Chapter 14: 1854-1858, Lawyers of the Illinois 8th Judicial Circuit

As in Ohio, everyone in Illinois was talking about the new Kansas-Nebraska Act which had just been adopted by Congress. Moreover, the lawyers of the Eighth Judicial Circuit had not refrained from joining the arguments over the legislation. In fact, Theophilus Lyle Dickey and his friends had been discussing it all day in between proceedings at the Urbana Courthouse.

2 That evening, he was pleased to learn that he would be sharing a room with his good friend, Abraham Lincoln. They had gotten acquainted while traveling and practicing law across the prairies of north-central Illinois.

3 “Douglas let the tiger out of his cage when he introduced this bill!” Lincoln proclaimed. “I think that he was trying to keep the tiger in the cage,” Dickey disagreed.

4 “The Compromise had settled the question, and he has only succeeded in unsettling it,” Lincoln persisted. “Why fix a thing that doesn’t need fixin?” he demanded.

5 “The South clearly wasn’t satisfied with the Compromise,” Dickey pointed out. “And, like it or not, slavery is guaranteed by the Constitution.”

6 “I’m not arguing with the South’s right to their slaves, but don’t you see that this law will allow this pernicious institution to spread into areas that don’t want it?” Lincoln asked. “The people must be allowed to decide the issue for themselves,” Dickey replied

7 “I trust Mrs. Lincoln and the boys are doing well,” he volunteered in an attempt to change the subject. “They are well, thank you,” Lincoln replied.

8 “How is Wallace?” he asked. “Will and Martha are doing very well,” Dickey quickly answered. “He is a fine lawyer and a great help to me and having them in the house is a real comfort,” he added hopefully.

9 Lincoln, however, quickly returned to the subject at hand. “Wasn’t your father opposed to slavery?” Lincoln asked. “Yes, yes, he was,” Dickey squirmed. “I could never own a slave,” he continued, “but I also don’t believe I have the right to interfere with someone who does.”

10 Dickey had already laid down across his bed in an effort to discourage further conversation on the subject. He closed his eyes and pulled the quilt up around his neck as if to signal that he was ready for sleep.

11 Lincoln slipped into his yellow flannel nightgown and sat down on the edge of his bed. “Good night,” Dickey offered. Lincoln returned the farewell, but he was still sitting on the edge of the bed as Dickey drifted off to sleep.

12 When he awoke the next morning, Lincoln occupied the same position (sitting on the side of the bed) that he had occupied when Dickey had fallen asleep. “I believe I’m right,” Lincoln told him. “We will not have peace in this nation until slavery is gone!”

13 In 1856, the pair were together again at Bloomington. “Slavery is going to tear this nation apart,” Lincoln prophesied.

14 “I don’t think that it’s wise to say such things,” Dickey reprimanded him. “Passions are already high and exciting them further can only lead us into stormy waters,” Dickey assured him.

15 Nevertheless, two years later, Lincoln reiterated his views in an address at Springfield. He said: “We are now into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the object and promise of putting an end to the slavery agitation. However, under the operation of that policy, that agitation has only increased. And I am of the opinion that it will not cease until a crisis has been reached and passed. A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe that this government cannot permanently endure half slave and half free.”

16 “My God, he’s an abolitionist!” Dickey declared after he read the speech. “He must not be allowed to replace Douglas in the Senate!”

17 Two months later, thousands of people gathered in Dickey’s hometown of Ottawa to hear the first in what would be a series of debates around the state between incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas and his challenger, Abraham Lincoln. Dickey and his son-in-law, William H.L. Wallace, attended the event.

18 Douglas spoke first to the crowd. He said: “Mr. Lincoln has worked to abolitionize the Whigs and has plotted with others to do the same to the Democrats,” he began. “And where does Mr. Lincoln stand on the recent resolutions adopted by the Black Republicans?” he demanded.

19 He continued: “Mr. Lincoln has stated that this government cannot permanently endure in the same condition which our fathers made it. Why cannot it exist divided into free and slave states? Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and Madison all believed that it could. They knew when they framed the Constitution that the people of a country as wide and broad as this would require different laws and institutions in different localities. That is why they required that each state should retain its own sovereignty, with the power to do as it pleased within its own limits.”

20 “Mr. Lincoln tells us that all men were created equal and asks us, ‘how can you deprive a negro of the equality which God and the Declaration of Independence awards to him?’ I do not question Mr. Lincoln’s belief that the negro is his brother and his equal: but I do not regard him as my equal, and I positively deny that he is my brother,” Douglas fumed. “Hit him again!” the crowd roared.

21 By prior arrangement, Senator Douglas continued speaking for one hour. When he was finished, Abraham Lincoln was given ninety minutes to respond.

22 He began: “As to the tilt that Judge Douglas makes about me abolitonizing the Whigs, I hope that you will permit me to read from a speech I made in Peoria a few years back.” Lincoln held a paper in one hand and struggled to pull something out of the pocket of his coat with the other.

23 “Put on your specs!” Dickey shouted. Lincoln smiled. “I am obliged to do so – I am no longer a young man,” he replied. The crowd broke out into laughter and the tension eased a little.

24 He began reading: “This is the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and letting slavery into Kansas and Nebraska is wrong in its prospective principle. It will allow it to spread to every place where a man can be found who is inclined to take it there.” Lincoln continued reading until he began to hear the shifting of restless feet in the crowd before him.

25 He looked up from the paper he was holding and said: “To argue me into his idea of social and political equality with the Negro is but a specious arrangement of words – like trying to prove a Horse Chestnut is the same as a chestnut horse! I will say here, that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it now exists. And I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races.”

26 Lincoln paused for a moment, and the crowd was completely still. He continued: “Notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in this world why the Negro should not be entitled to all of the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence – the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The crowd cheered and clapped.

27 Dickey waited for the noise to abate and cupped his hands to his mouth. “Do you repudiate the principle of popular sovereignty?” he shouted.

28 “As it applies to the question of slavery, it is my understanding that the people of a territory are allowed to have slavery if they want it, but they are not allowed to not have it,” Lincoln replied. “Under the Dred Scott decision, if any one man wants slaves, all the rest have no way of keeping him from having them.”

29 When both men were finished speaking, Lincoln was disappointed to see his old friend (Dickey) move forward to congratulate Senator Douglas. “I’ve lost Dickey,” he muttered to himself.

30 Senator Douglas would go on to win reelection, but Lincoln would win the Presidency just two years later. And, just as he had predicted, the nation was torn apart over the question of slavery.

31 Now Theophilus Lyle Dickey was the father of Martha Ann (who married William Hervey Lamme Wallace, a cousin in the fourth degree of James Thompson and William Selby Harney), Cyrus, John, Charles Henry (who moved to the Kingdom of Hawaii and founded a branch of the family there) and Virginia Belle (who married William’s brother).