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election for the adoption of the Constitution, shall be obligatory upon the United States and the said State of Kansas.
The bill read in his place by the Senator from Georgia, on the 25th of June, and referred to the Committee on Territories, contained the same section word for word.
Both these bills were under consideration at the conference referred to ; but, sir, when the Senator from Illinois reported the Toombs bill to the Senate with amendments, the next morning it did not contain that portion of the third section which indicated to the Convention that the Constitution should be approved by the people.
The words, βand ratified by the people at the election for the adoption of the Constitutionβ , had been stricken out.
Now these things
Trumbull says were stated by
Bigler upon the floor of the Senate on certain days, and that they are recorded in the
Congressional Globe on certain pages.
Does
Judge Douglas say this is a forgery?
Does he say there is no such thing in the
Congressional Globe? What does he mean when he says
Judge Trumbull forges his evidence from beginning to end?
So again he says in another place, that
Judge Douglas, in his speech December 9, 1857 [
Congressional Globe, part 1, page 15], stated:
That during the last session of Congress, I [Mr. Douglas] reported a bill from the Committee on Territories, to authorize the people of Kansas to assemble and form a Constitution for themselves.
Subsequently the Senator from Georgia [Mr. Toombs] brought forward a substitute for my bill, which, after having been modified by him and myself in consultation, was passed by the Senate.
Now
Trumbull says this is a quotation from a speech of
Douglas, and is recorded in the
Congressional Globe.
Is it a forgery?
Is it there or not?
It may not be there, but I want the
Judge to take these pieces of evidence, and distinctly say they are forgeries if he dare do it.
A. voice--βHe will.β
Mr. Lincoln--Well, sir, you had better not commit him. He gives other quotations-another from
Judge Douglas.
He says:
I will ask the Senator to show me an intimation, from any one member of the Senate, in the whole debate on the Toombs bill, and in the Union, from any quarter, that the Constitution was not to be submitted to the people.
I will venture to say that on all sides of the chamber it was so understood at the time.
If the opponents of the bill had understood it was not, they would have made the point on it ; and if they had made it, we should certainly have yielded to it, and put in the clause.
That is a discovery made since the President found out that it was not safe to take it for granted that that would be done, which ought in fairness to have been done.
Judge Trumbull says
Douglas made that speech, and it is recorded.
Does
Judge Douglas say it is a forgery, and was not true?
Trumbull says somewhere, and I propose to skip it, but it will be found by any one who will read this debate, that ho did distinctly bring it to the notice of those who were engineering the bill, that it lacked that provision, and then he goes on to give another quotation from
Judge Douglas, where
Judge Trumbull uses this language :
Judge Douglas, however, on the same day and in the same debate, probably recollecting or being reminded of the fact that I had objected to the Toombs bill when pending that it did not provide for a submission of the Constitution to the people made another statement, which is to be found in the same volume of the Globe, page 22, in which he says :
That the bill was silent on this subject was true, and my attention was called to that about the time it was passed; and I took the fair construction to be, that powers not delegated were reserved, and that of course the Constitution would be submitted to the people.
Whether this statement is consistent with the statement just before made, that had the point been made it would have been yielded to, or that it was a new discovery, you will determine.
So I say. I do not know whether
Judge Douglas will dispute this, and yet
