oung man stood silent. The people were silent. Aunt Indiana
gave her puncheon seat a push to break the force of that silence, and
whispered to Josiah:

"There! they are all ears. I told ye 'twould be so. You must answer
him."

Young Lincoln spoke slowly, and after this manner:

"My friends: When you pledge yourself to enforce a principle, you
identify yourself with that principle, and give it power."

There was a silence. Then the people filled the little room with
applause. He continued most impressively in the words of grand
oration:[A]

[Footnote A: We use here some of the exact sentences which young Lincoln
employed on a similar occasion at Springfield.]

"The universal sense of mankind on any subject is an argument, or at
least an influence, not easily overcome. The success of the argument in
favor of the existence of an over-ruling Providence mainly depends upon
that sense; and men ought not, in justice, to be denounced for yielding
to it in any case, or giving it up slowly, especially when they are
backed by interest, fixed habits, or burning appetites.

"If it be true that those who have suffered by intemperance personally
and have reformed are the most powerful and efficient instruments to
push the reformation to ultimate success, it does not follow that those
who have not suffered have no part left them to perform. Whether or not
the world would be vastly benefited by a total and final banishment from
it of all intoxicating drinks seems to me not now an open question.
Three fourths of mankind confess the affirmative with their tongues;
and, I believe, all the rest acknowledge it in their hearts.

"But it is said by some, that men will think and act for themselves;
that none will disuse spirits or anything else because his neighbors do;
and that moral influence is not that powerful engine contended for. Let
us examine this. Let me ask the man who could maintain this position
most stiffly, what compensation he will accept to go to church some
Sunday and sit during the sermon with his wife's bonnet upon his head?
Not a trifle, I'll venture. And why not? There would be nothing
irreligious in it, nothing immoral, nothing uncomfortable--then why not?
Is it not because there would be something egregiously unfashionable in
it? Then, it is the influence of fashion. And what is the influence of
fashion but the influence that other people's actions have on our own
actions--the strong inclination each of us feels