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002 - Cooper Institute Speech Part 1 · Noted Speeches of Abraham Lincoln

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  Speaker 1: Section two of Noted Speeches of Abraham Lincoln, edited by
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  Speaker 1: Lilian Marie Briggs. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
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  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Dave Dufek.
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  Speaker 1: Noted Speeches of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Lilian Marie Briggs.
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  Speaker 1: Cooper Institute's Speech, Part one, delivered at Cooper Institute, New York,
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  Speaker 1: February twenty seventh, eighteen sixty. Mister President and fellow citizens
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  Speaker 1: of New York, the facts with which I shall deal
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  Speaker 1: this evening are mainly old and familiar. Nor is there
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  Speaker 1: anything new in the general use I shall make of them.
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  Speaker 1: If there shall be any novelty, it will be in
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  Speaker 1: the mode of presenting the facts and the inferences and
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  Speaker 1: observations following that presentation. In his speech last autumn at Columbus, Ohio,
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  Speaker 1: as reported in The New York Times, Senator Douglas said,
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  Speaker 1: our fathers, when they framed the government under which we live,
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  Speaker 1: understood this question just as well and even better than
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  Speaker 1: we do now. I fully indorse this, and I adopt
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  Speaker 1: it as a text for this discourse. I so adopt
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  Speaker 1: it because it furnishes a precise and an agreed starting
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  Speaker 1: point for a discussion between Republicans and that wing of
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  Speaker 1: the democracy headed by Senator Douglas. It simply leaves the
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  Speaker 1: inquiry what was the understanding those fathers had of the
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  Speaker 1: question mentioned? What is the frame of government under which
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  Speaker 1: we live? The answer must be the Constitution of the
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  Speaker 1: United States. That constitution consists of the original framed in
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  Speaker 1: seventeen eighty seven, and under which the present government first
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  Speaker 1: went into operation, and twelve subsequently framed amendments, the first
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  Speaker 1: ten of which were framed in seventeen eighty nine. Who
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  Speaker 1: were our fathers that framed the Constitution? I suppose the
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  Speaker 1: thirty nine who signed the original instrument may be fairly
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  Speaker 1: called our fathers who framed that part of the present government.
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  Speaker 1: It is almost exactly true to say they framed it,
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  Speaker 1: and it is altogether true to say they fairly represented
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  Speaker 1: the opinion and sentiment of the whole nation at that time.
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  Speaker 1: Their names, being familiar to nearly all and accessible to
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  Speaker 1: quite all, need not now be repeated. I take these
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  Speaker 1: thirty nine for the present as being our fathers who
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  Speaker 1: framed the government under which we live. What is the
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  Speaker 1: question which, according to the text, those fathers understood just
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  Speaker 1: as well and even better than we do now. It
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  Speaker 1: is this, does the proper division of local from federal authority,
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  Speaker 1: or anything in the Constitution forbid our federal government to
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  Speaker 1: control as to slavery in our federal territories? Upon this,
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  Speaker 1: Senator Douglas holds the affirmative and Republicans the negative. This
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  Speaker 1: affirmation and denial form an issue, And this issue, this question,
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  Speaker 1: is precisely what the text declares. Our fathers understood better
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  Speaker 1: than we. Let us now inquire whether the thirty nine
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  Speaker 1: or any of them, ever acted upon this question, and
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  Speaker 1: if they did, how they acted upon it, how they
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  Speaker 1: expressed that better understanding. In seventeen eighty four, three years
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  Speaker 1: before the Constitution, the United States, then owning the Northwestern
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  Speaker 1: Territory and no other, the Congress of the Confederation had
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  Speaker 1: before them the question of prohibiting slavery in that territory,
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  Speaker 1: and four of the thirty nine who afterward framed the
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  Speaker 1: Constitution were in that Congress and voted on that question.
