Speeches of Abraham Lincoln 1861 - Address To The Senate Of New Jersey
by Abraham Lincoln
FEBRUARY 21, 1861
MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY:--I
am very grateful to you for the honorable reception of which I have been
the object. I cannot but remember the place that New Jersey holds in our
early history. In the Revolutionary struggle few of the States among the
Old Thirteen had more of the battle-fields of the country within their
limits than New Jersey. May I be pardoned if, upon this occasion, I
mention that away back in my childhood, the earliest days of my being
able to read, I got hold of a small book, such a one as few of the
younger members have ever seen Weems's Life of Washington. I remember all
the accounts there given of the battle-fields and struggles for the
liberties of the country; and none fixed themselves upon my imagination
so deeply as the struggle here at Trenton, New Jersey. The crossing of
the river, the contest with the Hessians, the great hardships endured at
that time, all fixed themselves on my memory more than any single
Revolutionary event; and you all know, for you have all been boys, how
these early impressions last longer than any others. I recollect thinking
then, boy even though I was, that there must have been something more
than common that these men struggled for. I am exceedingly anxious that
that thing that something even more than national independence, that
something that held out a great promise to all the people of the world to
all time to come--I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the
Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in
accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made; and I
shall be most happy indeed if I shall be a humble instrument in the hands
of the Almighty, and of this his almost chosen people, for perpetuating
the object of that great struggle. You give me this reception, as I
understand, without distinction of party. I learn that this body is
composed of a majority of gentlemen who, in the exercise of their best
judgment in the choice of a chief magistrate, did not think I was the
man. I understand, nevertheless, that they come forward here to greet me
as the constitutionally elected President of the United States--as
citizens of the United States to meet the man who, for the time being, is
the representative of the majesty of the nation--united by the single
purpose to perpetuate the Constitution, the union, and the liberties of
the people. As such, I accept this reception more gratefully than I could
do did I believe it were tendered to me as an individual.