414 



LINCOLN, ABKAHAM. 



individual situated as I am, it is most proper I 

 should wait and see the developments, and get 

 all the light possible, so that when. I do speak 

 authoritatively, I may be as near right as pos- 

 sible. When I shall speak authoritatively, I 

 hope to say nothing inconsistent with the Con- 

 stitution, the Union, the rights of all the State?, 

 of each State, and of each section of the coun- 

 try, and not to disappoint the reasonable ex- 

 pectations of those who have confided to me 

 their votes. In this connection, allow me to 

 say, that you, as a portion of the great Ameri- 

 can people, need only to maintain your com- 

 posure, stand up to your sober convictions of 

 right, to your obligations to the Constitution, 

 and act in accordance with those sober convic- 

 tions, and the clouds which now arise in the 

 horizon will be dispelled, and we shall have a 

 bright and glorious future ; and when this gen- 

 eration shall have passed away, tens of thou- 

 sands shall inhabit this country where only 

 thousands inhabit it now. I do not propose to 

 address you at length. I have no voice for it. 

 Allow me again to thank you for this magnifi- 

 cent reception, and bid you farewell." 



On Monday, . Mr. Lincoln proceeded from 

 Buffalo to Albany. Here he was met by the 

 Mayor and City Councils and the Legislative 

 Committees, and, after some brief formalities, 

 was conducted to the Capitol, where he was 

 welcomed by Governor Morgan, and responded 

 briefly as follows : 



" Governor Morgan : I was pleased to receive 

 an invitation to visit the Capital of the great 

 Empire State of this nation, while on my way 

 to the Federal Capital. I now thank you, and 

 you, the people of the capital of the State of 

 New York, for this most hearty and magnifi- 

 cent welcome. If I am not at fault, the great 

 Empire State at this time contains a larger 

 population than did the whole of the United 

 States of America at the time they achieved 

 their National Independence ; and I was proud 

 to be invited to visit its capital, to meet its 

 citizens as I now have the honor to do. I am 

 notified by your Governor that this reception 

 is tendered by citizens without distinction of 

 party. Because of this I accept it the more 

 gladly. In this country, and in any country 

 where freedom of thought is tolerated, citizens 

 attach themselves to political parties. It is but 

 an ordinary degree of charity to attribute this 

 act to the supposition that, in thus attaching 

 themselves to the various parties, each man in 

 his own judgment supposes he thereby best ad- 

 vances the interests of the whole country. And 

 when an election is passed, it is altogether be- 

 fitting a free people that, until the next elec- 

 tion, they should be one people. The reception 

 you have extended me to-day is not given to 

 me personally. It should not be so, but as the 

 representative, for the time being, of the major- 

 ity of the nation. If the election had fallen to 

 any of the more distinguished citizens, who re- 

 ceived the support of the people, this same 

 honor should have greeted him that greets me 



this day, in testimony of the unanimous devo- 

 tion of the whole people to the Constitution, 

 the Union, and to the perpetual liberties of suc- 

 ceeding generations in this country. I have 

 neither the voice nor the strength to address 

 you at any greater length. I beg you will, 

 therefore, accept my most grateful thanks for 

 this manifest devotion not to me, but to the 

 institutions of this great and glorious country." 



He was then conducted' to the Legislative 

 halls, and received by the members with de- 

 monstrations of respect. Here, in reply to an 

 address of welcome, he made a more formal 

 speech, in which he again adverted to the 

 troubles of the country in the following terms : 



" Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Legis- 

 lature of the State of New York : It is with 

 feelings of great diffidence, and, I may say, 

 feelings even of awe, perhaps greater than I 

 have recently experienced, that I meet you 

 here in this place. The history of this great 

 State, the renown of its great men, who 

 have stood in this chamber, and have spoken 

 their thoughts, all crowd around my fancy, 

 and incline me to shrink from an attempt to 

 address you. Yet I have some confidence 

 given me by the generous manner in which 

 you have invited me, and the still more gen- 

 erous manner in which you have received me. 

 You have invited me and received me without 

 distinction of party. I could not, for a mo- 

 ment, suppose that this has been done in any 

 considerable degree with any reference to my 

 personal self. It is very much more grateful 

 to me that this reception and the invitation 

 preceding it, were given to me as the represent- 

 ative of a free people, than it could possibly 

 have been, were they but the evidence of devo- 

 tion to me or to any one man. It is true that, 

 while I hold myself, without mock-modesty, the 

 humblest of all the individuals who have ever 

 been elected President of the United States, I yet 

 have a more difficult task to perform than any 

 one of them has ever encountered. You have 

 here generously tendered me the support, the 

 united support, of the great Empire State. For 

 this, in behalf of the nation in behalf of the 

 President and of the future of the nation in 

 behalf of the cause of civil liberty in all time 

 to come I most gratefully thank you. I do 

 not propose now to enter upon any expressions 

 as to the particular line of policy to be adopted 

 with reference to the difficulties that stand be- 

 fore us in the opening of the incoming Admin- 

 istration. I deem that it is just to the country, 

 to myself, to you, that I should see every thing, 

 hear every thing, and have every light that 

 can possibly be brought within my reach to aid 

 me before I shall speak officially, in order that, 

 when I do speak, I may have the best possible 

 means of taking correct and true grounds. For 

 this reason, I do not now announce any thing 

 in the way of policy for the new Administra- 

 tion. When the time comes, according to the 

 custom of the Government, I shall speak, and 

 speak as well as I am able for the good of the 



