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008 - Biographical Sketch Lincoln-Douglas Debate Opening Speech · Noted Speeches of Abraham Lincoln

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eight of Noted Speeches of Abraham Lincoln, edited by
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  Speaker 1: Lillian Marie Briggs. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information were
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  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Matt Williams.
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  Speaker 1: Noted Speeches of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Lillian Marie Briggs.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter eight. Stephen Arnold Douglas biographical sketch. Stephen Arnold Douglas
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  Speaker 1: was born at Brandon, Vermont, on the twenty third of
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  Speaker 1: April eighteen thirteen. When a child, he lived on a farm,
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  Speaker 1: working in the fields in the summer and attending the
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  Speaker 1: district school during the winter months. At the age of fifteen,
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  Speaker 1: young Douglas realized his condition in life that his widowed
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  Speaker 1: mother was not in circumstances to give him an education,
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  Speaker 1: so he suppressed his ambition for college for the time
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  Speaker 1: and apprenticed himself to a cabinet maker in Middlebury. Here
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  Speaker 1: he worked with them usiasm for two years. The following
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  Speaker 1: year he spent in Brandon, his native town, attending the academy.
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  Speaker 1: At the close of that year, he moved with his
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  Speaker 1: mother to Cannadaga, New York, at once becoming a student
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  Speaker 1: at the Fine Academy located there. He remained in Cannadaga
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  Speaker 1: three years, applying himself diligently to his academic studies, also
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  Speaker 1: finding time to follow a course in the study of law.
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  Speaker 1: In eighteen thirty three, the young man of twenty three
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  Speaker 1: years removed Winchester, Illinois, to earn for himself a livelihood.
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  Speaker 1: For a few months, he taught school and continued his
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  Speaker 1: law studies. The next year he was admitted to the
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  Speaker 1: bar in Jacksonville, where he had stopped for a short
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  Speaker 1: time before reaching Winchester. Mister Douglas was elected States Attorney
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  Speaker 1: of the first Judicial District in eighteen thirty five. In
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  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty six, he was elected to the Illinois Legislature.
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  Speaker 1: The following year he was appointed Registrar of Public Lands
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  Speaker 1: at Springfield, to which place he removed. In eighteen forty one,
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  Speaker 1: he was appointed Secretary of State D eight, but soon
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  Speaker 1: resigned to accept the office of judge of the Supreme
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  Speaker 1: Court of the State. In eighteen forty three, mister Douglas
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  Speaker 1: was elected to Congress, where he served for two terms.
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  Speaker 1: He was re elected to the House for the third term,
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  Speaker 1: but At the following session of the legislature December eighteen
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  Speaker 1: forty six, he was chosen for the United States Senate,
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  Speaker 1: of which he remained a member until his death. Senator
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  Speaker 1: Douglas died on the third of June eighteen sixty one.
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  Speaker 1: Stephen A. Douglas Lincoln Douglas Debate first joint debate, delivered
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  Speaker 1: at Ottawa, Illinois, August twenty one, eighteen fifty eight. Douglas's
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  Speaker 1: opening speech, Ladies and gentlemen, I appear before you today
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  Speaker 1: for the purpose of discussing the leading political topics which
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  Speaker 1: now agitate the public mind. By an arrangement between mister
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  Speaker 1: Lincoln and myself, we are present here today for the
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  Speaker 1: purpose of having a joint discussion as the representatives of
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  Speaker 1: the two great political parties of the State and Union,
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  Speaker 1: upon the principles in issue between those parties. And this
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  Speaker 1: vast concourse of people shows the deep feeling which pervades
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  Speaker 1: the public mind in regard to the questions dividing us.
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  Speaker 1: Prior to eighteen fifty four, this country was divided into
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  Speaker 1: two great political parties known as the Whig and Democratic parties.
