Fifth joint debate, at Galesburgh, October 7, 1858.
Ladies and Gentlemen: Four years ago I appeared before the people of
Knox county for the purpose of defending my political action upon the Compromise measures of 1850 and the passage of the
Kansas--
Nebraska bill.
Those of you before me, who were present then, will remember that I vindicated myself for supporting those two measures by the fact that they rested upon the great fundamental principle that the people of each State and each Territory of this Union have the right, and ought to be permitted to exercise the right, of regulating their own domestic concerns in their own way, subject to no other limitation or restriction than that which the
Constitution of the United States imposes upon them.
I then called upon the people of
Illinois to decide whether that principle of self-government was right or wrong.
If it was and is right, then the Compromise measures of 1850 were right, and, consequently, the
Kansas and
Nebraska bill, based upon the same principle must necessarily have been right.
The Kansas and
Nebraska bill declared, in so many words, that it was the true intent and meaning of the act not to legislate slavery into any State or Territory, nor to exclude it therefrom,, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the
Constitution of the United States.
For the last four years I have devoted all my energies, in private and public, to commend that principle to the
American people.
Whatever else may be said in condemnation or support of my political course, I apprehend
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that no honest man will doubt the fidelity with which, under all circumstances, I have stood by it.
During the last year a question arose in the Congress of the United States whether or not that principle would be violated by the admission of
Kansas into the
Union under the
Lecompton Constitution.
In my opinion, the attempt, to force
Kansas in under that Constitution, was a gross violation of the principle enunciated in the Compromise measures of 1850, and
Kansas and
Nebraska bill of 1854, and therefore I led off in the fight against the
Lecompton Constitution, and conducted it until the effort to carry that Constitution through Congress was abandoned.
And I can appeal to all men, friends and foes, Democrats and Republicans, Northern men and Southern men, that during the whole of that fight I carried the banner of Popular Sovereignty aloft, and never allowed it to trail in the dust, or lowered my flag until victory perched upon our arms.
When the
Lecompton Constitution was defeated, the question arose in the minds of those who had advocated it what they should next resort to in order to carry out their views.
They devised a measure known as the
English bill, and granted a general amnesty and political pardon to all men who had fought against the
Lecompton Constitution, provided they would support that bill.
I for one did not choose to accept the pardon, or to avail myself of the amnesty granted on that condition.
The fact that the supporters of
Lecompton were willing to forgive all differences of opinion at that time in the event those who opposed it favored the
English bill, was an admission they did not think that opposition to
Lecompton impaired a man's standing in the Democratic party.
Now the question arises, what was that English bill which certain men are now attempting to make a test of political orthodoxy in this country.
It provided, in substance, that the
Lecompton Constitution should be sent back to the people of
Kansas for their adoption or rejection, at an election which was held in August last, and in case they refused admission under it, that
Kansas should be kept out of the
Union until she bad 93,420 inhabitants.
I was in favor of sending the
Constitution back in order to enable the people to say whether or not it was their act and deed, and embodied their will; but the other proposition, that if they refused to come into the
Union under it, they should be kept out until they had double or treble the population they then had, I never would sanction by my vote.
The reason why I could not sanction it is to be found in the fact that by the
English bill, if the people of
Kansas had only agreed to become a slaveholding State under the
Lecompton Constitution, they could have done so with 35,000 people, but if they insisted on being a free State, as they had a right to do, then they were to be punished by being kept out of the
Union until they had nearly three times that population.
I then said in my place in the Senate, as I now say to you, that whenever
Kansas has population enough for a slave State she has population enough for a free State.
I have never yet given a vote, and I never intend to record one, making an odious and unjust distinction between the different States of this Union.
I hold it to be a fundamental principle in our republican form of government that all the States of this Union, old and new, free and slave, stand on an exact equality.
Equality among the different States is a cardinal principle on which all our institutions rest.
Wherever, therefore, you make a discrimination, saying to a slave State that it shall be admitted with 35,000 inhabitants, and to a free State that it shall not be admitted until it has 93,000 or 100,000 inhabitants, you are throwing the whole weight of the
Federal Government into the scale in favor of one class of States against the other.
Nor would I on the other hand any sooner sanction the doctrine that a free State could be admitted into the
Union with 35,000 people, while a slave State was kept out until it had 93,000.
I have always declared in the Senate my willingness, and I am willing now to adopt the rule, that no Territory shall ever become a State, until it has the requisite population for a member of Congress, according to the then existing ratio.
But while I have always been, and am now willing to adopt that general rule, I was not willing and would not consent to make an exception of
Kansas, as a punishment for her obstinacy, in demanding the right to do as she pleased in the formation of her Constitution.
It is proper that I
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should remark here, that my opposition to the
Lecompton Constitution did not rest upon the peculiar position taken by
Kansas on the subject of slavery.
I held then, and hold now, that if the people of
Kansas want a slave State, it is their right to make one and be received into the
Union under it ; if, on the contrary, they want a free State, it is their right to have it, and no man should ever oppose their admission because they ask it under the one or the other.
I hold to that great principle of self-government which asserts the right of every people to decide for themselves the nature and character of the domestic institutions and fundamental law under which they are to live.
The effort has been and is now being made in this State by certain postmasters and other Federal office-holders, to make a test of faith on the support of the
English bill.
These men are now making speeches all over the
State against me and in favor of
Lincoln, either directly or indirectly, because I would not sanction a discrimination between slave and free States by voting for the
English bill.
But while that bill is made a test in
Illinois for the purpose of breaking up the
Democratic organization in this State, how is it in the other States?
Go to
Indiana, and there you find English himself the author of the
English bill, who is a candidate for re-election to Congress, has been forced by public opinion to abandon his own darling project, and to give a promise that he will vote for the admission of
Kansas: at once, whenever she forms a Constitution in pursuance of law, and ratifies it by a majority vote of her people.
Not only is this the case with English himself, but I am informed that every Democratic candidate for Congress in
Indiana takes the same ground.
Pass to
Ohio, and there you find that
Groesbeck, and
Pendleton, and
Cox, and all the other anti-Lecompton men who stood shoulder to shoulder with me against the
Lecompton Constitution, but voted for the
English bill, now repudiate it and take the same ground that I do on that question.
So it is with the Joneses and others of
Pennsylvania, and so it is with every other Lecompton Democrat in the free States.
They now abandon even the
English bill, and come back to the true platform which I proclaimed at the time in the Senate, and upon which the Democracy of
Illinois now stand.
And yet, notwithstanding the fact, that every
Lecompton and anti-Lecompton Democrat in the free States has abandoned the
English bill, you are told that it is to be made a test upon me, while the power and patronage of the
Government are all exerted to elect men to Congress in the other States who occupy the same position with reference to it that I do. It, seems that my political offense consists in the fact that I first did not vote for the
English bill, and thus pledge myself to keep
Kansas out of the
Union until she has a population of 93,420, and then return home, violate that pledge, repudiate the bill, and take the opposite ground.
If I had done this, perhaps the Administration would now be advocating my re-election, as it is that of the others who have pursued this course.
I did not choose to give that pledge, for the reason that I did not intend to carry out that principle.
I never will consent, for the sake of conciliating the frowns of power, to pledge myself to do that which I do not intend to perform.
I now submit the question to you as my constituency, whether I was not right, first, in resisting the adoption of the
Lecompton Constitution ; and secondly, in resisting the
English bill.
I repeat, that I opposed the
Lecompton Constitution because it was not the act and deed of the people of
Kansas, and did not embody their will.
I denied the right of any power on earth, under our system of Government, to force a Constitution on an unwilling people.
There was a time when some men could pretend to believe that the
Lecompton Constitution embodied the will of the people of
Kansas, but that time has passed.
The question was referred to the people of
Kansas under the
English bill last August, and then, at a fair election, they rejected the
Lecompton Constitution by a vote of from eight to ten against it to one in its favor.
Since it has been voted down by so overwhelming a majority, no man can pretend that it was the act and deed of that people.
I submit the question to you whether or not, if it had not been for me, that Constitution would have been crammed down the throats of the people of
Kansas against their consent.
While at least ninety-nine
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put of every hundred people here present agree that.
I was right in defeating that project, yet my enemies use the fact that I did defeat it by doing right, to break me down and put another man in the
United States in my place.
The very men who acknowledge that I was right in defeating
Lecompton, now form an alliance with Federal office-holders, professed
Lecompton men, to defeat me, because I did right.
My political opponent,
Mr. Lincoln, has no hope on earth, and has never dreamed that he had a chance of success, were it not for the aid that he is receiving from Federal office-holders, who are using their influence and the patronage of the
Government against me in revenge for my having defeated the
Lecompton Constitution.
What do you Republicans think of a political organization that will try to make an unholy and unnatural combination with its professed foes to beat a man merely because he has done right?
You know such is the fact with regard to your own party.