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  Speaker 1: Of these, Roger Sherman, Thomas Mifflin, and Hugh Williamson voted
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  Speaker 1: for the prohibition thus showing that in their understanding, no
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  Speaker 1: line dividing local from federal authority, nor anything else properly
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  Speaker 1: forbade the federal government to control as to slavery in
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  Speaker 1: federal territory. The other of the four, James McHenry, voted
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  Speaker 1: against the prohibition, showing that for some cause he thought
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  Speaker 1: it improper to vote for it. In seventeen eighty seven,
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  Speaker 1: still before the Constitution, but while the Convention was in
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  Speaker 1: session framing it, and while the Northwestern Territory still was
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  Speaker 1: the only territory owned by the United States, the same
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  Speaker 1: question of prohibiting slavery in the territory again came before
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  Speaker 1: the Congress of the Confederation, and two more of the
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  Speaker 1: thirty nine who afterwards signed the Constitution were in that
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  Speaker 1: Congress and voted on the question. They were William Blunt
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  Speaker 1: and William Few, and they both voted for the prohibition,
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  Speaker 1: thus showing that in their understanding, no line dividing local
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  Speaker 1: fe from federal authority, nor anything else properly forbade the
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  Speaker 1: federal government to control as to slavery in federal territory.
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  Speaker 1: This time the prohibition became a law, being part of
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  Speaker 1: what is now well known as the Ordinance of eighty seven.
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  Speaker 1: The question of federal control of slavery in the territories
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  Speaker 1: seems not to have been directly before the Convention which
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  Speaker 1: framed the original Constitution, and hence it is not recorded
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  Speaker 1: that the thirty nine or any of them, while engaged
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  Speaker 1: on that instrument, expressed any opinion on that precise question.
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  Speaker 1: In seventeen eighty nine, by the First Congress which sat
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  Speaker 1: under the Constitution, an act was passed to enforce the
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  Speaker 1: Ordinance of eighty seven, including the prohibition of slavery in
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  Speaker 1: the Northwestern Territory. The bill for this act was reported
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  Speaker 1: by one of the thirty nine, Thomas Fitzsimmons, then a
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  Speaker 1: member of the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. It went
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  Speaker 1: through all its stages without a word of opposition, and
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  Speaker 1: finally passed us both branches, without eyes and nays, which
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  Speaker 1: is equivalent to a unanimous passage. In this Congress, there
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  Speaker 1: were sixteen of the thirty nine fathers who framed the
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  Speaker 1: original Constitution. They were John Langdon Nicholas Gilman, William S Johnson,
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  Speaker 1: Roger Sherman, Robert Morris, Thomas Fitzsimmons, William Few, Abraham Baldwin,
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  Speaker 1: Rufus King, William Patterson, George Clymer, Richard Bassett, George Read
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  Speaker 1: Pierce Butler, Daniel Carroll, and James Madison. This shows that,
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  Speaker 1: in their understanding, no line dividing local from federal authority,
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  Speaker 1: nor anything in the Constitution properly forbade Congress to prohibit
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  Speaker 1: slavery in the federal territory. Else, both their fidelity to
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  Speaker 1: correct principle and their oath to support the Constitution would
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  Speaker 1: have constrained them to oppose the prohibition again. George Washington,
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  Speaker 1: another of the thirty nine, was then President of the
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  Speaker 1: United States, and as such approved and signed the bill,
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  Speaker 1: thus completing its validity as a law, and thus showing
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  Speaker 1: that in his understanding, no line dividing local from federal authority,
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  Speaker 1: nor anything in the Constitution forbade the federal government to
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  Speaker 1: control as to slavery in federal territory. No great while
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  Speaker 1: after the adoption of the original Constitution, North Carolina ceded
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  Speaker 1: to the federal government the country now constituting the state
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  Speaker 1: of Tennessee, and a few years later Georgia ceded that
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  Speaker 1: which now constitutes the states of Mississippi and Alabama. In
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  Speaker 1: both deeds of Session it was made a condition by
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  Speaker 1: the ceding states that the federal government should not prohibit
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  Speaker 1: slavery in the ceded country. Besides this, slavery was then
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  Speaker 1: actually in the ceded country. Under these circumstances, Congress, on
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  Speaker 1: taking charge of these countries, did not absolutely prohibit slavery
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  Speaker 1: within them, but they did interfere with it, take control
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  Speaker 1: of it, even there to a certain extent. In seventeen
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  Speaker 1: ninety eight, Congress organized the Territory of Mississippi. In the
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  Speaker 1: Act of Organization, they prohibited the bringing of slaves into
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  Speaker 1: the territory from any place without the United States by
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  Speaker 1: fine and giving freedom to slaves. So brought this act
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  Speaker 1: passed both branches of Congress without yeas and nays. In
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  Speaker 1: that Congress were three of the thirty nine who framed
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  Speaker 1: the original Constitution. They were John Langdon George Reid, and
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  Speaker 1: Abraham Baldwin. They all probably voted for it. Certainly they
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  Speaker 1: would have placed their opposition to it upon record if
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  Speaker 1: in their understanding, any line dividing local from federal authority,
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  Speaker 1: or anything in the Constitution properly forbade the federal government
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  Speaker 1: to control as to slavery in the federal territory. In
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  Speaker 1: eighteen o three, the federal government purchased the Louisiana Country.
