...President-elect made some rather vague remarks to the effect that as soon as a compromise was adopted "they have us under again; all our labor is lost, and sooner or later must be done over." Compromise "would lose us everything we gained by the election," he wrote, adding that it would be...

...line. On this issue, the President-elect declared himself "inflexible" and urged members of Congress to "entertain no proposition for a compromise in regard to the extension of slavery." In the dire circumstances such inflexibility seemed irrational and unconscionable to supporters of...

...— gave signs in December of a willingness to do so. But from Springfield came word to stand firm. "Entertain no proposition for a compromise in regard to the extension of slavery," Lincoln wrote to key senators and congressmen. "The tug has to come, & better now, than any time hereafter."...

...— gave signs in December of a willingness to do so. But from Springfield came word to stand firm. "Entertain no proposition for a compromise in regard to the extension of slavery," Lincoln wrote to key senators and congressmen. "The tug has to come, & better now, than any time hereafter."...

...so cast. The tide of sentiment turned as he declared: Entertain no proposition for a compromise. ... The instant you do, they have us under again, all our labor is lost. . . . The tug has to come and better now than later. He prophesied that if the Missouri Compromise...

...the expansion of slavery, Lincoln stiffened the backbones of Seward and other key Republican leaders. "Entertain no proposition for a compromise in regard to the extension of slavery," he wrote to them. "The tug has to come, & better now, than any time hereafter." Crittenden 's compromise...

...the Crittenden Compromise as an attempt to undermine the Republican party's progress against slavery. "Entertain no proposition for a compromise in regard to the extension of slavery," he told one Republican congressman. Such a concession would lead only to demands for more. "The tug...

...GREAT evil, to avoid a GREATER one." Yet on December 11, 1860, he wrote to a Republican in Congress: Entertain no proposition for a compromise in regard...Douglas is sure to be again trying to bring in his "Pop. Sov." Have none of it. The tug has to come & better now than later. One week later he wrote to...

...territories. President-elect Lincoln made the point bluntly in a message to a Republican in Congress: "Entertain no proposition for a compromise in regard...labor is lost, and sooner or later must be done over The tug has to come and better now than later." With compromise unattainable, attention shifted to...

...won the presidency, and on December 11, 1860, wrote a letter to a congressman in which he insisted: "Entertain no proposition for a compromise in regard to the extension of slavery." This was to southerners as revolutionary a challenge to the existing order as anyone could imagine,...