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  Speaker 1: Both were national and patriotic, advocating principles that were universal
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  Speaker 1: in their application. An old line Whig could proclaim his
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  Speaker 1: principles in Louisiana and Massachusetts alike. Whig principles had no
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  Speaker 1: boundary sectional line. They were not limited by the Ohio River,
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  Speaker 1: nor by the Potomac, nor by the line of the
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  Speaker 1: Free and slave states, but applied and were proclaimed wherever
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  Speaker 1: the Constitution ruled or the American flag waved over the
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  Speaker 1: American soil. So it was, and so it is with
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  Speaker 1: the Great Democratic Party, which from the days of Jefferson
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  Speaker 1: until this period has proven itself to be the historic
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  Speaker 1: party of the nation. While the Whig and Democratic parties
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  Speaker 1: differed in regard to a bank, the tariff distribution, the
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  Speaker 1: specie circular, and the sub treasury, they agreed on the
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  Speaker 1: great slavery question which now agitates the Union. I say
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  Speaker 1: that the Whig Party and the Democratic Party agreed on
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  Speaker 1: the slavery question, while they differed on those matters of
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  Speaker 1: expediency to which I have referred, the Whig Party and
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  Speaker 1: the Democratic Party jointly adopted the compromised measures of eighteen
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  Speaker 1: fifty as the basis of a proper and just solution
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  Speaker 1: of the savory question in all its forms. Clay was
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  Speaker 1: the great leader, with Webster on his right and Cast
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  Speaker 1: on his left, and sustained by the patriots in the
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  Speaker 1: Whig and Democratic ranks, who had devised and enacted the
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  Speaker 1: compromised Measures of eighteen fifty. During the session of Congress
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty three fifty four, I introduced into the
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  Speaker 1: Senate of the United States a bill to organize the
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  Speaker 1: territories of Kansas and Nebraska on that principle which had
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  Speaker 1: been adopted in the compromised Measures of eighteen fifty, approved
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  Speaker 1: by the Whig Party and the Democratic Party in Illinois
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  Speaker 1: eighteen fifty one, and endorsed by the Whig Party and
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  Speaker 1: the Democratic Party in national Convention in eighteen fifty two.
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  Speaker 1: In order that there might be no misunderstanding in relation
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  Speaker 1: to the principle involved in the Kansas and Nebraska Bill,
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  Speaker 1: I put forth the true intent and meaning of the
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  Speaker 1: act in these words quote. It is the true intent
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  Speaker 1: and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into
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  Speaker 1: any state or territory, or to exclude it therefrom but
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  Speaker 1: to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and
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  Speaker 1: regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only
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  Speaker 1: to the Federal Constitution end quote. Thus you can see
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  Speaker 1: that up to eighteen fifty four, when the Kansas and
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  Speaker 1: Nebraska Bill was brought into Congress for the purpose of
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  Speaker 1: carrying out the principles which both parties had up to
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  Speaker 1: that time endorsed and approved, there had been no division
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  Speaker 1: in this country with regard to that principle except the
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  Speaker 1: opposition of the abolitionists. In eighteen fifty four, mister Abraham
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  Speaker 1: Lincoln and mister Lyman Trumbull entered into an arrangement, one
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  Speaker 1: with the other, and each with his respective friends, to
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  Speaker 1: dissolve the old Whig Party on the one hand, and
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  Speaker 1: to dissolve the old Democratic Party on the other, and
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  Speaker 1: to connect the members of both into an abolition party
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  Speaker 1: under the name and disguise of a Republican party. The
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  Speaker 1: terms of that arrangement between Lincoln and Trumbull have been
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  Speaker 1: published by Lincoln's special friend, James H. Matheny Esquire, and
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  Speaker 1: they were that Lincoln should have General Shield's place in
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  Speaker 1: the United States Senate, which was then about to become vacant,
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  Speaker 1: and that Trumbull should have my seat when my term expired.
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  Speaker 1: Lincoln went to work to abolitionize the old Whig Party
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  Speaker 1: all over the state, pretending that he was then as
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  Speaker 1: good a Whig as ever. And Trumbull went to work
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  Speaker 1: in his part of the state, preaching abolitionism in its
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  Speaker 1: milder and lighter form, and trying to abolitionize the Democratic
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  Speaker 1: Party and bring old Democrats handcuffed and bound hand and
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  Speaker 1: foot into the abolition camp. In pursuance of the arrangement,
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  Speaker 1: the parties met at Springfield in October eighteen fifty four,
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  Speaker 1: and there proclaim their new platform. Lincoln was to bring
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  Speaker 1: into the abolition camp the old Lion Whigs and transfer
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  Speaker 1: them over to Giddings, Chase, Fred Douglass and Parson Lovejoy,
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  Speaker 1: who were ready to receive them and christen them in
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  Speaker 1: their new faith. They laid down on that occasion a
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  Speaker 1: platform for their new Republican Party, which was thus to
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  Speaker 1: be constructed. I have the resolutions of that state convention
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  Speaker 1: then held, which was the first mass state convention ever
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  Speaker 1: held in Illinois by the Black Republican Party, and I
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  Speaker 1: now hold them in my hands and will read a
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  Speaker 1: part of them and cause the others to be printed.
