Certainly,as to individuals,classes,communities even,a doctrine that might easily become destructive.But it formed the basis of all Lincoln's thought about the "majority"in America.Upon it would have rested his reply,had he ever made a reply,to the Virginia contention that while his theory might apply to each individual State,it could not apply to the group of States.He would have treated such a reply,whether fairly or unfairly,as a legal technicality.He would have said in substance:here is a congregation to be benefited,this great mass of all the inhabitants of all the States of the Union;accident,or destiny,or what you will,has brought them together,but here they are;they are moving forward,haltingly,irregularly,but steadily,toward fuller and fuller democracy;they are part of the universal democratic movement;their vast experiment has an international significance;it is the hope of the "Liberal party throughout the world";to check that experiment,to break it into Separate minor experiments;to reduce the imposing promise of its example by making it seem unsuccessful,would be treason to mankind.Therefore,both on South and North,both on the Seceders he meant to fight and on those Northerners of whom he was not entirely sure,he aimed to impose the supreme immediate duty of proving to the world that democracy on a great scale could have sufficient vitality to maintain itself against any sort of attack.Anticipating faintly the Gettysburg oration,the first message contained these words:"And this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States.It presents to the whole family of man the question whether a constitutional republic,or democracy--a government of the people by the same people--can or can not maintain its integrity against its own domestic foes....
Must a government of necessity be too strong for the liberties of its people or too weak to maintain its own existence?"[7]He told Hay that "the crucial idea pervading this struggle is the necessity that is upon us to prove that popular government is not an absurdity";"that the basal issue was whether or no the people could govern themselves."[8]
But all this elaborate reasoning,if it went no further,lacked authority.It was political speculation.To clothe itself with authority it had to discover a foundation in historic fact.The real difficulty was not what ought to have been established in America in the past,but what actually had been.
Where was the warrant for those bold proposition--who "we,the people,"really were;in what their sovereign power really consisted;what was history's voice in the matter?To state an historic foundation was the final aim of the message.To hit its mark it had to silence those Northerners who denied the obligation to fight for the Union;it had to oppose their "free love"ideas of political unity with the conception of an established historic government,one which could not be overthrown except through the nihilistic process of revolution.
So much has been written upon the exact location of sovereignty in the American federal State that it is difficult to escape the legalistic attitude,and to treat the matter purely as history.So various,so conflicting,and at times so tenuous,are the theories,that a flippant person might be forgiven did he turn from the whole discussion saying impatiently it was blind man's buff.But on one thing,at least,we must all agree.Once there was a king over this country,and now there is no king.Once the British Crown was the sovereign,and now the Crown has receded into the distance beyond the deep blue sea.When the Crown renounced its sovereignty in America,what became of it?Did it break into fragments and pass peacemeal to the various revolted colonies?Was it transferred somehow to the group collectively?These are the obvious theories;but there are others.And the others give rise to subtler speculations.Who was it that did the actual revolting against the Crown--colonies,parties,individuals,the whole American people,who?
Troublesome questions these,with which Lincoln and the men of his time did not deal in the spirit of historical science.
Their wishes fathered their thoughts.Southerners,practically without exception,held the theory of the disintegration of the Crown's prerogative,its distribution among the States.The great leaders of Northern thought repudiated the idea.
Webster and Clay would have none of it.But their own theories were not always consistent;and they differed among themselves.