nture, provided for the hiring of slaves from
Southern States to supply labor in its various industries, and at the
same time passed a stringent law to prohibit the immigration of free
Negroes into that State. Later there followed an attempt to open the
State to slavery by the Legislature of 1822-1823, but the slave party
was defeated by the election of Governor Coles, who would not permit
the reactionary element to reduce that commonwealth to a mediaeval
basis.[1] Such slavery as existed in Illinois, however, differed
widely from that in the South where it had become economic rather than
patriarchal as it then existed in certain parts of the North.

On a trip by way of the Sangamon and the Mississippi to New Orleans in
May 1831, Abraham Lincoln got his first impression of economic slavery
when he "saw Negroes chained, maltreated, whipped and scourged."[2] He
made no mention of this spectacle until a decade later when journeying
from Louisville to St. Louis he saw ten or twelve slaves shackled
together on a boat. This was sufficient to convince him that this
institution was not only an economic evil but a disgrace to a country
pretending to be free. Lincoln, therefore, early decided within
himself that if he ever attained a position of sufficient power to do
something for the extermination of this institution, he would count it
the opportunity of his life.

There soon followed an occasion when Lincoln had an opportunity to
show his constituents his position on this important question. As a
result of the murder of Lovejoy the question of slavery was brought up
at the session of the legislature held in 1837 and was referred to a
committee. The report of this committee expressed disapproval of
abolition societies and carried a declaration to the effect that the
Federal Constitution secured the right of property in slaves, and the
Government of the United States could not abolish slavery in the
District of Columbia without the consent of its citizens. After much
heated debate and filibustering these resolutions were finally passed,
although Lincoln and five other members voted in the negative. Then
there followed from Lincoln and Daniel A. Stone a protest, questioning
and attacking the moral support of slavery, yet recognizing all the
constitutional guarantees that protected it.[3]

Lincoln, as an Illinois Representative in Congress, resorted to a
similar procedure in that national body. At this time there was almost
a p