You know that the ax of decapitation is suspended over every man in office in
Illinois, and the terror of proscription is threatened every Democrat by the present Administration, unless he supports the
Republican ticket in preference to my Democratic associates and myself: I could find an instance in the postmaster of the city of
Galesburgh, and in every other postmaster in this vicinity, all of whom have been stricken down simply because they discharged the duties of their offices honestly, and supported the regular Democratic ticket in this State in the right.
The Republican party is availing itself of every unworthy means in the present contest to carry the election, because its leaders know that if they let this chance slip they will never have another, and their hopes of making this a Republican State will be blasted forever.
Now, let me ask you whether the country has any interest in sustaining this organization, known as the Republican party.
That party is unlike all other political organizations in this country.
All other parties have been national in their character — have avowed their principles alike in the slave and free States, in
Kentucky as well as
Illinois, in
Louisiana as well as in
Massachusetts.
Such was the case with the old Whig party, and such was and is the case with the Democratic party.
Whigs and Democrats could proclaim their principles boldly and fearlessly in the
North and in the
South, in the
East and in the
West, wherever the
Constitution ruled and the
American flag waved over American soil.
But now you have a sectional organization, a party which appeals to the
Northern section of the
Union against the
Southern, a party which appeals to Northern passion, Northern pride, Northern ambition, and Northern prejudices, against Southern people, the
Southern States, and Southern institutions.
The leaders of that party hope that they will be able to unite the
Northern States in one great sectional party, and inasmuch as the
North is the strongest section, that they will thus be enabled to out vote, conquer, govern, and control the
South.
Hence you find that they now make speeches advocating principles and measures which cannot be defended in any slaveholding State of this Union.
Is there a Republican residing in
Galesburgh who can travel into
Kentucky and carry his principles with him across the
Ohio?
What Republican from
Massachusetts can visit the Old Dominion without leaving his principles behind him when he crosses
Mason and
Dixon's line?
Permit me to say to you in perfect good humor, but in all sincerity, that no political creed is sound which cannot be proclaimed fearlessly in every State of this Union where the
Federal Constitution is not the supreme law of the land.
Not only is this Republican party unable to proclaim its principles alike in the
North and in the
South, in the free States and in the slave States, but it cannot even proclaim them in the same forms, and give them the same strength and meaning in all parts of the same State.
My friend
Lincoln finds it extremely difficult to manage a debate in the center part of the
State, where there is a mixture of men from the
North and the
South.
In the extreme Northern part of
Illinois he can proclaim as bold and radical Abolitionism as ever
Giddings,
Lovejoy, or
Garrison enunciated, but when he gets down a little further South he claims that he is an old line Whig, a disciple of
Henry Clay, and declares that he still adheres to the old line Whig creed, and has nothing whatever to do with Abolitionism, or negro equality, or negro
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citizenship.
I once before hinted this of
Mr. Lincoln in a public speech, and at
Charleston he defied me to show that there was any difference between his speeches in the
North and in the
South, and that they were not in strict harmony.
I will now call your attention to two of them, and you can then say whether you would be apt to believe that the same man ever uttered both.
In a speech in reply to me at
Chicago in July last,
Mr. Lincoln, in speaking of the equality of the negro with the white man, used the following language:
I should like to know, if taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle, and making exceptions to it, where will it stop?
If one man says it does not mean a negro, why may not another man say it does not mean another man?
If the Declaration is not the truth, let us get the statute book in which we find it and tear it out. Who is so bold as to do it?
If it is not true, let us tear it out.
You find that
Mr. Lincoln there proposed that if the doctrine of the
Declaration of Independence, declaring all men to be born equal, did not include the negro and put him on an equality with the white man, that we should take the statute book and tear it out. He there took the ground that the negro race is included in the
Declaration of Independence as the equal of the white race, and that there could be no such thing as a distinction in the races, making one superior and the other inferior.
I read now from the same speech:
My friends [he says], I have detained you about as long as I desire to do, and I have only to say let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the other man-this race and that race and the other race being inferior, and therefore they must be placed in an inferior position, discarding our standard that we have left us. Let us discard all these things, and unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created equal.
[ “That's right,” etc.] Yes, I have no doubt that you think it is right, but the
Lincoln men down in
Coles,
Tazewell and
Sangamon counties do not think it is right.
In the conclusion of the same speech, talking to the
Chicago Abolitionists, he said: “I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will bum in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal.” [ “Good, good.” ] Well, you say good to that, and you are going to vote for
Lincoln because he holds that doctrine.
I will not blame you for supporting him on that ground, hut I will show you in immediate contrast with that doctrine, what
Mr. Lincoln said down in
Egypt in order to get votes in that locality where they do not hold to such a doctrine.
In a joint discussion between
Mr. Lincoln and myself, at
Charleston, I think, on the 18th of last month,
Mr. Lincoln, referring to this subject, used the following language:
I will say then, that I am not nor never have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races ; that I am not nor never have been in favor of making voters of the free negroes.
or jurors, or qualifying them to hold office, or having them to marry with white people.
I will say in addition, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races, which, I suppose, will forever forbid the two races living together upon terms of social and political equality, and inasmuch as they cannot so live, that while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior and inferior, that I as much as any other man am in favor of the superior position being assigned to the white man.
[ “Good for
Lincoln.” ] Fellow-citizens, here you find men hurraing for
Lincoln and saying that he did right, when in one part of the
State he stood up for negro equality, and in another part for political effect, discarded the doctrine and declared that there always must be a superior and inferior race.
Abolitionists up north are expected and required to vote for
Lincoln because he goes for the equality of the races, holding that by the
Declaration of Independence the white man and the negro
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were created equal, and endowed by the Divine law with that equality, and down south he tells the old Whigs, the Kentuckians,
Virginians, and Tennesseeans, that there is a physical difference in the races, making one superior and the other inferior, and that he is in favor of maintaining the superiority of the white race over the negro.
Now, how can you reconcile those two positions of
Mr. Lincoln?
He is to be voted for in the south as a pro-slavery man, and he is to be voted for in the north as an Abolitionist.
Up here he thinks it is all nonsense to talk about a difference between the races, and says that we must “discard all quibbling about this race and that race and the other race being inferior, and therefore they must be placed in an inferior position.”
Down south he makes this “quibble” about this race and that race end the other race being inferior as the creed of his party, and declares that the negro can never be elevated to the position of the white man. You find that his political meetings are called by different names in different counties in the
State.
Here they are called Republican meetings, but in old
Tazewell, where
Lincoln made a speech last
Tuesday, he did not address
a Republican meeting, but “a grand rally of the
Lincoln men.”
There are very few Republicans there, because
Tazewell county is filled with old
Virginians and Kentuckians, all of whom are Whigs or Democrats, and if
Mr. Lincoln had called an Abolition or Republican meeting there, he would not get many votes.
Go down into
Egypt and you find that he and his party are operating under an alias there, which his friend
Trumbull has given them, in order that they may cheat the people.
When I was down in
Monroe county a few weeks ago addressing the people, I saw handbills posted announcing that
Mr. Trumbull was going to speak in behalf of
Lincoln, and what do you think the name of his party was there?
Why the “
Free Democracy.”
Mr. Trumbull and
Mr. Jehu Baker were announced to address the
Free Democracy of
Monroe county, and the bill was signed “Many free Democrats.”
The reason that
Lincoln and his party adopted the name of “Free Democracy” down there was because
Monroe county has always been an old-fashioned Democratic county, and hence it was necessary to make the people believe that they were Democrats, sympathized with them, and were fighting for
Lincoln as Democrats.
Come up to
Springfield, where
Lincoln now lives and always has lived, and you find that the
Convention of his party which assembled to nominate candidates for Legislature, who are expected to vote for him if elected, dare not adopt the name of Republican, but assembled under the title of “all opposed to the Democracy.”
Thus you find that
Mr. Lincoln's creed cannot travel through even one half of the counties of this State, but that it changes its hues and becomes lighter and lighter, as it travels from the extreme north, until it is nearly white, when it reaches the extreme south end of the
State.
I ask you, my friends, why cannot Republicans avow their principles alike every where?
I would despise myself if I thought that I was procuring your votes by concealing my opinions, and by avowing one set of principles in one part of the
State, and a different set in another part.
If I do not truly and honorably represent your feelings and principles, then I ought not to be your
Senator ; and I will never conceal my opinions, or modify or change them a hair's breadth in order to get votes.
I tell you that this
Chicago doctrine of
Lincoln's — declaring that the negro and the white man are made equal by the
Declaration of Independence and by Divine Providence--is a monstrous heresy.
The signers of the
Declaration of Independence never dreamed of the negro when they were writing that document.
They referred to white men, to men of
European birth and
European descent, when they declared the equality of all men. I see a gentleman there in the crowd shaking his head.
Let me remind him that when
Thomas Jefferson wrote that document, he was the owner, and so continued until his death, of a large number of slaves.
Did he intend to say in that Declaration, that his negro slaves, which he held and treated as property, were created his equals by Divine law, and that, he was violating the law of God every day of his life by holding them as slaves?
It must be borne in mind that when that Declaration was put forth, every one of the thirteen Colonies were slaveholding Colonies, and every man who signed that instrument represented a slave
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holding constituency.