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  Speaker 1: Here are the most important and material resolutions of this
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  Speaker 1: abolition platform. Resolved that we believe this truth to be
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  Speaker 1: self evident, that when parties become subversive of the ends
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  Speaker 1: for which they are established, or incapable of restoring the
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  Speaker 1: government to the true principles of the Constitution, it is
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  Speaker 1: the right and duty of the people to dissolve the
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  Speaker 1: political bands by which they may have been connected therewith
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  Speaker 1: and to organize new parties upon such principles and with
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  Speaker 1: such views as the circumstances and exigencies of the nation
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  Speaker 1: may demand, resolved, that the times imperatively demanded, and the
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  Speaker 1: reorganization of parties. In repudiating all previous party attachments, names,
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  Speaker 1: and predilections, we unite ourselves together in defense of the
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  Speaker 1: liberty and constitution of the country, and will hereafter cooperate
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  Speaker 1: as the Republican Party, pledge to the accomplishment of the
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  Speaker 1: following purposes. To bring the administration of the government back
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  Speaker 1: to the control of first principles. To restore Nebraska and
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  Speaker 1: Kansas to the position of free territories. That, as the
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  Speaker 1: Constitution of the United States, vests in the states and
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  Speaker 1: not in Congress, the power to legislate for the extradition
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  Speaker 1: of fugitives from labor, to repeal and entirely abrogate the
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  Speaker 1: fugitive slave law, to restrict slavery to those states in
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  Speaker 1: which it exists, To prohibit the admission of any more
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  Speaker 1: slave states into the Union, To abolish slavery in the
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  Speaker 1: District of Columbia, To exclude slavery from all the territories
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  Speaker 1: over which the General Government has exclusive jurisdiction, and to
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  Speaker 1: resist the acquirement of any more territory unless the practice
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  Speaker 1: of slavery therein forever shall have been prohibited. Resolved that
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  Speaker 1: in furtherance of these principles, we will use such constitutional
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  Speaker 1: and lawful means as shall seem best adapted to their accomplishment,
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  Speaker 1: And that we will support no man for office under
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  Speaker 1: the General or State government who is not positively and
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  Speaker 1: fully committed to the support of these principles, and whose
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  Speaker 1: personal character and conduct is not a guarantee that he
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  Speaker 1: is reliable, and who shall not have abjured old party
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  Speaker 1: allegiance and ties. Now, gentlemen, your black Republicans have cheered
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  Speaker 1: every one of those propositions, and yet I venture to
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  Speaker 1: say that you cannot get mister Lincoln to come out
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  Speaker 1: and say that he is now in favor of each
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  Speaker 1: one of them, that these propositions one and all constitute
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  Speaker 1: the platform of the Black Republican Party of this day.
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  Speaker 1: I have no doubt. And when you are not aware
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  Speaker 1: for what purpose I was reading them, your Black Republicans
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  Speaker 1: cheered them as good Black Republican doctrines. My object in
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  Speaker 1: reading these resolutions was to put the question to Abraham
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  Speaker 1: Lincoln this day whether he now stays and will stand
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  Speaker 1: by each article in that Creed and carry it out. One.
