid rock and was absolutely right. Lincoln was educated in the University of Nature--educated by cloud and star--by field and winding stream--by billowed plains and solemn forests--by morning's birth and death of day--by storm and night--by the ever eager Spring--by Summer's wealth of leaf and vine and flower--the sad and transient glories of the Autumn woods--and Winter, builder of home and fireside, and whose storms without, create the social warmth within. He was perfectly acquainted with the political questions of the day--heard them discussed at taverns and country stores, at voting places and courts and on the stump. He knew all the arguments for and against, and no man of his time was better equipped for intellectual conflict. He knew the average mind--the thoughts of the people, the hopes and prejudices of his fellow-men. He had the power of accurate statement. He was logical, candid and sincere. In addition, he had the "touch of nature that makes the whole world kin." In 1858 he was a candidate for the Senate against Stephen A. Douglas. The extreme Democrats would not vote for Douglas, but the extreme Republicans did vote for Lincoln. Lincoln occupied the middle ground, and was the compromise candidate of his own party. He had lived for many years in the intellectual territory of compromise--in a part of our country settled by Northern and Southern men--where Northern and Southern ideas met, and the ideas of the two sections were brought together and compared.