Recollect, also, that no one of them emancipated his slaves, much less put them on an equality with himself, after he signed the Declaration.
On the contrary, they all continued to hold their negroes as slaves during the revolutionary war. Now, do you believe — are you willing to have it said — that every man who signed the
Declaration of Independence declared the negro his equal, and then was hypocrite enough to continue to hold him as a slave, in violation of what he believed to be the Divine law?
And yet when you say that the
Declaration of Independence includes the negro, you charge the signers of it with hypocrisy.
I say to you, frankly, that in my opinion, this Government was made by our fathers on the white basis.
It was made by white men for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever, and was intended to be administered by white men in all time to come.
But while I hold that under our Constitution and political system the negro is not a citizen, cannot be a citizen, and ought not to be a citizen, it does not follow by any means that he should be a slave.
On the contrary it does follow that the negro, as an inferior race, ought to possess every right, every privilege, every immunity which he can safely exercise consistent with the safety of the society in which he lives.
Humanity requires, and Christianity commands, that you shall extend to every inferior being, and every dependent being, all the privileges, immunities and advantages which can be granted to them consistent with the safety of society.
If you ask me the nature and extent of these privileges, I answer that that is a question which the people of each State must decide for themselves.
Illinois has decided that question for herself.
We have said that in this State the negro shall not be a slave, nor shall he be a citizen.
Kentucky holds a different doctrine.
New York holds one different from either, and
Maine one different from all.
Virginia, in her policy on this question, differs in many respects from the others, and so on, until there is hardly two States whose policy is exactly alike in regard to the relation of the white man and the negro.
Nor can you reconcile them and make them alike.
Each State must do as it pleases.
Illinois had as much right to adopt the policy which we have on that subject as
Kentucky had to adopt a different policy.
The great principle of this Government is, that each State has the right to do as it pleases on all these questions, and no other State, or power on earth has the right to interfere with us, or complain of us merely because our system differs from theirs.
In the
Compromise Measures of 1850,
Mr. Clay declared that this great principle ought to exist in the
Territories — as well as in the States, and I reasserted his doctrine in the
Kansas and
Nebraska bill in 1854.
But
Mr. Lincoln cannot be made to understand, and those who are determined to vote for him, no matter whether he is a pro-slavery man in the south and a negro equality advocate in the north, cannot be made to understand how it is that in a Territory the people can do as they please on the slavery question under the
Dred Scott decision.
Let us see whether I cannot explain it to the satisfaction of all impartial men.
Chief Justice Taney has said in his opinion in the
Dred Scott case, that a negro slave being property, stands on an equal footing with other property, and that the owner may carry them into
United States territory the same as he does other property.
Suppose any two of you, neighbors, should conclude to go to
Kansas, one carrying $100,000 worth of negro slaves and the other $100,000 worth of mixed merchandise, including quantities of liquors.
You both agree that under that decision you may carry your property to
Kansas, but when you get it there, the merchant who is possessed of the liquors is met by the
Maine liquor law, which prohibits the sale or use of his property, and the owner of the slaves is met by equally unfriendly legislation, which makes his property worthless after he gets it there.
What is the right to carry your property into the
Territory worth to either, when unfriendly legislation in the
Territory renders it worthless after you get it there?
The slaveholder when he gets his slaves there finds that there is no local law to protect him in holding them no slave code, no police regulation maintaining and supporting him in his right, and he discovers at once that the absence of such friendly legislation excludes his property from the
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Territory, just as irresistibly as if there was a positive Constitutional prohibition excluding it. Thus you find it is with any kind of property in a Territory, it depends for its protection on the local and municipal law. If the people of a Territory want slavery, they make friendly legislation to introduce it, but if they do not want it, they withhold all protection from it, and then it cannot exist there.
Such was the view taken on the subject by different Southern men when the
Nebraska bill passed, See the speech of
Mr. Orr of
South Carolina, the present Speaker of the House of Representatives of Congress, made at that time, and there you will find this whole doctrine argued out at full length.
Read the speeches of other Southern Congressmen,
Senators and Representatives, made in 1654, and you will find that they took the same view of the subject as
Mr. Orr--that slavery could never be forced on a people who did not want it. I hold that in this country there is no power on the face of the globe that can force any institution on an unwilling people.
The great fundamental principle of our Government is that the people of each State and each Territory shall be left perfectly free to decide for themselves what shall be the nature and character of their institutions.
When this Government was made, it was based on that principle.
At the time of its formation there were twelve slaveholding States and one free State in this Union.
Suppose this doctrine of
Mr. Lincoln and the Republicans, of uniformity of laws of all the States on the subject of slavery, had prevailed ; suppose
Mr. Lincoln himself bad been a member of the
Convention which framed the
Constitution, and that he had risen in that august body, and addressing the father of his country, had said as he did at
Springfield:
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
I believe this Government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.
I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided.
It will become all one thing or all the other.
What do you think would have been the result?
Suppose he had made that Convention believe that doctrine and they had acted upon it, what do you think would have been the result?
Do you believe that the one free State would have outvoted the twelve slaveholding States, and thus abolish slavery?
On the contrary, would not the twelve slaveholding States have outvoted the one free State, and under his doctrine have fastened slavery by an irrevocable Constitutional provision upon every inch of the
American Republic?
Thus you see that the doctrine he now advocates, if proclaimed at the beginning of the
Government, would hare established slavery every where throughout the
American continent, and are you willing, now that we have the majority section, to exercise a power which we never would have submitted to when we were in the minority?
If the
Southern States had attempted to control our institutions, and make the States all slave when they bad the power, I ask would you have submitted to it?
If you would not, are you willing now, that we have become the strongest under that great principle of self-government that allows each State to do as it pleases, to attempt to control the
Southern institutions?
Then, my friends, I say to you that there is but one path of peace in this Republic, and that is to administer this Government as our fathers made it, divided into free and slave States, allowing each State to decide for itself whether it wants slavery or not. If
Illinois will settle the slavery question for herself.
and mind her own business and let her neighbors alone, we will be at peace with
Kentucky, and every other Southern State.
If every other State in the
Union will do the same there will be peace between the
North and the
South, and in the whole Union.
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My Fellow-Citizens : A very large portion of the speech which
Judge Douglas has addressed to you has previously been delivered and put in print.
I do not mean that, for a hit upon the
Judge at all. If I had not been interrupted, I was going to say that such an answer as I was able to make to a very large portion of it, had already been more than once made and published.
There has been an opportunity afforded to the public to see our respective views upon the topics discussed in a large portion of the speech which he has just delivered.
I make these remarks for the purpose of excusing myself for not passing over the entire ground that the
Judge has traversed.
I however desire to take up some of the points that he has attended to, and ask your attention to them, and I shall follow him backwards upon some notes which I have taken, reversing the order by beginning where he concluded.
The
Judge has alluded to the
Declaration of Independence, and insisted that negroes are not included in that Declaration ; and that it is a slander upon the framers of that instrument, to suppose that negroes were meant therein ; and he asks you : Is it possible to believe that
Mr. Jefferson, who penned the immortal paper, could have supposed himself applying the language of that instrument to the negro race, and yet held a portion of that race in slavery?
Would he not at once have freed them?
I only have to remark upon this part of the
Judge's speech (and that, too, very briefly, for I shall not detain myself, or you, upon that point for any great length of time), that I believe the entire records of the world, from the date of the
Declaration of Independence up to within three years ago, may be searched in vain for one single affirmation, from one single man, that the negro was not included in the
Declaration of Independence; I think I may defy
Judge Douglas to show that he ever said so, that
Washington ever said so, that any
President ever said so, that any member of Congress ever said so, or that any living man upon the whole earth ever said so, until the necessities of the present policy of the Democratic party, in regard to slavery, had to invent that affirmation.
And I will remind
Judge Douglas and this audience, that while
Mr. Jefferson was the owner of slaves, as undoubtedly he was, in speaking upon this very subject, he used the strong language that “he trembled for his country when he remembered that God was just;” and I will offer the highest premium in my power to
Judge Douglas if he will show that he, in all his life, ever uttered a sentiment at all akin to that of
Jefferson.
The next thing to which I will ask your attention is the
Judge's comments upon the fact, as he assumes it to be, that we cannot call our public meetings as Republican meetings ; and he instances
Tazewell county as one of the places where the friends of
Lincoln have called a public meeting and have not dared to name it a Republican meeting.
He instances
Monroe county as another where
Judge Trumbull and Jehu Raker addressed the persons whom the
Judge assumes to be the friends of
Lincoln, calling them the “Free Democracy.”
I have the honor to inform
Judge Douglas that he spoke in that very county of
Tazewell last Saturday, and I was there on Tuesday last, and when he spoke there he spoke under a call not venturing to use the word “Democrat.”
[Turning to
Judge Douglas.] What think you of this?
So again, there is another thing to which I would ask the
Judge's attention upon this subject.
