MR. LINCOLN AND COMPULSION.
WHILE dealing with the question of compulsion we cannot do better than quote once more in our columns the very striking words which Mr. Lincoln addressed to his fellow-citizens on the subject of com- pulsion. Abraham Lincoln was a Liberal and a Democrat and an upholder of popular rights if ever there was one in the world. Yet, strange as it may seem to our Radical friends, he was from the very beginning a strong advocate of compulsory service, or, as he called it, conscription, as the fairest and best way of raising troops for a great national emergency. He was, of course, very strongly attacked for his advocacy of compulsion, and in the crisis of the anti-Draft agitation he prepared an appeal to the people in defence of the Draft which we say without hesitation is one of the greatest State papers ever pro- duced in the English language. This memorable docu- ment, however, was never issued, and for a very curious reason. The moment the Draft was actually put into operation, not only did it do its work splendidly, but it proved to be far less unpopular than had been imagined. It was seen that there was no need for any defence of it from Lincoln. Accordingly Lincoln, not because he dis- believed in his arguments, but from that moderation and reticence which always marked him, refused to publish a document for which there was no need, and which from its strength of language might conceivably have irritated a certain number of men who were rapidly becoming reconciled to the Draft. Therefore the President left the printed copy of the address among his papers passed and ready for—publication, but never published it. Indeed, it was not given to the world until the publication of the great official Life of Lincoln by Colonel Hay and Mr. Nicolay. Here is a selection of some of the most striking passages in Lincoln's address to the nation on compulsion :— " At the beginning of the war, and ever since, a variety of motives, pressing, some in one direction and some in the other, would be presented to the mind of each man physically fit for a soldier, upon the combined effect of which motives he would, or would not, voluntarily enter the service. Among these motives would be patriotism, political bias, ambition, personal courage, love of adventure, want of employment, and convenience, or the opposite of some of these. We already have, and have had, in the service as appears, substantially all that can be obtained upon this voluntary weighing of motives, And yet we mast somehow obtain more, or relinquish the original object of the contest, together with all the blood and treasure already expended in the effort to secure it. To meet this necessity the law for the draft has been enacted. You who do not wish to be soldiers do not like this law. This is natural; nor does it imply want of patriotism. Nothing can be so just and necessary as to make us like it if it is disagreeable to us. We are prone, too, to find false arguments with which to excuse ourselves for opposing such die. agreeable things. In this ease, those who desire the rebellion to succeed, and others who seek reward in a different way, are very active in accommodating us with this class of arguments. . . . There can be no army without men. Men can be had only voluntarily or involuntarily. We have ceased to obtain them voluntarily, and to obtain them involuntarily is the draft—the conscription. If you dispute the fact, and declare that men can still be had voluntarily in sufficient numbers, prove the assertion by yourselves volunteering in such numbers, and I shall gladly give up the draft. Or if not a sufficient number, but any one of you will volunteer, he for his single self will escape all the horrors of the draft, and will thereby do only what each one of at least a million of his manly brethren have already done. Their toil and blood have been given as much for you as for themselves. Shall it all be lost rather than that you, too, will bear your part ? I do not say that all who would avoid serving in the war are unpatriotic.; but I do think every patriot should willingly take his chance under a law, made with great care, in order to secure entire fairness. . . . The principle of draft, which simply is involuntary or enforced service, is not new. It has been practised in all ages of the world. . . . Shall we shrink from the necessary means to maintain our free government, which our grandfathers employed to establish it and our own fathers have already employed once to maintain it ? Are we degenerate ? Has the manhood of our race run out? . . With these views, and on these principles. I feel bound to toll you it is my purpose to see the draft law faithfully executed.'
We have only one more observation to make. Let no one suppose that compulsion here will be unpopular with the majority of the persons compelled, though no doubt it will be with a minority of those persons. At present we have got what is not compulsion in name or, if you will, in fact, but what is none the less compulsion in one very real sense—the compulsion of public opinion as it is felt by men of patriotic feeling and good heart. In spite of home ties and economic ties, men feel compelled to throw up everything and go to the war, very largely because they cannot endure the feeling, which comes like a blow in the face, that their countrymen and countrywomen are regarding them as shirkers. We know, and they know, that this form of compulsion does not apply to a great many selfish people, who are quite indifferent to public opinion even in its healthiest and beat forms, and who some- times from fear, but far oftener from laziness and indif- ference, will not move an inch unless they are obliged to do so. In fine, the present policy is grossly unfair because it applies solely to the beet and most alert people in the country, and forces them to do the hard work, the difficult work, and the dangerous work, while the less worthy are untouched by its appeal to honour. Here is the secret of the situation. Compulsion if it comes, or rather when it comes, will come to a very large extent because the men who are at present volunteering, or thinking of volunteering, feel that they are having a terrible burden placed exclusively upon their shoulders when it ought to be borne in equal proportions by others. They, at any rate, recognize that compulsion means equity and equality.
Previous page
