Lincolns Inaugurals, Addresses and Letters | Page 9

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 our pleasing anticipations. The probable cost of this contemplated railroad is estimated at $290,000;--the bare statement of which, in my opinion, is sufficient to justify the belief, that the improvement of the Sangamon river is an object much better suited to our infant resources.
Respecting this view, I think I may say, without the fear of being contradicted, that its navigation may be rendered completely practicable, as high as the mouth of the South Fork, or probably higher, to vessels of from 25 to 30 tons burthen, for at least one half of all common years, and to vessels of much greater burthen a part of that time. From my peculiar circumstances, it is probable that for the