In the contest of 1856 his party delighted to call themselves together as the “National Democracy,” but now, if there should be a notice put up any where for a meeting of the “National Democracy,”
Judge Douglas and his friends would not come.
They would not suppose themselves invited.
They would understand that it was a call for those hateful postmasters whom he talks about.
Now a few words in regard to these extracts from speeches of mine, which
Judge Douglas has read to you, and which he supposes are in very great contrast to
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each other.
Those speeches have been before the public for a considerable time, and if they have any inconsistency in them, if there is any conflict in them, the public have been able to detect it. When the
Judge says, in speaking on this subject, that I make speeches of one sort for the people of the northern end of the
State, and of a different sort for the southern people, he assumes that I do not understand that my speeches will be put in print and read north and south.
I knew all the while that the speech that I made at
Chicago, and the one I made at
Jonesboro and the one at
Charleston, would all be put in print and all the reading and intelligent men in the community would see them and know all about my opinions.
And I have not supposed, and do not now suppose, that there is any conflict whatever between them.
But the
Judge will have it that if we do not confess that there is a sort of inequality between the
white and
black races, which justifies us in making them slaves, we must, then, insist that there is a degree of equality that requires us to make them our wives.
Now, I have all the while taken a broad distinction in regard to that matter ; and that is all there is in these different speeches which he arrays here, and the entire reading of either of the speeches will show that that distinction was made.
Perhaps by taking two parts of the same speech, he could have got up as much of a conflict as the one he has found.
I have all the while maintained, that in so far as it should be insisted that there was an equality between the
white and
black races that should produce a perfect social and political equality, it was an impossibility.
This you have seen in my printed speeches, and with it I have said, that in their right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” as proclaimed in that old Declaration, the inferior races are our equals.
And these declarations I have constantly made in reference to the abstract moral question, to contemplate and consider when we are legislating about any new country which is not already cursed with the actual presence of the evil-slavery.
I have never manifested any impatience with the necessities that spring from the actual presence of black people amongst us, and the actual existence of slavery amongst us where it does already exist ; but I have insisted that, in legislating for new countries, where it does not exist, there is no just rule other than that of moral and abstract right!
With reference to those new countries, those maxims as to the right of a people to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” were the just rules to be constantly referred to. There is no misunderstanding this, except by men interested to misunderstand it. I take it that I have to address an intelligent and reading community, who will peruse what I say, weigh it, and then judge whether I advance improper or unsound views, or whether I advance hypocritical, and deceptive, and contrary views in different portions of the country.
I believe myself to be guilty of no such thing as the latter, though, of course, I cannot claim that I am entirely free from all error in the opinions I advance.
The
Judge has also detained us awhile in regard to the distinction between his party and our party.
His he assumes to be a national party-ours a sectional one.
He does this in asking the question whether this country has any interest in the maintenance of the Republican party?
He assumes that our party is altogether sectional ---that the party to which he adheres is national; and the argument is, that no party can be a rightful party-can be based upon rightful principles-unless it can announce its principles every where.
I presume that
Judge Douglas could not go into
Russia and announce the doctrine of our national Democracy; he could not denounce the doctrine of kings and emperors and monarchies in
Russia; and it may be true of this country, that in some places we may not be able to proclaim a doctrine as clearly true as the truth of Democracy, because there is a section so directly opposed to it that they will not tolerate us in doing so. Is it the true test of the soundness of a doctrine, that in some places people won't let you proclaim it?
Is that the way to test the truth of any doctrine?
Why, I understood that at one time the people of
Chicago would not let
Judge Douglas preach a certain favorite doctrine of his. I commend to his consideration the question, whether he takes that as a test of the unsoundness of what he wanted to preach.
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There is another thing to which I wish to ask attention for a little while on this occasion.
What has always been the evidence brought forward to prove that the Republican party is a sectional party?
The main one was that in the
Southern portion of the
Union the people did not let the Republicans proclaim their doctrines amongst them.
That has been the main evidence brought forward — that they had no supporters, or substantially none, in the slave
Stales.
The South have not taken hold of our principles as we announce them; nor does
Judge Douglas now grapple with those principles.
We have a Republican State Platform, laid down in
Springfield; in June last, stating our position all the way through the questions before the country.
We are now far advanced in this canvass.
Judge Douglas and I have made perhaps forty speeches apiece, and we have now for the fifth time met face to face in debate, and up to this day I have not found either
Judge Douglas or any friend of his taking hold of the
Republican platform or laying his finger upon anything in it that is wrong.
I ask you all to recollect that.
Judge Douglas turns away from the platform of principles to the fact that he can find people somewhere who the not allow us to announce those principles.
If be had great confidence that our principles were wrong, he would the hold of them and demonstrate them to be wrong.
But he does not do so. The only evidence he has of their being wrong is in the fact that there are people who wont allow us to preach them.
I ask again is that the way to test the soundness of a doctrine?
I ask his attention also to the fact that by the rule of nationality he is himself fast becoming sectional.
I ask his attention to the fact that his speeches would not go as current now south of the
Ohio river as they have formerly gone there.
I ask his attention to the fact that he felicitates himself to-day that all the Democrats of the free States are agreeing with him, while he omits to tell us that the Democrats of any slave State agree with him. If he has not thought of this, I commend to his consideration the evidence in his own declaration, on this day, of his becoming sectional too. I see it rapidly approaching.
Whatever may be the result of this ephemeral contest between
Judge Douglas and myself, I see the day rapidly approaching when his pill of sectionalism, which he has been thrusting down the throats of Republicans for years past, will be crowded down his own throat.
How in regard to what
Judge Douglas said (in the beginning of his speech) about the Compromise of 1850, containing the principle of the
Nebraska bill, although I have often presented my views upon that subject, yet as I have not done so in this canvass, I will, if you please, detain you a little with them.
I have always maintained, so far as I was able, that there was nothing of the principle of the
Nebraska bill in the Compromise of 1850 at all-nothing whatever.
Where can you find the principle of the
Nebraska bill in that Compromise?
If any where, in the two piece of the Compromise organizing the
Territories of
New Mexico and
Utah.
It was expressly provided in these two acts, that, when they came to be admitted into the
Union, they should be admitted with or without slavery, as they should choose, by their own Constitutions.
Nothing was said in either of those acts as to what was to be done in relation to slavery during the territorial existence of those Territories, while
Henry Clay constantly made the declaration (
Judge Douglas recognizing him as a leader) that, in his opinion, the old
Mexican laws would control that question during the territorial existence, and that these old
Mexican laws excluded slavery.
How can that be used as a principle for declaring that during the territorial existence as well as at the time of framing the
Constitution, the people, if you please, might have slaves if they wanted them?
I am not discussing the question whether It is right or wrong ; but bow are the New Mexican and
Utah laws patterns for the
Nebraska bill?
I maintain that the organization of
Utah and
New Mexico did not establish a
general principle at all. It had no feature of establishing a
general principle.
The acts to which I have referred were a part of a general system of Compromises.
They did not lay down what was proposed as a regular policy for the
Territories ; only an agreement in this particular case to do in that way, because other things were done that were to be a compensation for it. They were allowed
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to come in in that shape, because in another way it was paid for-considering that as a part of that system of measures called the Compromise of 1850, which finally included half a dozen acts.
It included the admission of
California as a free State, which was kept out of the
Union for half a year because it had formed a free Constitution.
It included the settlement of the boundary of
Texas, which had been undefined before, which was in itself a slavery question : for, if you pushed the line farther west, you made
Texas larger, and made more slave Territory ; while, if you drew the line toward the east, you narrowed the boundary and diminished the domain of slavery, and by so much increased free Territory.
It included the abolition of the slave-trade in the District of Columbia.
It included the passage of a new Fugitive Slave law. All these things were put together, and though passed in separate acts, were nevertheless in legislation (as the speeches at the time will show), made to depend upon each other.
Each got votes, with the understanding that the other measures were to pass, and by this system of Compromise, in that series of measures, those two bills --the
New Mexico and
Utah bills — were passed; and I say for that reason they could not be taken as models, framed upon their own intrinsic principle, for all future Territories.
And I have the evidence of this in the fact that
Judge Douglas, a year afterward, or more than a year afterward, perhaps, when he first introduced bills for the purpose of framing new Territories, did not attempt to follow these bills of
New Mexico and
Utah ; and even when he introduced this
Nebraska bill, I think you will discover that he did not exactly follow them.
But I do not wish to dwell at great length upon this branch of the discussion.
My own opinion is, that a thorough investigation will show most plainly that the
New Mexico and
Utah bills were part of a system of Compromise, and not designed as patterns for future territorial legislation ; and that this
Nebraska bill did not follow them as a pattern at all.
The
Judge tells, in proceeding, that he is opposed to making any odious distinctions between free and slave States.
I am altogether unaware that the Republicans are in favor of making any odious distinctions between the free and slave States.
But there still is a difference I think, between
Judge Douglas and the Republicans in this.
