He made no other claim. He just showed, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the Congress had the right to decide the issue. By his appeal to their reason, he held his audience’s attention completely. They were enraptured.

And as he warmed to his theme a strange transformation seemed to take place in the speaker too. Lincoln’s face relaxed. He appeared to be inspired with an inner light. He would raise his right hand from time to time, as he became animated, even jabbing his long finger in the air to emphasize a point. Most remarkable of all, Frank suddenly realized that he no longer even noticed Lincoln’s voice. All he knew was that the man before him possessed a remarkable authority.

Having dealt with the Republican stance on slavery in the territories, Lincoln had two other points to make. The first was that his party believed in the Constitution, and the South’s threat of secession if a Republican president were elected was like putting a gun to the head of the Northern voters. But he also had words of caution for his own Republicans. They must do all they could, he told them, to reassure the South that Republicans might not like slavery, but they had no designs against the existing slave states. In order to reassure the South, they must support the runaway slave laws and return slaves to their Southern owners.

Having said these words of political caution, he ended with a brief summary of his party’s moral position. Let slavery alone in the South, because it is already there and necessity demands it, but Republicans still stand by what they believe. And he rounded off with a brief but ringing peroration.

“Let us have faith that Right is Might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”

He was given thunderous applause. And Frank was no less impressed than most of the audience. He had seen a brilliant speaker, a politician who was moral but also a realist. Behind Lincoln’s words, he thought he sensed a certain puritan contempt for the South, but if so, that was hardly surprising.

As they started home Hetty turned to him and asked: “Well, Frank, tell me honestly, what did you think of him?”

“Impressive.”

“I thought so too.” She gave him a smile. “I’m glad we can agree on that.”

“So am I,” he responded kindly.

“I believe he will be president, Frank.”

“Could be.” He nodded, and offered her his arm as he had done before. As she took the arm, she gave it a little squeeze.

So he did not add what was really on his mind: that if Lincoln became president, he viewed the future with dread.

The Draft

1863