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  Speaker 1: I desire to know whether mister Lincoln stands today as
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  Speaker 1: he did in eighteen fifty four in favor of the
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  Speaker 1: unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law. Two. I desire
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  Speaker 1: him to answer whether he stands pledged today as he
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  Speaker 1: did in eighteen fifty four, against the admission of any
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  Speaker 1: more slave states into the Union, even if the people
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  Speaker 1: want them. Three. I want to know whether he stands
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  Speaker 1: pledged against the admission of a new state into the
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  Speaker 1: Union with such a constitution as the people of that
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  Speaker 1: state may see fit to make. Four. I want to
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  Speaker 1: know whether he stands today pledged to the abolition of
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  Speaker 1: slavery in the District of Columbia. Five. I desire him
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  Speaker 1: to answer whether he stands pledged to the prohibition of
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  Speaker 1: the slave trade between the different states. Six. I desire
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  Speaker 1: to know whether he stands pledged to prohibit slavery in
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  Speaker 1: all the territories of the United States north as well
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  Speaker 1: as south of the Missouri Compromise Line seven. I desire
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  Speaker 1: him to answer whether he is opposed to the other
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  Speaker 1: acquisition of any more territory unless slavery is prohibited therein.
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  Speaker 1: I want his answer to these questions. Your affirmative cheers
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  Speaker 1: in favor of this abolition platform are not satisfactory. I
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  Speaker 1: ask Abraham Lincoln to answer these questions in order that
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  Speaker 1: when I trot him down to Lower Egypt southernmost Illinois,
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  Speaker 1: I may put the same questions to him. My principles
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  Speaker 1: are the same everywhere I can proclaim them alike in
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  Speaker 1: the North, the South, the East, and the West. My
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  Speaker 1: principles will apply wherever the Constitution prevails and the American
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  Speaker 1: flag waves. I desire to know whether mister Lincoln's principles
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  Speaker 1: will bear transplanting from Ottawa to Jonesborough. I put these
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  Speaker 1: questions to him to day distinctly and ask an answer.
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  Speaker 1: I have a right to an answer, for I quote
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  Speaker 1: from the platform of the Republican Party made by himself
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  Speaker 1: and others at the time that party was formed, and
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  Speaker 1: the bargain made by Lincoln to dissolve and kill the
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  Speaker 1: old Whig Party and transfer its members bound hand and
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  Speaker 1: foot to the Abolition Party under the direction of Giddings
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  Speaker 1: and Fred Douglas. In the remarks I have made on
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  Speaker 1: this platform and the position of mister Lincoln upon it,
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  Speaker 1: I mean nothing personally disrespectful or unkind to that gentleman.
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  Speaker 1: I have known him for nearly twenty five years. There
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  Speaker 1: were many points of sympathy between us. When we first
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  Speaker 1: got acquainted. We were both comparatively boys, and both struggling
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  Speaker 1: with poverty in a strange land. I was a school
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  Speaker 1: teacher in the town of Winchester, and he a flourishing
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  Speaker 1: grocery keeper in this town of Salem. He was more
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  Speaker 1: successful in his occupation than I was in mine, and
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  Speaker 1: hence more fortunate in this world's goods. Lincoln is one
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  Speaker 1: of those peculiar men who perform with admirable skills everything
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  Speaker 1: which they undertake. I made as good a school teacher
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  Speaker 1: as I could, and when a cabinet maker, I made
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  Speaker 1: a good bedstead in tables. Although my old boss said,
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  Speaker 1: I succeeded better with bureaus and secretaries than with anything else.
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  Speaker 1: But I believe that mister Lincoln was always more successful
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  Speaker 1: in business than I, for his business enabled him to
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  Speaker 1: get into the legislature. I met him there, however, and
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  Speaker 1: had sympathy with him because of the uphill struggle we
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  Speaker 1: both had in life. He was then just as good
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  Speaker 1: at telling an anecdote as now. He could beat any
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  Speaker 1: of the boys wrestling or running a foot race, in
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  Speaker 1: pitching quoits or tossing a copper, could ruin more liquor
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  Speaker 1: than all the boys together. And the dignity and impartiality
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  Speaker 1: with which he presided at a horse race or fistfight
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  Speaker 1: excited the admiration and won the praise of everybody that
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  Speaker 1: was present and participated. I sympathized with him because he
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  Speaker 1: was struggling with difficulties, and so was I. Mister Lincoln
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  Speaker 1: served with me in the legislature in eighteen thirty six
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  Speaker 1: when we both retired, and he subsided or became submerged,
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  Speaker 1: and he was lost sight of as a public man
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  Speaker 1: for some years. In eighteen forty six, when Wilmot introduced
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  Speaker 1: a celebrated proviso and the abolition tornado swept over the country.