I suppose that the real difference between
Judge Douglas and his friends, and the Republicans on the contrary, is, that the
Judge is not in favor of making any difference between slavery and liberty — that he is in favor of eradicating, of pressing out of view, the questions of preference in this country for free or slave institutions; and consequently every sentiment he utters discards the idea that there is any wrong in slavery.
Every thing that emanates from him or his coadjutors in their course of policy, carefully excludes the thought that there is any thing wrong in slavery.
All their arguments, if you will consider them, will be seen to exclude the thought that there is any thing whatever wrong in slavery.
If you will take the
Judge's speeches, and select the short and pointed sentences expressed by him — as his declaration that he “don't care whether slavery is voted up or down” --you will see at once that this is perfectly logical, if you do not admit that slavery is wrong.
If you do admit that it is wrong,
Judge Douglas cannot logically say he don't care whether a wrong is voted up or voted down.
Judge Douglas declares that if any community want slavery they have a right to have it. He can say that logically, if he says that there is no wrong in slavery ; but if you admit that there is a wrong in it, he cannot logically say that any body has a right to do wrong.
He insists that, upon the score of equality, the owners of slaves and owners of property — of horses and every other sort of property — should be alike and hold them alike in a new Territory.
That is perfectly logical, if the two species of property are alike and are equally founded in right.
But if you admit that one of them is wrong, you cannot institute any equality between right and wrong.
And from this difference of sentiment — the belief on the part of one that the institution is wrong, and a policy springing from that belief which looks to the arrest of the enlargement of that wrong; and this other sentiment, that it is no wrong, and a policy sprung from that sentiment which will tolerate no idea of preventing that wrong from growing larger, and looks to there never being an end of it through all the existence of things,--arises the real difference
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between
Judge Douglas and his friends on the one hand, and the Republicans on the other.
Now, I confess myself as belonging to that class in the country who contemplate slavery as a moral, social and political evil, having due regard for its actual existence amongst us and the difficulties of getting rid of it in any satisfactory way, and to all the Constitutional obligations which have been thrown about it; but, nevertheless, desire a policy that looks to the prevention of it as a wrong, and looks hopefully to the time when as a wrong it may come to an end.
Judge Douglas has again, for, I believe, the fifth time, if not the seventh, in my presence: reiterated his charge of a conspiracy or combination between the
National Democrats and Republicans.
What evidence
Judge Douglas has upon this subject I know not, inasmuch as he never favors us with any. I have said upon a former occasion, and I do not choose to suppress it now, that I have no objection to the division in the
Judge's party.
He got it up himself.
It was all his and their work.
He had, I think, a great deal more to do with the steps that led to the
Lecompton Constitution than
Mr. Buchanan had ; though at last, when they reached it, they quarreled over it, and their friends divided upon it. I am very free to confess to
Judge Douglas that I have no objection to the division ; but I defy the
Judge to show any evidence that I have in any way promoted that division, unless he insists on being a witness himself in merely saying so. I can give all fair friends of
Judge Douglas here to understand exactly the view that Republicans take in regard to that division.
Dont you remember how two years ago the opponents of the Democratic party were divided between
Fremont and
Fillmore?
I guess you do. Any Democrat who remembers that division, will remember also that he was at the time very glad of it, and then he will be able to see all there is between the
National Democrats and the Republicans.
What we now think of the two divisions of Democrats, you then thought of the Fremont and Fillmore divisions.
That is all there is of it.
But, if the
Judge continues to put forward the declaration that there is an unholy and unnatural alliance between the
Republican and the
National Democrats, I now want to enter my protest against receiving him as an entirely competent witness upon that subject.
I want to call to the
Judge's attention an attack he made upon me in the first one of these debates, at
Ottawa, on the 21st of August.
In order to fix extreme Abolitionism upon me,
Judge Douglas read a set of resolutions which he declared had been passed by a Republican State Convention, in October, 1854, at
Springfield, Illinois, and he declared I had taken part in that Convention.
It turned out that although a few men calling themselves an anti-
Nebraska State Convention had sat at
Springfield about that time, yet neither did I take any part in it, nor did it pass the resolutions or any such resolutions as
Judge Douglas read.
So apparent had it become that the resolutions which he read had not been passed at
Springfield at all, nor by a State Convention in which I had taken part, that seven days afterward, at
Freeport,
Judge Douglas declared that he had been misled by
Charles H. Lanphier, editor of the
State Register, and
Thomas L. Harris, member of Congress — in that District, and he promised in that speech that when he went to
Springfield he would investigate the matter.
Since then
Judge Douglas has been to
Springfield, and I presume has made the investigation; but a month has passed since he has been there, and so far as I know, he has made no report of the result of his investigation.
I have waited as I think sufficient time for the report of that investigation, and I have some curiosity to see and hear it. A fraud — an absolute forgery was committed, and the perpetration of it was traced to the three--
Lanphier,
Harris and
Douglas.
Whether it can be narrowed in any way so
as to exonerate any one of them, is what
Judge Douglas's report would probably show.
It is true that the set of resolutions read by
Judge Douglas were published in the Illinois
State Register on the 16th of October, 1854, as being the resolutions of an anti-
Nebraska Convention, which had sat in that same month of October, at
Springfield.
Rut it is also true that the publication in the
Register was a forgery then, and the question is still behind, which of the three, if not all of them, committed that
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forgery?
The idea that it was done by mistake, is absurd.
The article in the Illinois
State Register contains part of the real proceedings of that Springfield Convention, showing that the writer of the article had the real proceedings before him, and purposely threw out the genuine resolutions passed by the
Convention, and fraudulently substituted the others.
Lanphier then, as now, was the editor of the
Register, so that there seems to be but little room for his escape.
But then it is to be borne in mind that
Lanphier had less interest in the object of that forgery than either of the other two.
The main object of that forgery at that time was to beat
Yates and elect
Harris to Congress, and that object was known to be exceedingly.
dear to
Judge Douglas at that time.
Harris and
Douglas were both in
Springfield when the
Convention was in session, and although they both left before the fraud appeared in the
Register, subsequent events show that they have both had their eyes fixed upon that Convention.
The fraud having been apparently successful upon the occasion, both
Harris and
Douglas have more than once since then been attempting to put it to new uses.
As the fisherman's wife, whose drowned husband was brought home with his body full of eels, said when she was asked, “What was to be done with him?”
“Take
the eels out and set him again ;” so
Harris and
Douglas have shown a disposition to take the eels out of that stale fraud by which they gained
Harris's election, and set the fraud again more than once.
On the 9th of July, 1856,
Douglas attempted a repetition of it upon
Trumbull on the floor of the Senate of the United States, as will appear from the appendix of the
Congressional Globe of that date.
On the 9th of August,
Harris attempted it again upon
Norton in the House of Representatives, as will appear by the same documents — the appendix to the
Congressional Globe of that date.
On the 21st of August last, all three--
Lanphier,
Douglas and
Harris — reattempted it upon me at
Ottawa.
It has been clung to and played out again and again as an exceedingly high trump by this blessed trio.
And now that it has been discovered publicly to be a fraud, we find that
Judge Douglas manifests no surprise at it at all. He makes no complaint of
Lanphier, who must have known it to be a fraud from the beginning He,
Lanphier and
Harris, are just as cozy now, and just as active in the concoction of new schemes as they were before the general discovery of this fraud.
Now all this is very natural if they are all alike guilty in that fraud, and it is very unnatural if any one of them is innocent.
Lanphier perhaps insists that the rule of honor among thieves does not quite require him to take all upon himself, and consequently my friend
Judge Douglas finds it difficult to make a satisfactory report upon his investigation.
But meanwhile the three are agreed that each is “
a most honorable man.”
Judge Douglas requires an indorsement of his truth and honor by a re-election to the United States Senate, and he makes and reports against me and against
Judge Trumbull day after day, charges which we know to be utterly untrue, without for a moment seeming to think that this one unexplained fraud, which he promised to investigate will be the least drawback to his claim to belief.
Harris ditto.
He asks a re-election to the lower House of Congress without seeming to remember at all that he is involved in this dishonorable fraud!
The Illinois
State Register, edited by
Lanphier, then, as now, the central organ of both
Harris and
Douglas, continues to din the public ear with this assertion without seeming to suspect that these assertions arc at all lacking in title to belief.
After all, the question still recurs upon us, how did that fraud originally get into the
State Register?
Lanphier then, as now, was the editor of that paper.
Lanphier knows.
Lanphier cannot be ignorant of how and by whom it was originally concocted.
Can he be induced to tell, or if he has told, can
Judge Douglas be induced to tell how it originally was concocted?
It may be true that
Lanphier insists that
the two men for whose benefit it was originally devised, shall at least bear their share of it!
How that is, I do not know, and while it remains unexplained, I hope to be pardoned if I insist, that the mere fact of
Judge Douglas making charges against
Trumbull and myself is not quite sufficient evidence to establish them!
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While we were at
Freeport, in one of these joint discussions, I answered certain interrogatories which
Judge Douglas had propounded to me, and there in turn propounded some to him, which he in a sort of way answered.
