Chapter VIII: Lincoln as a Prohibitionist

Major J. B. Merwin and Abraham Lincoln—They Together
Canvass Illinois for State Prohibition in 1854-55—Lincoln's
Arguments Against the Saloon—Facts Omitted by Lincoln's
Biographers—President Lincoln, Generals Scott and Butler
Recommend Merwin's Temperance Work in the Army—The President
Sends Merwin on a Mission to New York the Day of the
Assassination—Proposition for Freedmen to Dig Panama
Canal—Lincoln's Last Words to Merwin—Merwin's Characteristic
Address at Lincoln's Tomb—"Lincoln, the Christian
Statesman"—Merwin Living at Middlefield, Connecticut.

It will, no doubt, be of interest to here introduce a man who, perhaps, knew Mr. Lincoln as well as any man now living. It is Major J. B. Merwin, of Middlefield, Connecticut, who is now eighty years old. He is a noted educator and lecturer. He formerly resided in St. Louis, Missouri, and was the founder of "The American Journal of Education," in that city in 1867. Since that time he has written much and lectured widely on educational and literary subjects.

Learning of his associations with Mr. Lincoln, that they together campaigned the State of Illinois for State prohibition in 1854-55, I wrote Mr. Merwin for some items relative to his acquaintance and associations with the great emancipator. In his reply, Mr. Merwin said:

"I mail you a very brief résumé of my connection with Mr. Lincoln
from 1854 on, up to the day he was assassinated. This will answer
your query and request, I think, fully. Of course the address made
at the tomb of the great, dear man, on May 26, 1904, was greatly
abridged for lack of space, but many essential points you will be
able to gather from what I send you. And I am glad to do this, for
nearly all his biographers ignore both his prohibition and his
religious work and character."

From what Mr. Merwin furnished, as stated in his letter, the following facts are here presented:

Mr. Merwin, then a young man, was a temperance lecturer in Connecticut, in 1851, during which year he and Neal Dow both addressed the legislature in behalf of State prohibition. A resident of Springfield, Illinois, then visiting in Hartford, being interested in the question, gained admittance to this legislative session, and was much pleased with Mr. Merwin's presentation of the subject. He afterward took it upon himself to invite Mr. Merwin to visit Springfield and deliver the same address before the Illinois Legislature. The invitation was accepted, and the following winter Mr. Merwin began a temperance campaign in Illinois. His first address was made at the capital. At this time the legislature was considering the submission of the prohibition question to the people, and as the question met with great opposition from the leaders of the two political parties, who feared to jeopardize the liquor interests, the speaker from the East was not permitted to address the legislature as a body, and spoke instead in the representative hall.

It was at this meeting that he first met Lincoln, who was immediately touched by the young speaker's words and enthusiastically accepted his message. Mr. Lincoln invited Mr. Merwin home with him that night, but, knowing nothing of the character of the man, Mr. Merwin asked the advice of a friend, who said, "Most certainly, if Mr. Lincoln invites you, go." Mr. Merwin says: "We were barely inside his door, and even before he asked me to be seated, he wanted to know if I had a copy of the Maine law with me. I had, and we spent until four o'clock in the morning discussing its features." The matter of a prohibition canvass was outlined, and Mr. Lincoln volunteered to put the whole matter before Richard Yates, afterwards Illinois' war governor, but who was then Grand Worthy Patriarch of the Sons of Temperance. Mr. Yates was quick to see the strength of the new idea, and himself arranged the first series of rallies where Lincoln and Merwin spoke.

The meeting at Jacksonville was presided over by Richard Yates. Among the places at which they spoke were Bellville, Bloomington, Peoria, Edwardsville, and Decatur. Mr. Lincoln's political friends were alarmed for him because of his radicalism on the temperance question, and made a combined effort to silence him, but he continued in the fight.

Prohibition did not carry in its submission to the people, but it is said that the votes of forty counties were changed in favor of State prohibition.

After the campaign of 1854-55, Mr. Merwin's friendship with Lincoln continued without a break up to the latter's assassination. Soon after the commencement of the war, Mr. Merwin's unceasing advocacy of the great reform won him personal recognition, and it was suggested by prominent military men that he should be officially appointed, and be permitted the freedom of the camps in the interests of personal temperance work, need of which was widely evident. What President Lincoln and Generals Scott and Butler wrote on the back of the recommendation, as endorsements, is here given. Mr. Merwin has the original manuscript:

"If it be ascertained at the War Department that the President has
legal authority to make an appointment such as is asked within,
and Gen. Scott is of opinion it will be available for good, then
let it be done.