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  Speaker 1: Lincoln again turned up as a member of Congress from
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  Speaker 1: the Sagamon District. I was then in the Senate of
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  Speaker 1: the United States, and was glad to welcome my old
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  Speaker 1: friend and companion. Whilst in Congress, he distinguished himself by
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  Speaker 1: his opposition to the Mexican War war, taking the side
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  Speaker 1: of the common enemy against his own country. And when
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  Speaker 1: he returned home he found that the indignation of the
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  Speaker 1: people followed him everywhere, and he was again submerged or
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  Speaker 1: obliged to retire into private life. Forgotten by his former friends.
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  Speaker 1: He came up again in eighteen fifty four, just in
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  Speaker 1: time to make this Abolition or Black Republican Platform, in
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  Speaker 1: company with Gettings, Lovejoy Chase, and Fred Douglas, for the
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  Speaker 1: Republican Party to stand upon. Having formed this new party
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  Speaker 1: for the benefit of deserters from whiggery and deserters from democracy,
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  Speaker 1: and having laid down the abolition platform which I have read,
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  Speaker 1: Lincoln now takes his stand and proclaims his abolition doctrines.
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  Speaker 1: Let me read a part of them. In his speech
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  Speaker 1: at Springfield to the convention which nominated him for the Senate,
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  Speaker 1: he said, quote in my opinion, it will not cease
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  Speaker 1: until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. A
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  Speaker 1: house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government
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  Speaker 1: cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do
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  Speaker 1: not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not
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  Speaker 1: expect the house to fall, but I do expect it
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  Speaker 1: will cease to be divided. It will become all one
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  Speaker 1: thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery
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  Speaker 1: will arrest the further spread of it and place it
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  Speaker 1: where the public mind shall rest in the belief that
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  Speaker 1: it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its
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  Speaker 1: advocates will push forward till it shall become alike lawful
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  Speaker 1: in all the states, old as well as New, North
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  Speaker 1: as well as South. Good, Good, and cheers. I am
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  Speaker 1: delighted to hear you black Republicans say good. I have
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  Speaker 1: no doubt that doctrine expresses your sentiments, and I will
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  Speaker 1: prove to you now if you will listen to me,
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  Speaker 1: that it is revolutionary and destructive of the existence of
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  Speaker 1: this government. Mister Lincoln, in the extract from which I
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  Speaker 1: have just read, says that this government cannot endure permanently
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  Speaker 1: in the same condition in which it was made by
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  Speaker 1: its framers, divided into free and slave states. He says
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  Speaker 1: that it has existed for about seventy years thus divided.
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  Speaker 1: And yet he tells you that but it cannot endure
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  Speaker 1: permanently on the same principles and in the same relative
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  Speaker 1: condition in which our fathers made it. Why can it
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  Speaker 1: not exist? Divided into free and slave states? Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison,
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  Speaker 1: Hamilton j And the great men of that day made
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  Speaker 1: this government divided into free in slave states, and left
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  Speaker 1: each state perfectly free to do as it pleased on
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  Speaker 1: the subject of slavery? Why can it not exist on
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  Speaker 1: the same principles on which our forefathers made it? They
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  Speaker 1: knew when they framed the Constitution that in a country
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  Speaker 1: as wide and as broad as this, with such a
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  Speaker 1: variety of climate, production and interest, the people necessarily require
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  Speaker 1: different laws and institutions in different localities. They knew that
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  Speaker 1: the laws and regulations which would suit the granite hills
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  Speaker 1: of New Hampshire would be unsuited to the rice plantations
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  Speaker 1: of South Carolina. And they therefore provided that each state
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  Speaker 1: should retain its own legislature and its own sovereignty, with
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  Speaker 1: the full and complete power to do as it pleased
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  Speaker 1: within its own limits in all that was local and
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  Speaker 1: not national. One of the resis served rights of the
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  Speaker 1: states was the right to regulate the relations between master
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  Speaker 1: and servant on the slavery question. At the time the
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  Speaker 1: Constitution was framed, there were thirteen states in the Union,
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  Speaker 1: twelve of which were slaveholding states, and one a free state.