The third one of these interrogatories I have with me and wish now to make some comments upon it. It was in these words: “If the Supreme Court of the
United States shall decide that the States cannot exclude slavery from their limits, are you in favor of acquiescing in, adhering to and following such decision, as a rule of political action?”
To this interrogatory
Judge Douglas made no answer in any just sense of the word.
He contented himself with sneering at the thought that it was possible for the Supreme Court ever to make such a decision.
He sneered at me for propounding the interrogatory.
I had not propounded it without some reflection, and I wish now to address to this audience some remarks upon it.
In the second clause of the sixth article, I believe it is, of the
Constitution of the United States, we find the following language: “This Constitution and the laws of the
United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof ; and all treaties made, or which shall be made under the authority of the
United States, shall be the supreme law of the land ; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any thing in the
Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.”
The essence of the
Dred Scott case is compressed into the sentence which I will now read: “Now, as we have already said in an earlier part of this opinion, upon a different point, the right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the
Constitution.”
I repeat it, “
The right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution!”
What is it to be “
affirmed” in the
Constitution?
Made firm in the Constitution-so made that it cannot be separated from the
Constitution without breaking the Constitution-durable as the
Constitution, and part of the
Constitution.
Now, remembering the provision of the
Constitution which I have read, affirming that that instrument is the supreme law of the land; that the
Judges of every State shall be bound by it, any law or Constitution of any State to the contrary notwithstanding ; that the right of property in a slave is affirmed in that Constitution, is made, formed into, and cannot be separated from it without breaking it ; durable as the instrument; part of the instrument ;--what follows as a short and even syllogistic argument from it?
I think it follows, and I submit to the consideration of men capable of arguing, whether as I state it, in syllogistic form, the argument has any fault in it?
Nothing in the
Constitution or laws of any State can destroy a right distinctly and expressly affirmed in the
Constitution of the United States.
The right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the
Constitution of the United States.
Therefore, nothing in the
Constitution or laws of any State can destroy the right of property in a slave.
I believe that no fault can be pointed out in that argument; assuming the truth of the premises, the conclusion, so far as I have capacity at all to understand it, follows inevitably.
There is a fault in it as I think, but the fault is not in the reasoning but the falsehood in fact is a fault of the premises.
I believe that the right of property in a slave
is not distinctly and expressly affirmed in the
Constitution, and
Judge Douglas thinks it is. I believe that the Supreme Court and the advocates of that decision may search in vain for the place in the
Constitution where the right of a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed.
I say, therefore, that I think one of the premises is not true in fact.
But it is true with
Judge Douglas.
It is true with the Supreme Court who pronounced it. They are estopped from denying it, and being estopped from denying it, the conclusion follows that the
Constitution of the United States being the supreme law, no constitution or law can interfere with it. It being affirmed in the decision that the right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the
Constitution, the conclusion inevitably follows that no State law or constitution can destroy that right.
I then say to
Judge Douglas and to all others, that I think it will take a better answer than a sneer to show that those
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who have said that the right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the
Constitution, arc not prepared to show that no constitution or law can destroy that right.
I say I believe it will take a far better argument than a mere sneer to show to the minds of intelligent men that whoever has so said, is not prepared, whenever public sentiment is so far advanced as to justify it, to say the other.
This is but an opinion, and the opinion of one very humble man; but it is my opinion that the
Dred Scott decision, as it is, never would have been made in its present form if the party that made it had not been sustained previously by the elections.
My own opinion is, that the new
Dred Scott decision, deciding against the right of the people of the States to exclude slavery, will never be made, if that party is not sustained by the elections.
I believe, further, that it is just as sure to be made as to-morrow is to come, if that party shall be sustained.
I have said, upon a former occasion, and I repeat it now, that the course of argument that
Judge Douglas makes use of upon this subject (I charge not his motives in this), is preparing the public mind for that new
Dred Scott decision.
I have asked him again to point out to me the reasons for his first adherence to the
Dred Scott decision as it is. I have turned his attention to the fact that
General Jackson differed with him in regard to the political obligation of a Supreme Court decision.
I have asked his attention to the fact that
Jefferson differed with him in regard to the political obligation of a Supreme Court decision.
Jefferson said, that “Judges are as honest as other men?
and not more so.”
And he said, substantially, that “whenever a free people should give up in absolute submission to any department of government, retaining for themselves no appeal from it, their liberties were gone.”
I have asked his attention to the fact that the
Cincinnati platform, upon which he says he stands, disregards a time-honored decision of the Supreme Court, in denying the power of Congress to establish a National Bank.
I have asked his attention to the fact that he himself was one of the most active instruments at one time in breaking down the Supreme Court of the
State of Illinois, because it had made a decision distasteful to him — a struggle ending in the remarkable circumstance of his sitting down as one of the new Judges who were to overslaugh that decision-getting his title of
Judge in that very way.
So far in this controversy I can get no answer at all from
Judge Douglas upon these subjects.
Not one can I get from him, except that he swells himself up and says, “All of us who stand by the decision of the Supreme Court are the friends of the
Constitution; all you fellows that dare question it in any way, are the enemies of the
Constitution.”
Now, in this very devoted adherence to this decision, in opposition to all the great political leaders whom he has recognized as leaders-in opposition to his former self and history, there is something very marked.
And the manner in which he adheres to it — not as being right upon the merits, as he conceives (because he did not discuss that at all), but as being absolutely obligatory upon every one simply because of the source from whence it comes — as that which no man can gainsay, whatever it may be-this is another marked feature of his adherence to that decision.
It marks it in this respect, that it commits him to the next decision, whenever it comes, as being as obligatory as this one, since he does not investigate it, and wont inquire whether this opinion is right or wrong.
So ho takes the next one without inquiring whether it is right or wrong.
He teaches men this doctrine, and in so doing prepares the public mind to take the next decision when it comes, without any inquiry.
In this I think I argue fairly (without questioning motives at all), that
Judge Douglas is most ingeniously and powerfully preparing the public mind to take that decision when it comes; and not only so, but he is doing it in various other ways.
In these general maxims about liberty — in his assertions that he “dont care whether slavery is voted up or voted down;” that “whoever wants slavery has a right to have it;” that “upon principles of equality it should be allowed to go every where;” that “there is no inconsistency between free and slave institutions.”
In this he is also preparing (whether purposely or not) the way for making the institution of slavery national!
I repeat again, for I wish no
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misunderstanding, that I do not charge that he means it so; but I call upon your minds to inquire, if you were going to get the best instrument you could, and then set it to work in the most ingenious way, to prepare the public mind for this movement, operating in the free States, where there is now an abhorrence of the institution of slavery, could you find an instrument so capable of doing it as
Judge Douglas?
or one employed in so apt a way to do it?
I have said once before, and I will repeat it now, that
Mr. Clay, when he was once answering an objection to the Colonization Society, that it had a tendency to the ultimate emancipation of the slaves, said that “those who would repress all tendencies to liberty and ultimate emancipation must do more than put down the benevolent, efforts of the Colonization Society--they must go back to the era of our liberty and independence, and muzzle the cannon that thunders its annual joyous returnthey must.
blot out the moral lights around us — they must penetrate the human soul, and eradicate the light of reason and the love of liberty!”
And I do think — I repeat though I said it on a former occasion — that
Judge Douglas and whoever like him teaches that the negro has no share, humble though it may be, in the
Declaration of Independence, is going back to the era of our liberty and independence and, so far as in him lies, muzzling the cannon that thunders its annual joyous return ; that he is blowing out the moral lights around us, when he contends that whoever wants slaves has a right to hold them; that he is penetrating, so far as lies in his power, the human soul, and eradicating the light of reason and the love of liberty, when he is in every possible way preparing the public mind, by his vast influence, for making the institution of slavery perpetual and national.
There is, my friends, only one other point to which I will call your attention for the remaining time that I have left me, and perhaps I shall not occupy the entire time that I have, as that one point may not take me clear through it.
Among the interrogatories that
Judge Douglas propounded to me at
Freeport, there was one in about this language : “Are you opposed to the acquisition of any further territory to the
United States, unless slavery shall first be prohibited therein?”
I answered as I thought, in this way, that I am not generally opposed to the acquisition of additional territory, and that I would support a proposition for the acquisition of additional territory, according as my supporting it was or was not calculated to aggravate this slavery question amongst us. I then proposed to
Judge Douglas another interrogatory, which was correlative to that “Are you in favor of acquiring additional territory in disregard of how it may affect us upon the slavery question?”
Judge Douglas answered, that is, in his own way he answered it. I believe that, although he took a good many words to answer it, it was a little more fully answered than any other.
The substance of his answer was, that this country would continue to expand — that it would need additional territory — that it was as absurd to suppose that we could continue upon our present territory, enlarging in population as we are, as it would be to hoop a boy twelve years of age, and expect him to grow to man's size without bursting the hoops.
I believe it was something like that.
Consequently he was in favor of the acquisition of further territory, as fast as we might need it, in disregard of how it might affect the slavery question.