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  Speaker 1: The former territorial acquisitions came from certain of our own states,
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  Speaker 1: but this Louisiana Country was acquired from a foreign nation.
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  Speaker 1: In eighteen o four, Congress gave a territorial organization to
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  Speaker 1: that part of it, which now constitutes the state of
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  Speaker 1: Louisiana New Orleans. Lying within that part was an old
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  Speaker 1: and comparatively large city. There were other considerable towns and settlements,
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  Speaker 1: and slavery was extensively and thoroughly intermingled with the people.
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  Speaker 1: Congress did not, in that territorial act prohibit slavery, but
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  Speaker 1: they did interfere with it take control of it in
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  Speaker 1: a more marked and extensive way than they did in
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  Speaker 1: the case of Mississippi. The substance of the provision therein
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  Speaker 1: made in relation to slaves was first that no slave
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  Speaker 1: should be imported into the territory from foreign parts. Second,
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  Speaker 1: that no slaves should be carried into it who had
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  Speaker 1: been imported into the United States since the first day
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  Speaker 1: of May seventeen ninety eight. Third, that no slave should
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  Speaker 1: be carried into it except by the owner and for
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  Speaker 1: his own use. As a settler, the penalty in all
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  Speaker 1: the cases being a fine upon the violator of the
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  Speaker 1: law and freedom to the slave. This act also was
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  Speaker 1: passed without eyes or naves. In the Congress which passed it,
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  Speaker 1: there were two of the thirty nine. They were Abraham
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  Speaker 1: Baldwin and Jonathan Dayton. As stated in the case of Mississippi,
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  Speaker 1: it is probable they both voted for it. They would
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  Speaker 1: not have allowed it to pass without recording their opposition
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  Speaker 1: to it if, in their understanding it violated either the
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  Speaker 1: line properly dividing local from federal authority, or any provision
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  Speaker 1: of the Constitution. In eighteen nineteen twenty came and passed
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  Speaker 1: the Missouri Question. Many votes were taken by yas and
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  Speaker 1: nays in both branches of Congress upon the various phases
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  Speaker 1: of the general question. Two of the thirty nine, Rufus
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  Speaker 1: King and Charles Pinckney were members of that Congress. Mister
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  Speaker 1: King steadily voted for slavery prohibition and against all compromises,
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  Speaker 1: while mister Pinkney as steadily voted against slavery prohibition and
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  Speaker 1: against all compromises. By this, mister King showed that in
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  Speaker 1: his understanding, no line dividing local from federal authority, nor
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  Speaker 1: anything in the Constitution was violated by Congress prohibiting slavery
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  Speaker 1: in federal territory, while mister Pinkney by his votes showed
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  Speaker 1: that in his understanding, there was some sufficient reason for
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  Speaker 1: opposing such prohibition in that case. The cases I have
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  Speaker 1: mentioned are the only acts of the thirty nine, or
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  Speaker 1: any of them, upon the direct issue which I have
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  Speaker 1: been able to discover. To enumerate the persons who thus
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  Speaker 1: acted as being four in seventeen eighty four, two and
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  Speaker 1: seventeen eighty seven, seventeen in seventeen eighty nine, three in
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  Speaker 1: seventeen ninety eight, two in eighteen o four, and two
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen nineteen and twenty, there would be thirty of them,
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  Speaker 1: but this would be counting John Langdon, Roger Sherman, William Few,
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  Speaker 1: Rufus King, and George Read each twice in Abraham Baldwin
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  Speaker 1: three times. The true number of those of the thirty
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  Speaker 1: nine whom I have shown to have acted upon the question,
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  Speaker 1: which by the text they understood better than we, is
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  Speaker 1: twenty three, leaving sixteen not shown to have acted upon
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  Speaker 1: it in any way. Here, then we have twenty three
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  Speaker 1: out of our thirty nine fathers who framed the government
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  Speaker 1: under which we live, who have, upon their official responsibility
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  Speaker 1: and their corporal oaths, acted upon the very question which
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  Speaker 1: the text affirms they understood just as well and even
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  Speaker 1: better than we do now, And twenty one of them,
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  Speaker 1: a clear majority of the whole thirty nine, so acting
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  Speaker 1: upon it, as to make them guilty of gross political
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  Speaker 1: impropriety and wilful perjury if, in their understanding any proper
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  Speaker 1: division between local and federal authority, or anything in the
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  Speaker 1: Constitution they had made themselves and sworn to support forbade
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  Speaker 1: the federal government to control as to slavery in the