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  Speaker 1: Suppose this doctrine of uniformity preached by mister Lincoln, that
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  Speaker 1: the states should all be free or all be slave,
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  Speaker 1: had prevailed, and what would have been the result. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: the twelve slave holding states would have overruled the one
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  Speaker 1: free state, and slavery would have been fastened by a
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  Speaker 1: constitutional provision on every inch of the American Republic, instead
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  Speaker 1: of being left as our fathers wisely left it to
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  Speaker 1: each state to decide for itself. Here I assert that
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  Speaker 1: uniformity in the local laws and institutions of the different
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  Speaker 1: states is neither possible nor desirable. If uniformity had been
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  Speaker 1: adopted when the government was established, it must inevitably have
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  Speaker 1: been the uniformity of slavery everywhere, or else the uniformity
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  Speaker 1: of Negro citizenship and Negro equality everywhere. We are told
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  Speaker 1: by Lincoln that he is utterly opposed to the dread
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  Speaker 1: Scott decision and will not submit to it for the
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  Speaker 1: reason that he says it deprives the negro of the
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  Speaker 1: rights and privileges of citizenship. That is the first and
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  Speaker 1: main reason which he assigns for his warfare on the
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  Speaker 1: Supreme Court of the United States and its decision. I
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: ask you, are you in favor of conferring upon the
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Negro the rights and privileges of citizenship? Do you desire
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: to strike out of our state constitution that clause which
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: keeps slaves and free Negroes out of the state and
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: allow the free Negroes to flow in and cover your
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: prairies with black settlements. Do you desire to turn this
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: beautiful state into a free Negro colony in order that
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: when Missouri abolishes slavery, she can send one hundred thousand
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: emancipated slaves into Illinois to become citizens and voters. On
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: inequality with yourselves, If you desire Negro citizenship, if you
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: desire to allow them to come into the state and
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: settle with the white man, If you desire them to
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: vote on inequality with yourselves, and to make them eligible
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: for office, to serve on juries, and to adjudge your rights.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Then support mister Lincoln in the Black Republican Party who
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: are in favor of the citizenship of the Negro. For one,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: I am opposed to Negro citizenship in any and every form.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: I believe this government was made on the white basis.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: I believe it was made by white men for the
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: benefit of white men and their posterity forever. And I
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: am in favor of confining citizenship to white men, men
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: of European birth and descent, instead of conferring it upon Negroes, Indians,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: and other inferior races. Mister Lincoln, following the example and
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: lead of all the little abolition orators who go around
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: and lecture in the basements of schools and churches, reads
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: from the Declaration of Independence that all men were created equal,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: and then asks, how can you deprive a Negro of
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: that equality which God in the Declaration of Independence award
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: to him. He and they maintain that Negro equality is
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: guaranteed by the laws of God, and that it is
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: asserted in the Declaration of Independence. If they think so
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: of course, they have a right to say so, and
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: so vote. I do not question mister Lincoln's conscientious belief
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: that the Negro has made his equal and hence is
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: his brother. But for my own part, I do not
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: regard the Negro as my equal, and positively deny that
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: he is my brother or any kin to me. Whatever.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: I do not believe that the Almighty ever intended the
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Negro to be the equal of the white man. If
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: he did, he has been a long time demonstrating the fact.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: For thousands of years, the Negro has been a race
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: upon the earth, and during that time, in all latitudes
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: and climates wherever he has wandered or been taken, he
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: has been inferior to the race which he has met.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: There he belongs to an inferior race, and must always
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: occupy an inferior position. I do not hold that because
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: the Negro is our inferior, therefore he ought to be
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: a slave. By no means can such a conclusion be
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: drawn from what I have said. On the contrary, I
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: hold that humanity and Christianity both require that the Negro
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: shall have and enjoy every right, every privilege, and every
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: immunity consistent with the same safety of the society in
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: which he lives. On that point, I presume there can
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: be no diversity of opinion. You and I are bound
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: to extend to our inferior and dependent beings every right,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: every privilege, every facility, an immunity consistent with the public good.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: The question then arises, what rights and privileges are consistent
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: with the public good. This is a question which each
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: state and each territory must decide for itself. Illinois has
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: decided it for herself. We have provided that the negro
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: shall not be a slave, and we have also provided
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: that he shall not be a citizen, but protect him
