labour,
and hire other people to labour for them,--is right. In doing so, they
do not wrong the man they employ, for they find men who have not their
own land to work upon, or shops to work in, and who are benefited by
working for others,--hired labourers, receiving their capital for it.
Thus a few men that own capital hire a few others, and these establish
the relation of capital and labour rightfully--a relation of which I
make no complaint. But I insist that that relation, after all, does not
embrace more than one-eighth of the labour of the country.

There are a plenty of men in the slave States that are altogether good
enough for me, to be either President or Vice-President, provided they
will profess their sympathy with our purpose, and will place themselves
on such ground that our men upon principle can vote for them. There are
scores of them--good men in their character for intelligence, for talent
and integrity. If such an one will place himself upon the right ground,
I am for his occupying one place upon the next Republican or opposition
ticket. I will go heartily for him. But unless he does so place himself,
I think it is perfect nonsense to attempt to bring about a union upon
any other basis; that if a union be made, the elements will so scatter
that there can be no success for such a ticket. The good old maxims of
the Bible are applicable, and truly applicable, to human affairs; and in
this, as in other things, we may say that he who is not for us is
against us; he who gathereth not with us, scattereth. I should be glad
to have some of the many good and able and noble men of the South place
themselves where we can confer upon them the high honour of an election
upon one or the other end of our ticket. It would do my soul good to do
that thing. It would enable us to teach them that inasmuch as we select
one of their own number to carry out our principles, we are free from
the charge that we mean more than we say....

_From a Letter to J.W. Fell. December 20, 1859_

I was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents
were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families--second
families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year,
was of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams,
and others in Macon County, Illinois. My paternal grandfather, Abraham
Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham County, Virginia, to Kentucky about
1781 or 1782, where a ye