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  Speaker 1: federal territories. Thus the twenty one acted, and as actions
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  Speaker 1: speak louder than words, so actions under such responsibilities speak
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  Speaker 1: still louder. Two of the twenty three voted against congressional
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  Speaker 1: prohibition of slavery in the federal territories in the instances
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  Speaker 1: in which they acted upon the question. But for what
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  Speaker 1: reasons they so voted is not known. They may have
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  Speaker 1: done so because they thought a proper division of local
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  Speaker 1: from federal authority, or some provision or principle of the
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  Speaker 1: Constitution stood in the way, or they may, without any
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  Speaker 1: such question, have voted against the prohibition on what appeared
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  Speaker 1: to them to be sufficient grounds of expediency. No one
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  Speaker 1: who has sworn to support the Constitution can conscientiously vote
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  Speaker 1: for what he understands to be an unconstitutional measure, however
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  Speaker 1: expedient he may think it. But one may and ought
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  Speaker 1: to vote against a measure which he deems constitutional, if
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  Speaker 1: at the same time he deems it inexpedient. It therefore
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  Speaker 1: would be unsafe to set down even the two who
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  Speaker 1: voted against the prohibition as having done so, because, in
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  Speaker 1: their understanding, any proper division of local from federal authority,
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  Speaker 1: or anything in the Constitution forbade the federal government to
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  Speaker 1: control as to slavery in federal territory. The remaining sixteen
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  Speaker 1: of the thirty nine, so far as I have discovered,
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  Speaker 1: have left no record of their understanding upon the direct
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  Speaker 1: question of federal control of slavery in the federal territories.
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  Speaker 1: But there is much reason to believe that their understanding
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  Speaker 1: upon that question would not have appeared different from that
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  Speaker 1: of their twenty three compeers had it been manifested at
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  Speaker 1: all for the purpose of adhering rigidly to the text,
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  Speaker 1: I have purposely omitted whatever understanding may have been manifested
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  Speaker 1: by any person, however distinguished, other than the thirty nine
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  Speaker 1: fathers who framed the original Constitution, And for the same
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  Speaker 1: reason I have also omitted whatever understanding may have been
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  Speaker 1: manifested by any of the thirty nine, even on any
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  Speaker 1: other phase of the general question of slavery. If we
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  Speaker 1: should look into their acts and declarations on those other phases,
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  Speaker 1: as the foreign slave trade and the morality and policy
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  Speaker 1: of slavery generally, it would appear to us that on
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  Speaker 1: the direct question of federal control of slavery in federal territories,
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  Speaker 1: the sixteen, if they had acted at all, would probably
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  Speaker 1: have acted just as the twenty three did. Among that
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  Speaker 1: sixteen were several of the most noted anti slavery men
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  Speaker 1: of those times, as doctor Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and Governor Morris,
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  Speaker 1: while there was not one now known to have been otherwise,
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  Speaker 1: unless it may be John Rutledge of South Carolina. The
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  Speaker 1: sum of the whole is that of our thirty nine
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  Speaker 1: fathers who framed the original Constitution twenty one, a clear
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  Speaker 1: majority of the whole certainly understood that no proper division
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  Speaker 1: of local from federal authority, nor any part of the
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  Speaker 1: Constitution forbade the federal government to control slavery in the
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  Speaker 1: federal territories, while all the rest had probably the same understanding. Such,
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  Speaker 1: unquestionably was the understanding of our fathers who framed the
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  Speaker 1: original Constitution, and the text affirms that they understood the
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  Speaker 1: question better than we. But so far I have been
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  Speaker 1: considering the understanding of the question manifested by the framers
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  Speaker 1: of the Original Constitution. In and by the original instrument,
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  Speaker 1: a mode was provided for amending it, And as I
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  Speaker 1: have already stated, the present frame of the government under
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  Speaker 1: which we live consists of that original and twelve amendatory
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  Speaker 1: articles framed and adopted. Since those who now insist that
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  Speaker 1: federal cans control of slavery in federal territories violates the
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  Speaker 1: Constitution point us to the provisions which they suppose it
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  Speaker 1: thus violates, and as I understand, they all fix upon
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  Speaker 1: provisions in these amendatory articles and not in the original instrument.
