按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
had a hand in passing them; in his opening speech; that I was in the
convention and helped to pass them。 Do the resolutions touch me at
all? It strikes me there is some difference between holding a man
responsible for an act which he has not done and holding him
responsible for an act that he has
done。 You will judge whether there is any difference in the 〃spots。〃
And he has taken credit for great magnanimity in coming forward and
acknowledging what is proved on him beyond even the capacity of Judge
Douglas to deny; and he has more capacity in that way than any other
living man。
Then he wants to know why I won't withdraw the charge in regard to a
conspiracy to make slavery national; as he has withdrawn the one he
made。 May it please his worship; I will withdraw it when it is
proven false on me as that was proven false on him。 I will add a
little more than that; I will withdraw it whenever a reasonable man
shall be brought to believe that the charge is not true。 I have
asked Judge Douglas's attention to certain matters of fact tending to
prove the charge of a conspiracy to nationalize slavery; and he says
he convinces me that this is all untrue because Buchanan was not in
the country at that time; and because the Dred Scott case had not
then got into the Supreme Court; and he says that I say the
Democratic owners of Dred Scott got up the case。 I never did say
that I defy Judge Douglas to show that I ever said so; for I never
uttered it。 'One of Mr。 Douglas's reporters gesticulated
affirmatively at Mr。 Lincoln。' I don't care if your hireling does say
I did; I tell you myself that I never said the 〃Democratic〃 owners of
Dred Scott got up the case。 I have never pretended to know whether
Dred Scott's owners were Democrats; or Abolitionists; or Freesoilers
or Border Ruffians。 I have said that there is evidence about the
case tending to show that it was a made…up case; for the purpose of
getting that decision。 I have said that that evidence was very
strong in the fact that when Dred Scott was declared to be a slave;
the owner of him made him free; showing that he had had the case
tried and the question settled for such use as could be made of that
decision; he cared nothing about the property thus declared to be his
by that decision。 But my time is out; and I can say no more。
LAST JOINT DEBATE;
AT ALTON; OCTOBER 15; 1858
Mr。 LINCOLN'S REPLY
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:I have been somewhat; in my own mind;
complimented by a large portion of Judge Douglas's speech;I mean
that portion which he devotes to the controversy between himself and
the present Administration。 This is the seventh time Judge Douglas
and myself have met in these joint discussions; and he has been
gradually improving in regard to his war with the Administration。 At
Quincy; day before yesterday; he was a little more severe upon the
Administration than I had heard him upon any occasion; and I took
pains to compliment him for it。 I then told him to give it to them
with all the power he had; and as some of them were present; I told
them I would be very much obliged if they would give it to him in
about the same way。 I take it he has now vastly improved upon the
attack he made then upon the Administration。 I flatter myself he has
really taken my advice on this subject。 All I can say now is to
re…commend to him and to them what I then commended;to prosecute
the war against one another in the most vigorous manner。 I say to
them again: 〃Go it; husband!Go it; bear!〃
There is one other thing I will mention before I leave this branch of
the discussion;although I do not consider it much of my business;
anyway。 I refer to that part of the Judge's remarks where he
undertakes to involve Mr。 Buchanan in an inconsistency。 He reads
something from Mr。 Buchanan; from which he undertakes to involve him
in an inconsistency; and he gets something of a cheer for having done
so。 I would only remind the Judge that while he is very valiantly
fighting for the Nebraska Bill and the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise; it has been but a little while since he was the valiant
advocate of the Missouri Compromise。 I want to know if Buchanan has
not as much right to be inconsistent as Douglas has? Has Douglas the
exclusive right; in this country; of being on all sides of all
questions? Is nobody allowed that high privilege but himself? Is he
to have an entire monopoly on that subject?
So far as Judge Douglas addressed his speech to me; or so far as it
was about me; it is my business to pay some attention to it。 I have
heard the Judge state two or three times what he has stated to…day;
that in a speech which I made at Springfield; Illinois; I had in a
very especial manner complained that the Supreme Court in the Dred
Scott case had decided that a negro could never be a citizen of the
United States。 I have omitted by some accident heretofore to analyze
this statement; and it is required of me to notice it now。 In point
of fact it is untrue。 I never have complained especially of the Dred
Scott decision because it held that a negro could not be a citizen;
and the Judge is always wrong when he says I ever did so complain of
it。 I have the speech here; and I will thank him or any of his
friends to show where I said that a negro should be a citizen; and
complained especially of the Dred Scott decision because it declared
he could not be one。 I have done no such thing; and Judge Douglas;
so persistently insisting that I have done so; has strongly impressed
me with the belief of a predetermination on his part to misrepresent
me。 He could not get his foundation for insisting that I was in
favor of this negro equality anywhere else as well as he could by
assuming that untrue proposition。 Let me tell this audience what is
true in regard to that matter; and the means by which they may
correct me if I do not tell them truly is by a recurrence to the
speech itself。 I spoke of the Dred Scott decision in my Springfield
speech; and I was then endeavoring to prove that the Dred Scott
decision was a portion of a system or scheme to make slavery national
in this country。 I pointed out what things had been decided by the
court。 I mentioned as a fact that they had decided that a negro
could not be a citizen; that they had done so; as I supposed; to
deprive the negro; under all circumstances; of the remotest
possibility of ever becoming a citizen and claiming the rights of a
citizen of the United States under a certain clause of the
Constitution。 I stated that; without making any complaint of it at
all。 I then went on and stated the other points decided in the case;
namely; that the bringing of a negro into the State of Illinois and
holding him in slavery for two years here was a matter in regard to
which they would not decide whether it would make him free or not;
that they decided the further point that taking him into a United
States Territory where slavery was prohibited by Act of Congress did
not make him free; because that Act of Congress; as they held; was
unconstitutional。 I mentioned these three things as making up the
points decided in that case。 I mentioned them in a lump; taken in
connection with the introduction of the Nebraska Bill; and the
amendment of Chase; offered at the time; declaratory of the right of
the people of the Territories to exclude slavery; which was voted
down by the friends of the bill。 I mentioned all these things
together; as evidence tending to prove a combination and conspiracy
to make the institution of slavery national。 In that connection and
in that way I mentioned the decision on the point that a negro could
not be a citizen; and in no other connection。
Out of this Judge Douglas builds up his beautiful fabrication of my
purpose to introduce a perfect social and political equality between
the white and black races。 His assertion that I made an 〃especial
obje