"July 17, 1861. A. LINCOLN."

"I esteem the mission of Mr. Merwin to this army a happy
circumstance, and request all commanders to give him free access
to all our camps and posts, and also to multiply occasions to
enable him to address our officers and men.

WINFIELD SCOTT,

"July 24, 1861. _Department of Virginia._"

"The mission of Mr. Merwin will be of great benefit to the troops,
and I will furnish him with every facility to address the troops
under my command. I hope the Gen'l commanding the army will give
him such official position as Mr. Merwin may desire to carry out
his object.

"August 8, 1861. B. F. BUTLER, _Maj-Gen. Com'd'g._"

The testimonial to the warm appreciation of Mr. Merwin's usefulness in the army as a temperance worker is signed by Isaac N. Arnold, O. H. Browning, Charles Sumner, Alexander W. Randall, W. A. Buckingham, Richard Yates, James Harlan, Alexander Ramsey, A. B. Palmer, John F. Potter, J. L. Scripps, Lyman Trumbull, Henry Wilson, J. R. Doolittle, Austin Blair, Thomas Drummond, James W. Grimes, Samuel J. Kirkwood, Timothy O. Howe, David Wilmot, and more than one hundred others. They comprise those of governors, senators, congressmen, and postmasters.

In 1862, President Lincoln again wrote a special order to facilitate his work at the front, as follows, the original still being in Mr. Merwin's possession:

"Surgeon General will send Mr. Merwin wherever he may think the
public service may require.

"July 24, 1862. A. LINCOLN."

Throughout the war Mr. Merwin was in close personal touch with the nation's executive, and had a passport, given him by Mr. Lincoln, which admitted him to the White House at any time, day or night, except during the session of the cabinet. On the day of his assassination the President had Mr. Merwin to dine with him, and that afternoon sent him on an important mission to New York.

It will be a matter of interest to many to know that Mr. Lincoln looked very favorably upon a proposal that had been made for the excavation and completion of the Panama Canal by means of the labor of the freedmen. Those close to the President at the time were aware of the fact that he favored the plan, and it was for the purpose of securing the views of Horace Greeley, of the New York _Tribune_, and other molders of public thought, in regard to the plan, that he called Major Merwin to the White House on the fatal Friday, April 14, 1865, the day that he was shot. After the President had explained this business to Mr. Merwin, perhaps recalling again those stirring times ten years before, when he had campaigned with him, he said, "After reconstruction, the next great question will be the overthrow of the liquor traffic."

That evening Mr. Merwin was on his way to New York, and the following morning, as he stepped from the train in that city, he heard the terrible news of the assassination at Ford's Theater, the night before.

Mr. Merwin says that Mr. Lincoln talked freely with him on the overthrow of the liquor traffic, and it is his strong conviction that if his life had been spared, even a decade, he would have emphasized his lifelong devotion to the temperance cause with an open and decisive championship of State and National prohibition. The slavery issue had come unforeseen into his life and swept him heart and soul into the very vortex of that terrific struggle. As he often expressed it, "there must be one war at a time," and the one that called him first was not of his own choosing in point of order.

The abridged address on "Lincoln as a Prohibitionist," delivered by Major Merwin at the Lincoln Monument, at Springfield, Illinois, May 26, 1904, which he furnished for this book, is here given. It was printed in the _New Voice_, Chicago, June 16, 1904, to which I am indebted for a number of the foregoing items, some of which were marked by Major Merwin with a blue pencil.

After a brief introduction by Mr. Alonzo Wilson, chairman of the State Prohibition Committee, Mr. Merwin, standing on one of the steps of the stairway of the monument, with a beautiful flag covering a part of the balustrade, said:

"We stand to-day in the heart of the continent, midway between the
two oceans, within the shadow of the monument of the man who made
more history—who made greater history than any other person, than
all other persons who lived in the nineteenth century! A leader
of the people, who was great in their greatness, who carried
their burdens, who, with their help, achieved a name and a fame
unparalleled in human history. He broke the shackles of four
millions of slaves. He saved to the world this form of government,
which gives to all our people the opportunity to walk, if they
will, down the corridors of time, arm in arm with the great of
all ages, sheltered and inspired by the flag which has become the
symbol of hope and of freedom to all the world!