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  Speaker 1: The Supreme Court in the dread Scott case plant themselves
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  Speaker 1: upon the Fifth Amendment, which provides that no person shall
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  Speaker 1: be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process
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  Speaker 1: of law, while Senator Douglas and his peculiar adherents plant
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  Speaker 1: themselves upon the tenth Amendment providing that the powers not
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  Speaker 1: delegated to the United States by the Constitution are reserved
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  Speaker 1: to the States, respectively or to the people. Now. It
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  Speaker 1: so happens that these amendments were framed by the first Congress,
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  Speaker 1: which sat under the Constitution, the identical Congress which passed
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  Speaker 1: to the Act already mentioned enforcing the prohibition of slavery
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  Speaker 1: in the Northwestern Territory. Not only was it the same Congress,
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  Speaker 1: but they were the identical same individual men, who at
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  Speaker 1: the same session, and at the same time within the session,
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  Speaker 1: had under consideration and in progress toward maturity these constitutional
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  Speaker 1: amendments and this Act prohibiting slavery and all the territory
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  Speaker 1: the nation then owned. The constitutional amendments were introduced before
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  Speaker 1: and passed after the Act enforcing the Ordinance of eighty seven,
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  Speaker 1: so that during the whole pendency of the Act to
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  Speaker 1: enforce the Ordinance, the constitutional amendments were also pending. The
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  Speaker 1: seventy six members of that Congress, including sixteen of the
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  Speaker 1: framers of the original Constitution, as before stated, were pre
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  Speaker 1: eminently our fathers who framed that part of the government
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  Speaker 1: under which we live, which is now claimed as forbidding
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  Speaker 1: the federal government to control slavery in the federal territories.
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  Speaker 1: Is it not a little presumptuous in anyone at this
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  Speaker 1: day to affirm that the two things which that Congress
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  Speaker 1: deliberedly framed and carried to maturity at the same time
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  Speaker 1: are absolutely inconsistent with each other? And does not such
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  Speaker 1: affirmation become impudently absurd when coupled with the other affirmation
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  Speaker 1: from the same mouth, that those who did the two
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  Speaker 1: things alleged to be inconsistent understood whether they really were inconsistent,
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  Speaker 1: better than we, better than he who affirms that they
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  Speaker 1: are inconsistent. It is surely safe to assume that the
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  Speaker 1: thirty nine framers of the Original Constitution and the seventy
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  Speaker 1: six members of the Congress which framed the amendments there too,
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  Speaker 1: taken together, do certainly include those who may be fairly
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  Speaker 1: called our fathers who framed the government under which we live.
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  Speaker 1: And so assuming I defy any man to show that
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  Speaker 1: any one of them, ever, in his whole life, declared
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  Speaker 1: that in his understanding, any proper division of local from
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  Speaker 1: federal authority, or any part of the Constitution forbade the
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  Speaker 1: federal government to control as to slavery in the federal territories.
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  Speaker 1: I go a step further. I defy anyone to show
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  Speaker 1: that any living man in the whole world ever did
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  Speaker 1: prior to the beginning of the present century, and I
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  Speaker 1: might almost say, prior to the beginning of the last
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  Speaker 1: half of the present century, declare that in his understanding
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  Speaker 1: any proper division of local from federal authority, or any
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  Speaker 1: part of the constitution forbade the federal government to control
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  Speaker 1: as to slavery in the federal territories. To those who
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  Speaker 1: now so declare, I give not only our fathers who
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  Speaker 1: framed the government under which we live, but with them
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  Speaker 1: all other living men within the century in which it
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  Speaker 1: was framed, among whom to search. And they shall not
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  Speaker 1: be able to find the evidence of a single man
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  Speaker 1: agreeing with them. Now and here let me guard a
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  Speaker 1: little against being misunderstood. I do not mean to say
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  Speaker 1: we are bound to follow implicitly in whatever our fathers did.
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  Speaker 1: To do so would be to discard all the lights
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  Speaker 1: of current experience, to reject all progress, all improvement. What
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  Speaker 1: I do say is that if we would supplant the
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  Speaker 1: opinions and policy of our fathers in any case, we
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  Speaker 1: should do so upon evidence so conclusive and argument so
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  Speaker 1: clear that even their great authority, fairly considered and weighed,
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  Speaker 1: cannot stand, and most surely not in a case whereof
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  Speaker 1: we ourselves declare they understood the question better than we.