I do not say this as giving his exact language, but he said so substantially, and he would leave the question of slavery where the territory was acquired, to be settled by the people of the acquired territory. [ “That's the doctrine.” ] Maybe it is ; let us consider that for a while.
This will probably, in the run of things, become one of the concrete manifestations of this slavery question.
If
Judge Douglas's policy upon this question succeeds and gets fairly settled down, until all opposition is crushed out, the next thing will be a grab for the territory of poor
Mexico, an invasion of the rich lands of
South America, then the adjoining islands will follow, each one of which promises additional slave Gelds.
And this question is to be left to the people of those countries for settlement.
When we shall get
Mexico, I dont know whether the
Judge will be in favor of the
Mexican people that we get with it settling that question for themselves and all others; because we know the
Judge has a great horror for
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mongrels, and I understand that the people of
Mexico are most decidedly a race of mongrels.
I understand that there is not more than one person there out of eight who is pure white, and I suppose from the
Judge's previous declaration that when we get
Mexico or any considerable portion of it, that he will be in favor of these mongrels settling the question, which would bring him somewhat into collision with his horror of an inferior race.
It is to be remembered, though, that this power of acquiring additional territory is a power confided to the
President and Senate of the United States.
It is a power not under the control of the representatives of the people any further than they, the
President and the Senate, can be considered the representatives of the people.
Let me illustrate that by a case we have in our history.
When we acquired the territory from
Mexico in the
Mexican war, the House of Representatives composed of the immediate representatives of the people, all the time insisted that the territory thus to be acquired should be brought in upon condition that slavery should be forever prohibited therein, upon the terms and in the language that slavery had been prohibited from coming into this country.
That was insisted upon constantly, and never failed to call forth an assurance that any territory thus acquired should have that prohibition in it, so far as the House of Representatives was concerned.
But at last the
President and Senate acquired the territory without asking the House of Representatives any thing about it, and took it without that prohibition.
They have the power of acquiring territory without the immediate representatives of the people being called upon to say any thing about it, and thus furnishing a very apt and powerful means of bringing new territory into the
Union, and when it is once brought into the country, involving us anew in this slavery agitation.
It is, therefore, as I think, a very important question for the consideration of the
American people, whether the policy of bringing in additional territory, without considering at all how it will operate upon the safety of the
Union in reference to this one great disturbing element in our national politics, shall be adopted as the policy of the country.
You will bear in mind that it is to be acquired, according to the
Judge's view, as fast as it is needed, and the indefinite part of this proposition is that we have only
Judge Douglas and his class of men to decide how fast it is needed.
We have no clear and certain way of determining or demonstrating how fast territory is needed by the necessities of the country.
Whoever wants to go out fillibustering, then thinks that more territory is needed.
Whoever wants wider slave fields, feels sure that some additional territory is needed as slave territory.
Then it is as easy to show the necessity of additional slave territory as it is to assert any thing that is incapable of absolute demonstration.
Whatever motive a man or a set of men may have for making annexation of property or territory, it is very easy to assert, but much less easy to disprove, that it is necessary for the wants of the country.
And now it only remains for me to say that I think it is a very grave question for the people of this Union to consider whether, in view of the fact that this slavery question has been the only one that has ever endangered our Republican institutions — the only one that has ever threatened or menaced a dissolution of the
Union---that has ever disturbed us in such a way as to make us fear for the perpetuity of our liberty — in view of these facts, I think it is an exceedingly interesting and important question for this people to consider, whether we shall engage in the policy of acquiring additional territory, discarding altogether from our consideration, while obtaining new territory, the question how it may affect us in regard to this the only endangering element to our liberties and national greatness.
The
Judge's view has been expressed.
I, in my answer to his question, have expressed mine.
I think it will become an important and practice question.
Our views are before the public.
I am willing and anxious that they should consider them fully — that they should turn it about and consider the importance of the question, and arrive at a just, conclusion as to whether it is or is not wise in the people of this Union, in the acquisition of new territory, to consider whether it will add to the disturbance that is existing amongst us — whether it will add to the one only danger that has ever
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threatened the perpetuity of the
Union or our own liberties.
I think it is extremely important that they shall decide, and rightly decide, that question before entering upon that policy.
And now, my friends, having said the little I wish to say upon this head, whether I have occupied the whole of the remnant of my time or not, I believe I could not enter upon any new topics so as to treat it fully without transcending my time, which I would not for a moment think of doing, I give way to
Judge Douglas.
Gentlemen: The highest compliment you can pay me during the brief half hour that I have to conclude is by observing a strict silence.
I desire to be heard rather than to be applauded.
The first criticism that
Mr. Lincoln makes on my speech was that it was in substance what I have said every where else in the
State where I have addressed the people.
I wish I could say the same of his speech.
Why, the reason I complain of him is because he makes one speech north and another south.
Because he has one set of sentiments for the
Abolition counties and another set for the counties opposed to Abolitionism.
My point of complaint against him is that I cannot induce him to hold up the same standard, to carry the same flag in all parts of the
State.
He does not pretend, and no other man will, that I have one set of principles for
Galesburgh and another for
Charleston.
He does not pretend that I hold to one doctrine in
Chicago and an opposite one in
Jonesboro.
I have proved that lie has a different set of principles for each of these localities.
All I asked of him was that he should deliver the speech that he has made here to-day in
Coles county instead of in old
Knox.
It would have settled the question between us in that doubtful county.
Here I understand him to reaffirm the doctrine of negro equality, and to assert that by the
Declaration of Independence the negro is declared equal to the white man. He tells you to-day that the negro was included in the
Declaration of Independence when it asserted that all men were created equal. [ “We believe it.” ] Very well.
Mr. Lincoln assorts to-day as he did at
Chicago, that the negro was included in that clause of the
Declaration of Independence which says that all men were created equal and endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
If the negro was made his equal and mine, if that equality was established by Divine law, and was the negro's inalienable right, how came he to say at
Charleston to the Kentuckians residing in that section of our State, that the negro was physically inferior to the white man, belonged to an inferior race, and he was for keeping him always in that inferior condition.
I wish you to bear these things in mind.
At
Charleston he said that the negro belonged to an inferior race, and that he was for keeping him in that inferior condition.
There he gave the people to understand that there was no moral question involved, because the inferiority being established, it was only a question of degree and not a question of right; here, to day, instead of making it a question of degree, he makes it a moral question, says that it is a great crime to hold the negro in that inferior condition. [ “He's right.” ] Is he right now or was he right in
Charleston? [ “Both.” ] He is right then, sir, in your estimation, not because he is consistent, but because he can trim his principles any way in any section, so as to secure votes.
All I desire of him is that he will declare the same principles in the south that he does in the north.
But did you notice how he answered my position that a man should hold the same doctrines throughout the length and breadth of this Republic?
He said, “Would
Judge Douglas go to
Russia and proclaim the same principles he does here?”
I would remind him that
Russia is not under the
American Constitution If Russia was a part of the
American Republic, under our Federal Constitution, and I was
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sworn to support the
Constitution, I would maintain the same doctrine in
Russia that I do in
Illinois.
The slaveholding States are governed by the same Federal Constitution as ourselves, and hence a man's principles, in order to be in harmony with the
Constitution, must be the same in the south as they are in the north, the same in the free States as they arc in the slave States.
Whenever a man advocates one set of principles in one section, and another set in another section, his opinions are in violation of the spirit of the
Constitution which he has sworn to support.
When
Mr. Lincoln went to Congress in 1847, and laying his hand upon the
Holy Evangelists, made a solemn vow in the presence of high Heaven that he would be faithful to the Constitution-what did he mean?
the
Constitution as he expounds it in
Galesburgh, or the
Constitution as he expounds it in
Charleston.
Mr. Lincoln has devoted considerable time to the circumstance that at
Ottawa I read a series of resolutions as having been adopted at
Springfield, in this State, on the 4th or 5th of October, 1854, which happened not to have been adopted there.
He has used hard names; has dared to talk about fraud, about forgery, and has insinuated that there was a conspiracy between
Mr. Lanphier,
Mr. Harris, and myself to perpetrate a forgery.
Now, bear in mind that he does not deny that these resolutions were adopted in a majority of all the
Republican counties of this State in that year ; he does not deny that they were declared to be the platform of this Republican party in the first Congressional District, in the second, in the third, and in many counties of the fourth, and that they thus became the platform of his party in a majority of the counties upon which he now relies for support ; he does not deny the truthfulness of the resolutions, but takes exception to the spot on which they were adopted.
He takes to himself great merit, because he thinks they were not adopted on the right spot for me to use them against him, just as he was very severe in Congress upon the
Government of his country when he thought that he had discovered that the
Mexican war was not begun in the right
spot, and was therefore unjust.
He tries very hard to make out that there is something very extraordinary in the place where the thing was clone, and not in the thing itself.
I never believed before that
Abraham Lincoln would be guilty of what he has done this day in regard to those resolutions.
