On the 7th of November, 1860, it was known throughout the country that
Lincoln had been elected. From that very hour dates the conspiracy
which, by easy stages and successive usurpations of authority,
culminated in rebellion. It is painful now to revert to the events which
marked its progress. There is not a man living to-day, I trust, that
does not wish they could be blotted out from our history. While watching
the course of these events Mr. Lincoln chanced one day to be talking
with his friend, Newton Bateman, a highly respectable and Christian
gentleman, and Superintendent of Public Instruction in Illinois. I can
only quote a part of the interview, as furnished by Mr. Bateman himself:
"I know there is a God," said Lincoln; "and he hates injustice and
slavery. I see the storm coming. I know that his hand is in it. If he
has a place and work for me,--and I think he has,--I believe I am ready.
I am nothing; but truth is everything, I know I am right, because I know
that liberty is right; for Christ teaches it; and Christ is God. I have
told them that 'a house divided against itself cannot stand,' and Christ
and reason say the same; and they will find it so.
"Douglas doesn't care whether slavery is voted up or down; but God
cares, and humanity cares, and I care; and with God's help I shall not
fail.
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