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  Speaker 1: If any man at this day sincerely believes that a
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  Speaker 1: proper division of local from federal authority, or any part
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  Speaker 1: of the Constitution forbids the federal government to control as
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  Speaker 1: to slavery in the federal territories, he is right to
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  Speaker 1: say so, and to enforce his position by all truthful
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  Speaker 1: evidence and fair argument which he can. But he has
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  Speaker 1: no right to mislead others who have less access to
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  Speaker 1: history and less leisure to study it. In to the
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  Speaker 1: false belief that our fathers, who framed the government under
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: which we live were of the same opinion, does substituting
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: falsehood and deception for truthful evidence and fair argument. If
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: any man at this day sincerely believes our fathers who
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: framed the government under which we live used and applied
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: principles in other cases which ought to have led them
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: to understand that a proper division of local from federal authority,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: or some part of the constitution forbids the federal government
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: to control as to slavery in the federal territories. He
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: is right to say so, but he should at the
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: same time brave the responsibility of declaring that, in his opinion,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: he understands their principles better than they did themselves, And
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: especially should he not shirk that responsibility by asserting that
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: they understood the question just as well and even better
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: than we do now. But enough, Let all who believe
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: that our fathers who framed the government under which we
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: live understood this question just as well and even better
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: than we do now, speak as they spoke, and act
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: as they acted upon it. This is all Republicans ask,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: all Republicans desire in relation to slavery, as those fathers
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: marked it. So let it be again marked as an evil,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: not to be extended, but to be tolerated and protected
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: only because of in so far as its actual presence
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: among us makes that toleration and protection a necessity. Let
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: all the guarantees those fathers gave it be not grudgingly,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: but fully and fairly maintained. For this, Republicans contend and
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: with this, so far as I know or believe, they
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: will be content. And now, if they would listen, as
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: I suppose they will not, I would address a few
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: words to the Southern people. I would say to them,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: you consider yourselves a reasonable and adjust people, and I
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: consider that in the general qualities of reason and justice,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: you are not inferior to any other people. Still, when
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: you speak of US Republicans, you do so only to
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: denounce us as reptiles, or at the best, is no
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: better than outlaws. You will grant adhering to pirates or murderers,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: but nothing like it to Black Republicans. In all your
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: contentions with one another, each of you deems an unconditional
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: condemnation of Black Republicanism as the first thing to be
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: attended to. Indeed, such condemnation of us seems to be
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: an indispensable prerequisite license so to speak among you to
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: be admitted or permitted to speak at all. Now, can
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: you or not be prevailed upon to pause and to
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: consider whether this is quite just to us or even
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: to yourselves. Bring forward your charges and specification, and then
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: be patient long enough to hear us deny or justifying
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: you say, we are sectional. We deny it. That makes
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: an issue, and the burden of proof is upon you.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: You produce your proof, and what is it why that
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: our party has no existence in your section gets no
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: votes in your section. The fact is substantially true, but
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: does it prove the issue? If it does, then in
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: case we should, without change of principle, begin to get
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: votes in your section. We should thereby cease to be sectional.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: You cannot escape this conclusion, and yet you are willing
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: to abide by it. If you are, you will probably
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: soon find that we have ceased to be sectional, for
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: we shall get votes in your section this very year.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: You will then begin to discover as the truth plainly
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: is that your proof does not touch the issue. The
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: fact that we get no votes in your section is
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: a fact of your making and not of our. If
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: there be fault in that fact, that fault is primarily yours,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: and remain so until you show that we repel you
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: by some wrong principle or practice. If we do repel
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: you by any wrong principle or practice, the fault is ours.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: But this brings you to where you ought to have started,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: to a discussion of the right or wrong of our principle.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: If our principle put in practice would wrong your section
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: for the benefit of ours, or for any other object
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: than our principle, and we with it are sectional and
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: are justly opposed and denounced as such, meet us then
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: on the question of whether our principle put in practice
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: would wrong your section, and so meet us as if
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: it were possible that something may be said on our side.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Do you accept the challenge? No, then you really believe
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: that the principle which our fathers, who framed the government
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: under which we live, thought so so clearly right as
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: to adopt it and indorse it again and again upon
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: their official oaths, is in fact so clearly wrong as
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: to demand your condemnation without a moment's consideration. End of
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Cooper Institute's Speech, Part one, recording by Dave Dufek