"In God's good providence, I came to know him—here in his humble
home in Springfield, in 1854, and before he had come to be the
hero, beloved, glorified, known and loved by all who love liberty.
It was in the autumn of 1854. I was a young man full of all the
enthusiasm of those first Neal Dow triumphs in New England.
Accepting the invitation of friends, I came to Illinois, where the
campaign for State prohibition was getting under way. I reached
Springfield, and one night had the privilege of speaking in the
old State House, where, with legislators and townspeople, I found
an appreciative audience.

"After my address, there were calls of 'Lincoln! Lincoln!
Lincoln!' and turning, I saw, perhaps, the most singular specimen
of a human being rising slowly, and unfolding his long arms and
his long legs, exactly like the blades of a jack-knife. His hair
was uncombed, his coat sleeves were inches shorter than his shirt
sleeves, his trousers did not reach to his socks. First I thought
there was some plan to perpetrate a 'joke' on the meeting, but in
one minute, after the first accents of the pathetic voice were
heard, the crowd hushed to a stillness as profound as if Lincoln
were the only person present, and then this simple, uncouth man
gave to the hushed crowd such a definition of law, its design and
mission, its object and power, such as few present had ever known
or dreamed. Among the points he made were the following:

"Mr. Lincoln asked, 'Is not the law of self-protection the first
law of nature; the first primary law of civilized society?' 'Law,'
he declared, 'is for the protection, conservation, and extension
of right things, of right conduct; not for the protection of evil
and wrong-doing.'

"'The State must, in its legislative action, recognize in the
law enacted this principle—it must make sure and secure these
endeavors to establish, protect, and extend right conditions,
right conduct, righteousness. These conditions will be secured and
preserved, not by indifference, not by a toleration of evils, not
by attempting to throw around any evil the shield of law; never by
any attempt to license the evil.'

"'This sentiment of right conduct for the protection of home, of
state, of church, of individuals must be taken up and embodied
in legislation, and thus become a positive factor, active in
the state. This is the first and most important function in
the legislation of the modern state.' Proceeding, Mr. Lincoln
said: 'This saves the whole, and not a part, with a high, true
conservatism through the united action of all, by all, for all.
The prohibition of the liquor traffic, except for medical and
mechanical purposes, thus becomes the new evangel for the safety
and redemption of the people from the social, political, and moral
curse of the saloon, and its inevitable evil consequences of
drunkenness.'

"Lincoln studied every moral and political issue in this light
and from this standpoint, and, as a result of this practice, he
studied the opposite side of every question in dispute, and hence
he was never surprised by the seeming strength of his opponents,
for he saw at once the moral and legal weakness of wrong and
untenable positions assumed. This it is that throws a flood
of light on his ready and unanswerable repartee by story and
statement. In fact, we have seen, often, that after his statement
of a proposition it needed no argument.

"Honorable Elihu B. Washburn, Lincoln's closest friend, wrote
before he died that 'when the whole truth is disclosed of Mr.
Lincoln's life during the years of 1854-55, it will throw a flood
of new light on the character of Mr. Lincoln, and will add new
luster to his greatness and his patriotism.'

"Mr. Lincoln had, as is well known, made up his mind to retire
from the political arena. He was annoyed, yea, more, he was
disgusted with the low plane on which the politicians, mere
politicians, not statesmen, were trying to conduct the affairs of
the nation.

"Mr. Lincoln was feeling his way up and out of the gloom,
despondency, and melancholy which had to so great an extent
affected his life. There came to him a new light, a new revelation
of destiny in those still creative, or rather recreative days, and
it is this phase of things to which Mr. Washburn refers in the
above lines.

"It is a well-known fact that Mr. Lincoln hesitated to show his
strength of conscience, as he did his wealth of goodness, lest it
be counted as ostentation. He said often in 1854-55, 'The saloon
and the liquor traffic have defenders—but no defense!' With him
men were neither great nor small—they were right or wrong. He
knew no fear except the fear of doing wrong. His expressions and
conduct on this question of the prohibition of the liquor traffic
and the saloon were so firmly anchored on his profound
convictions of right and wrong that they were immutable.

"In that memorable canvass, Mr. Lincoln and myself spoke in
Jacksonville, in Bloomington, in Decatur, in Danville, in
Carlinville, in Peoria, and at many other points.