In the first place, the moment it was intimated to me that they had been adopted at
Aurora and
Rockford instead of
Springfield, I did not wait for him to call my attention to the fact, but led off and explained in my first meeting after the
Ottawa debate, what the mistake was, and how it had been made.
I supposed that for an honest man, conscious of his own rectitude, that explanation would be sufficient.
I did not wait for him, after the mistake was made, to call my attention to it, but frankly explained it at once as an honest man would.
I also gave the authority on which I had stinted that these resolutions were adopted by the Springfield Republican Convention.
That I had seen them quoted by
Major Harris in a debate in Congress, as having been adopted by the first Republican State Convention in
Illinois, and that I had written to him and asked him for the authority as to the time and place of their adoption; that
Major Harris being extremely ill,
Charles H. Lanphier had written to me for him, that they were adopted at
Springfield, on the 5th of October, 1854, and had sent me a copy of the
Springfield paper containing them.
I read them from the newspaper just as
Mr. Lincoln reads the proceedings of meetings held years ago from the newspapers.
After giving that explanation, I did not think there was an honest man in the
State of Illinois who doubted that I had been led into the error, if it was such, innocently, in the way I detailed; and I will now say that I do not now believe that there is an honest man on the face of the globe who will not regard with abhorrence and disgust
Mr. Lincoln's insinuations of my complicity in that forgery, if it was a forgery.
Does
Mr. Lincoln wish to push these things to the point of personal difficulties here?
I commenced this contest by treating him courteously and kindly ; I always spoke of him in words of respect, and in return he has sought, and is now seeking, to divert public attention from the enormity of his revolutionary principles by impeaching men's sincerity and integrity, and inviting personal quarrels.
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I desired to conduct.
this contest with him like a gentleman, but I spurn the insinuation of complicity and fraud made upon the simple circumstance of an editor of a newspaper having made a mistake as to the place where a thing was done, but not as to the thing itself.
These resolutions were the platform of this Republican party of
Mr. Lincoln's of that year.
They were adopted in a majority of the
Republican counties in the
State; and when I asked him at
Ottawa whether they formed the platform upon which he stood, he did not answer, and I could not get an answer out of him. He then thought, as I thought, that those resolutions wore adopted at the
Springfield Convention, but excused himself by saying that he was not there when they were adopted, but had gone to Tazewell court in order to avoid being present at the
Convention.
He saw them published an having been adopted at
Springfield, and so did I, and he knew that if there was a mistake in regard to them, that I had nothing under heaven to do with it. Besides, you find that in all these northern counties where the
Republican candidates are running pledged to him, that the Conventions which nominated them adopted that identical platform.
One cardinal point in that platform which he shrinks from is this — that there shall be no more slave States admitted into the
Union, even if the people want them.
Lovejoy stands pledged against the admission of any more slave States. [ “Right, so do we.” ] So do you, you say.
Farnsworth stands pledged against the admission of any more slave States.
Washburne stands pledged the same may. The candidate for the Legislature who is running on
Lincoln's ticket in
Henderson and
Warren, stands committed by his vote in the Legislature to the same thing, and I am informed, but do not know of the fact, that your candidate here is also so pledged. [ “Hurra for him, good.” ] Now, you Republicans all hurra for him, and for the doctrine of “no more slave States,” and yet
Lincoln tells you that his conscience will not permit him to sanction that doctrine.
And complains because the resolutions I read at
Ottawa made him, as a member of the party, responsible for sanctioning the doctrine of no more slave States.
You are one way, you confess, and he is or pretends to be the other, and yet you are both governed by
principle in supporting one another.
If it be true, as I have shown it a, that the whole Republican party in the northern part of the
State stands committed to the doctrine of no more slave States, and that this same doctrine is repudiated by the Republicans in the other part of the
State, I wonder whether
Mr. Lincoln and his party do not present the case which he cited from the Scriptures of a house divided against itself which cannot stand!
I desire to know what are
Mr. Lincoln's principles and the principles of his party?
I hold, and the party with which I am identified hold, that the people of each State, old and new, have the right to decide the slavery question for themselves, and when I used the remark that I did not care whether slavery was voted up or down, I used it in the connection that I was for allowing
Kansas to do just as she pleased on the slavery question.
I said that I did not care whether they voted slavery up or down, because they had the right to do as they pleased on the question, and therefore my action would not be controlled by any such consideration.
Why cannot
Abraham Lincoln, and the party with which he acts, speak out their principles so that they may be understood?
Why do they claim to be one thing in one part of the
State and another in the other part?
Whenever I allude to the Abolition doctrines, which he considers a slander to be charged with being in favor of, you all indorse them, and hurra for them, not knowing that your candidate is ashamed to acknowledge them.
I have a few words to say upon the
Dred Scott decision, which has troubled the brain of
Mr. Lincoln so much.
He insists that that.
decision would carry slavery into the free States, notwithstanding that the decision says directly the opposite ; and goes into a long argument to make you believe that I am in favor of, and would sanction the doctrine that would allow slaves to be brought here and held as slaves contrary to our Constitution and laws.
Mr. Lincoln knew better when he asserted this; he knew that one newspaper, and so far as is within my knowledge but one, ever asserted that doctrine, and that I was the first man in either House of Congress that read each article in debate, and denounced it on the floor of the Senate as revolutionary
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When the
Washington Union, on the 17th of last November, published an article to that effect, I branded it at once, and denounced it, and hence the
Union has been pursuing me ever since.
Mr. Toombs, of
Georgia, replied to me, and said that there was not a man in any of the slave States south of the
Potomac river that held any such doctrine.
Mr. Lincoln knows that there is not a member of the Supreme Court who holds that doctrine ; be knows that every one of them, as shown by their opinions, holds the reverse.
Why this attempt, then, to bring the Supreme Court into disrepute among the people?
It looks as if there was an effort being made to destroy public confidence in the highest judicial tribunal on earth.
Suppose he succeeds in destroying public confidence in the court, so that the people will not respect its decisions, but will feel at liberty to disregard them, and resist the laws of the land, what will he have gained?
He will have changed the
Government from one of laws into that of a mob, in which the strong arm of violence will be substituted for the decisions of the courts of justice.
He complains because I did not go into an argument reviewing
Chief Justice Taney's opinion, and the other opinions of the different judges, to determine whether their reasoning is right or wrong on the questions of law. What use would that be?
He wants to take an appeal from the Supreme Court to this meeting to determine whether the questions of law were decided properly.
He is going to appeal from the Supreme Court of the
United States to every town meeting in the hope that he can excite a prejudice against that court, and on the wave of that prejudice ride into the Senate of the United States, when he could not get there on his own principles, or his own merits.
Suppose he should succeed in getting into the Senate of the United States, what then will he have to do with the decision of the Supreme Court in the
Dred Scott case?
Can he reverse that decision when he gets there?
Can he act upon it?
Has the Senate any right to reverse it or revise it?
He will not pretend that it has. Then why drag the matter into this contest, unless for the purpose of making a false issue, by which he can direct public attention from the real issue.
He has cited
General Jackson in justification of the war he is making on the decision of the court.
Mr. Lincoln misunderstands the history of the country, if he believes there is any parallel in the two cases. It is true that the Supreme Court once decided that if a Bank of the
United States was a necessary fiscal agent of the
Government, it was Constitutional, and if not, that it was unconstitutional, and also, that whether or not it was necessary for that purpose, was a political question for Congress and not a judicial one for the courts to determine.
Hence the court would not determine the bank unconstitutional.
Jackson respected the decision, obeyed the law, executed it and carried it into effect during its existence; but after the charter of the bank expired and a proposition was made to create a new bank,
General Jackson said, “it is unnecessary and improper, and, therefore, I am against it on Constitutional grounds as well as those of expediency.”
Is Congress bound to pass every act that is Constitutional?
Why, there are a thousand things that are Constitutional, but yet are inexpedient and unnecessary, and you surely would not vote for them merely because you had the right to?
And because
General Jackson would not do a thing which be had a right to do, but did not deem expedient or proper,
Mr. Lincoln is going to justify himself in doing that which he has no right to do. I ask
him, whether he is not bound to respect and obey the decisions of the Supreme Court as well as me?
The Constitution has created that court to decide all Constitutional questions in the last resort, and when such decisions have been made, they become the law of the land, and you, and he, and myself, and every other good citizen
are bound by them.
Yet, he argues that I am bound by their decisions and he is not. He says that their decisions are binding on Democrats, but not on Republicans.
Are not Republicans bound by the laws of the land as well as Democrats?
And when the court has fixed the construction of the
Constitution on the validity of a given law, is not their decision binding upon Republicans as well as upon Democrats?
Is it possible that you Republicans have the right to raise your mobs and oppose the laws of the land and the constituted authorities, and yet hold us Democrats
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bound to obey them?
My time is within half a minute of expiring, and all I have to say is, that I stand by the laws of the land.
I stand by the
Constitution as our fathers made it, by the laws as they are enacted, and by the decisions of the court upon all points within their jurisdiction as they are pronounced by the highest tribunal on earth ; and any man who resists these must resort to mob law and violence to overturn the government of laws.