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: in his civil rights, in his life, his person, and
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: his property, only depriving him of all political rights whatsoever,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: and refusing to put him on an equality with the
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: white man. That policy of Illinois is satisfactory to the
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: Democratic Party and to me, And if it were to
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: the Republicans, there would then be no question upon the subject.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: But the Republicans say, he ought to be made a citizen,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: and when he becomes a citizen, comes your equal with
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: all your rights and privileges. They assert the dread Scott
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: decision to be monstrous because it denies that the Negro
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: is or can be a citizen under the Constitution. Now,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: I hold that Illinois has a right to abolish and
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: prohibit slavery as she did, and I hold that Kentucky
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: has the same right to continue and protect slavery that
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Illinois had to abolish it. I hold that New York
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: has as much right to abolish slavery as Virginia has
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: to continue it, And that each in every state of
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: this Union is a sovereign power, with the right to
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: do as it pleases upon this question of slavery and
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: upon all its domestic institutions. Slavery is not the only
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: question which comes up in this controversy. There is a
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: far more important one to you, and that is what
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: shall be done with the free negro In relation to
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: the policy to be pursued towards the free negroes, we
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: have said that they shall not vote, whilst Maine, on
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: the other hand, has said that they shall vote. Maine
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: is a sovereign state and has the power to regulate
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: the qualifications of its voters within her limits. I would
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: never consent to confer the right of voting and of
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: citizenship upon a Negro, but still I am not going
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: to quarrel with Maine for differing from me an opinion.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Let Maine take care of her own negroes and fix
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: the qualifications of her own voters to suit herself without
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: interfering with Illinois, and Illinois will not interfere with Maine.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: So with the State of New York. She allows the
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: negro to vote provided he owns two hundred and fifty
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: dollars worth of property, but not otherwise. While I would
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: not make any distinction whatever between a Negro who held
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: property and one who did not. Yet, if the sovereign
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: State of New York chooses to make that distinction, it
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: is her business and not mine, and I will not
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: quarrel with her for it. She can do as she
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: pleases on this question if she minds her own business,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: and we will do the same thing now, my friends,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: if we will only act conscientiously and rigidly upon this
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: great principle of popular sovereignty, which guarantees to each state
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: and territory the right to do as it pleases on
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: all things local in domestic instead of Congress interfering, we
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: will continue at peace with one another. Why should Illinois
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: be at war with Missouri or Kentucky with Ohio, or
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Virginia with New York, merely because their institutions differ. Our
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: fathers intended that our institutions should differ. They knew that
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: the North and the South, having different climates, productions, and interests,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: require different institutions. This doctrine of mister Lincoln, of uniformity
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: among the institutions of the different states, is a new
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: doctrine never dreamed of by Washington, Madison or the framers
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: of this government. Mister Lincoln and the Republican Party set
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: themselves up as wiser than these men who made this government,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: which has flourished for seventy years, under the principle of
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: popular sovereignty, recognizing the right of each state to do
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: as it pleased. Under that principle, we have grown from
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: a nation of three or four millions to a nation
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: of about thirty millions of people. We have crossed the
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Allegheny Mountains and filled up the whole Northwest, turning the
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: prairie into a garden, and building up churches and schools,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: thus spreading civilization and Christianity. Were before there was nothing
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: but savage barbarism. Under that principle, we have become from
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: a feeble nation, the most powerful on the face of
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: the earth. And if only we adhere to that principle,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: we can go forward, increasing in territory, in power, in strength,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: and in glory, until the Republic of America shall be
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: the north star that shall guide the friends of freedom
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: throughout the civilized world. And why can we not adhere
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: to the great principle of self government upon which our
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: institutions were originally based. I believe that this new doctrine
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: preached by mister Lincoln and his party will dissolve the
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Union if it succeeds. They are trying to array all
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: the northern states in one body against the South, to
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: excite a sectional war between the Free States and the
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: slave states, in order that the one or the other
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: may be driven to the wall. End of Chapter eight.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Recording by Matt Williams Hey