"The gist of Mr. Lincoln's argument was contained in this fearless
declaration:

"'This legalized liquor traffic, as carried on in the saloons
and grogshops, is the tragedy of civilization. Good citizenship
demands and requires that what is right should not only be made
known, but be made prevalent; that what is evil should not only be
detected and defeated, but destroyed. The saloon has proved itself
to be the greatest foe, the most blighting curse of our modern
civilization, and this is why I am a practical prohibitionist.

"'We must not be satisfied until the public sentiment of this
State, and the individual conscience shall be instructed to look
upon the saloon-keeper and the liquor-seller, with all the license
each can give him, as simply and only a privileged malefactor—a
criminal.'

"Mr. Lincoln used, in advocating the entire prohibition of the
liquor traffic, nearly the same language, and in many instances
the same illustrations that he used later on in his arguments
against slavery. At another place he said:

"'The real issue in this controversy, the one pressing upon
every mind that gives the subject careful consideration, is that
legalizing the manufacture, sale, and use of intoxicating liquors
as a beverage is a wrong—as all history and every development of
the traffic proves it to be—a moral, social, and political wrong.'

"It should be stated distinctly, squarely, and fairly, and
repeated often, that Mr. Lincoln was a practical total abstinence
man; wrote for it, worked for it, taught it, both by precept
and by example; and when, from a long and varied experience, he
found that the greed and selfishness of the liquor-dealers and
the saloon-keepers overleaped and disregarded all barriers and
every other restraint, and taught by the lessons of experience
that nothing short of the entire prohibition of the traffic and
the saloon would settle the question, he became an earnest,
unflinching prohibitionist.

"It has been said by those most competent to judge, that Mr.
Lincoln surpassed all orators in eloquence, all diplomats in
wisdom, all statesmen in foresight, and this makes him and his
name a power not to be resisted as a political prohibitionist.

"We do not say much about it, for it is not necessary, but there
were times and occasions when Mr. Lincoln came to be, in his
administration, greater than law—when his wisdom was greater than
the combined wisdom of all the people. The people, the law-makers
had never comprehended the conditions and the situation that
confronted him. He was as great as necessity, and our safety lay
in the fact that he was as just as he was great, and as wise as he
was just. Great in law, but greater in necessity.

"God be praised for the great gifts he showered upon him; God be
praised for the generous use he made of them. In the radiance of
God's light and in the sunshine of his love from out the gates of
pearl which were swung inward to his entrance by those who waited
to welcome him thither, there opened to him that vast and bright
eternity, vivid with God's love. We could wish for a moment the
veil might be parted and we, too, could have vision that such
labor shall be crowned with immortal rest. Hail, brother, and
farewell."

In a letter to me, of late date, Major Merwin writes:

"None of us can get too many views of the good and great Lincoln,
and the world grows better for all we know, or can learn of
him.... I spoke in New Haven last Sunday evening in one of the
largest churches in the old college town. The house was packed
with Yale students and others. The subject was, 'Lincoln, the
Christian Statesman,' emphasizing the religious phase of the
man, much to the surprise of many present. This was the real
source of his strength. He was larger than any or all so-called
'denominations,' and yet a multitude find both comfort and
strength in these various divisions, and Lincoln's heart was glad
it was so."

It should have been stated, in connection with Mr. Merwin's temperance record in the army, that General Winfield Scott, after hearing several addresses made by Mr. Merwin from President Lincoln's carriage, to the regiments gathering in Washington, said to the President, "A man of such force and moral power to inspire courage, patriotism, faith, and obedience among the troops is worth more than a half-dozen regiments of raw recruits."

As before stated, Mr. Merwin is now in his eightieth year, and resides at Middlefield, Connecticut. In his last letter to me, dated January 14, 1909, referring to the above paragraph, he says, "I am not now equal to 6,000 men, but am able to tell the story of the plain, great man, whose name is now, and ever will be a glory on the nation's brow."

_Owned jointly by Abraham Lincoln and Henry Brooner in Indiana. Now owned by John E. Burton, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin._]

_Daughter of Josiah Crawford, for whom Lincoln often labored as hired hand in Indiana._]

_Mr. Turnham, as Constable, loaned Lincoln the Revised Statutes of Indiana, the first law-book he ever studied._]