Lincolns Inaugurals, Addresses and Letters | Page 9

the 1832. Founding of the Black Hawk War: New
England Anti-Slavery unsuccessful Society. candidate for the
legislature
1833. Postmaster of 1833. Douglas moved 1833. Founding of the New
Salem; deputy to Illinois. American Anti-Slavery surveyor's clerk.
Society.
1834. Elected to the 1834. Douglas admitted legislature. to the bar.
1835. Douglas elected State's Attorney.
1836. Reelected to 1836. Douglas elected the legislature. to the
legislature. Presidential Elector.
1837. Admitted to 1837. Douglas 1837. Van Buren the bar. Moved
appointed Registrar President. Murder to Springfield. of the Land
Office; of Owen Lovejoy. nominated for Congress.
1838. Reelected to the legislature.
1840. Presidential 1840. Douglas Elector. appointed Judge of the
Illinois Supreme Court.
1841. Harrison President. Tyler President.
1843. Married to Mary Todd.
1844. Presidential 1844. Douglas elected Elector. to Congress.
1845. Polk President. Texas admitted as a state.
1846. Elected to 1846-48. War with Mexico. Congress.
1847. Douglas elected U.S. Senator; moved to Chicago.
1848. Presidential Elector.
1849. Taylor President.

1850. Death of Calhoun.
1850. Fillmore President. Clay's Compromise Measure.
1852. Death of Clay and of Webster.
1853. Douglas 1853. Pierce President. reelected Senator.
1854. Reelected to the 1854. Kansas-Nebraska legislature. Bill.
1855. Resigned from the legislature. Candidate for the U. S. Senate.
1856. Candidate for 1856. Fremont first nomination for Republican
candidate for Vice-President. the presidency. Civil war in Kansas.
1857. Buchanan President. The Dred Scott Decision.
1858. Candidate for 1858. Lincoln-Douglas the U. S. Senate. Debates.
1859. Douglas 1859. Death of John reelected Brown. to the Senate.
1860. Cooper Institute 1860. Douglas 1860. South Carolina Address.
Elected Democratic Ordinance of Secession. President. candidate for
the Presidency.
1861. Left Springfield, 1861. Douglas died, 1861. Fall of Fort Sumter,
Feb. 11; inaugurated June 3. April 12. Battle March 4. McClellan of
Bull Run, July 21. Commander-in-Chief. Kansas admitted as a state.
1862. The Preliminary 1862. Slavery abolished Emancipation in the
District of Proclamation, Sept. 22. Columbia, April 16.
1863. The Final 1863. Battle of Emancipation Gettysburg, July 1-5.
Proclamation, Jan. 1. The Gettysburg Address, Nov. 19.
1864. Reelected to 1864. Grant 1864. Battles of the the Presidency.
appointed Wilderness, May 6-7. Lieutenant-General.
1865. Inaugurated, 1865. Fall of Richmond, Mar. 4. Assassinated, April

3. Surrender of April 14; died April Lee, April 9. Johnson 15; buried at
sworn in as President, Springfield, May 4. April 15.

SELECTIONS FROM INAUGURALS, ADDRESSES AND
LETTERS
ABRAHAM LINCOLN

LINCOLN'S INAUGURALS, ADDRESSES AND LETTERS
ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF SANGAMON COUNTY, MARCH
9, 1832
FELLOW-CITIZENS: Having become a candidate for the honorable
office of one of your representatives in the next General Assembly of
this state, in accordance with an established custom and the principles
of true republicanism, it becomes my duty to make known to you--the
people whom I propose to represent--my sentiments with regard to
local affairs.
Time and experience have verified to a demonstration, the public utility
of internal improvements. That the poorest and most thinly populated
countries would be greatly benefited by the opening of good roads, and
in the clearing of navigable streams within their limits, is what no
person will deny. But yet it is folly to undertake works of this or any
other kind, without first knowing that we are able to finish them--as
half finished work generally proves to be labor lost. There cannot justly
be any objection to having railroads and canals, any more than to other
good things, provided they cost nothing. The only objection is to
paying for them; and the objection to paying arises from the want of
ability to pay.
With respect to the county of Sangamon, some more easy means of
communication than we now possess, for the purpose of facilitating the
task of exporting the surplus products of its fertile soil, and importing

necessary articles from abroad, are indispensably necessary. A meeting
has been held of the citizens of Jacksonville, and the adjacent country,
for the purpose of deliberating and enquiring into the expediency of
constructing a railroad from some eligible point on the Illinois river,
through the town of Jacksonville, in Morgan county, to the town of
Springfield in Sangamon county. This is, indeed, a very desirable
object. No other improvement that reason will justify us in hoping for,
can equal in utility the railroad. It is a never failing source of
communication, between places of business remotely situated from
each other. Upon the railroad the regular progress of commercial
intercourse is not interrupted by either high or low water, or freezing
weather, which are the principal difficulties that render our future hopes
of water communication precarious and uncertain. Yet, however
desirable an object the construction of a railroad through our country
may be; however high our imaginations may be heated at thoughts of
it--there is always a heart appalling shock accompanying the account of
its cost, which forces us to shrink from