Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/787

 A THEORY OF SOCIAL MOTIVES 773

upon the one belief conflicted, at every point, with the institu- tional changes suggested by the other. The essential cause of the conflict was the opposition of the two beliefs from which, as sources, institutions were developed, and, as premises, argu- ments were deduced. As Lincoln said :

Holding as they do, that slavery is morally right and socially elevating, they cannot cease to demand a full national recognition of it as a legal right and a social blessing nor can we justifiably withhold this on any ground save our conviction that slavery is wrong. If slavery is right, all words, acts, laws, and constitutions against it are themselves wrong, and should be silenced and swept away. If it is right, we cannot justly object to its nationality, its universality; if it is wrong, they cannot justly insist upon its extension. All they ask we could readily grant, if we thought slavery right; all we ask they could as readily grant, if they thought it wrong. Their thinking it right and our thinking it wrong is the precise fact upon which depends the whole controversy. Thinking it right as they do, they are not to blame for desiring its full recognition as being right; but thinking it wrong as we do, can we yield to them? If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty fearlessly and effectively.*

Passages in Lincoln's speeches show that he recognized the selective effect of dispositional emotions in deciding which of the two contradictory beliefs an individual should hold. Thus he said of Douglas: "I suppose the institution of slavery really looks small to him. He is so put up by nature that a lash upon his back would hurt him but a lash upon anybody else's back does not hurt him."*2 Douglas' crocodile argument®* shows his disposi- tional emotion with reference to the negro to have been one of contempt rather than compassion, while Lincoln's compassion for the negro dates from his visit to New Orleans at the age of twenty-two.®* Westermarck emphasizes the influence of emo- tion and impulse on the institution of slavery, pointing out that,

" Nicolay and Hay, "Cooper Union Address," Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Edition, Vol. V, pp. 326, 327.

"Hapgood, Abraham Lincoln, p. 148.

white man, so is the crocodile to the negro ; and as the negro may rightfully treat the crocodile as a beast or a reptile, so the white man may rightfvdly treat the negro as a beast or a reptile." — Nicolay and Hay, Complete Works, Vol. V, p. 205.
 * " Paraphrased by Lincoln, it was as follows : "As the negro is to the

" Hapgood, Abraham Lincoln, p. 25.