Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1858-07-30
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believe | quote correctly from memory.
said there that 1--WE far into the fifth year
slnce policy Instituted Tor the ayawod object
and with the coniieat promise of putting end
10 the slavery agitation; under the operation o.
that policy, that agitation had only not cease I,
but has consta ieis augmented ca yoice) Tnats
the very lan-ua,c, ~ believe it will not
uatii crisis shall have been reached and passed
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
bsiievo this government cannot endure Perna-
nently half Save and half free. (App'a use. } 81
do not expect the Uuion to BE- dissolved, ~ am
quoting from my speeeil-"l do not expect the
house to fall but do expect it will cease to be
divided. 1t will become all one thing all the
other. Either the opponents of slavery will ar
rest the spread q it, and place it where the public
mind shall rest in the beiicf that it is in the
course Of ultimate extinction, its advocates will
push it forward until it shall bee alike lawfu
in all the States, North as well as South" Good
good.D
What is The paragraph? In this para graph
which have quoted in your hearing, AMI to which
l ask the attention of all, Judge Douglas thinks
be discovers great political her"sy. want your
attention particularly to what he has inferred
from it. He says [ am in favor OF making all
the States of this Union unforn in all their in
ternal regulations; that in all their domestic con-
Germs am in favor If making them entirely uni
form. He draws this inference from the language
I have quoted to you. He says that am in ia
vor of making war by the North upon the South
for the extinction of slavery; that also in
favor OF inviting, as he expresses it, the South to
a war upon the North, for the purpose of nation
alizing slavery. Now il is singular enough if
You will carefully read that passage over, that
did not say that in favor of anything in 1t.
l only said what expected would take place. l
made prediction only-it may have been a fool
ish one perhaps. l did not say that desired that
slavery should be put in course of ultimate cx
tinction. do say so now. however tgyeat APP
plausel 80 there need be longer any difficulty
about that. 1t may be written down in the next
speech Applause and laughter.]
Gentlemen, Judge Douglas informed you that
this speech Of mine probably carefully pre-
pared. l admit that it was. l am not master of
language; have not fine education; | am not
capable of entering into disquisition upon 6ia-
lectics, Ibelieyc you callit; but do not believe
the language employed heaTsany such coustruc-
tion as Judge Douglas put upon it. But don't
care about quibbie in regard tn words. know
what l meant, and L will not leave this crowd in
doubt, if | can explain it TO them, Wat | really
meant in the of that paragraph.
l am not, in the first place, unaware that this
Government has endured eighty-two years, half
slave and half free. / know that. am tolera-
bly, we'll acquainted with the history of the
try, ami know that ii has endured eli shty-two
years, half slave and half free. | 5eiispe-and
that is what meant to allude to there-l bcitcre
it has endured because, during all that time until
mind did not rest, all the time, in the belief that
slavery was in course of ultimate extinction.
t"Good' sGood!' and applause. That was what
gave US the rest we had through that eighty.twn
years;-at least, so l believe. | have always
hated slavery, Think much as any abolition
ist (Applause.l l have been an Cd Line " hig.
l have always hated it, but l have always been
quiet about it until this NEW era of the introduc
ton Of the Nebraska Bill began. | always be-
hevcd that everybody was against it, and that it
was in course of ultimate extinction. point
ing to Mr.. Browning who stood near by, )-Brown
ing thought so; the great mass of she nation have
, rested in the belief that slavery in of
ultimate extinction. They had reason so to be-
lieve.
The adoption of the Constitution and its attend
ant history led the people to believe so; and that
such the belief of trainers of the Constitution
itself. Why did those old men, about the time OF
the adoption OF the Constitution, decree that sla-
very should not 60 into the Territory where
it had not already gone2 Why declare that with
in twenty years the African Slave Trade, by which
slaves supplied, might be Il from Con-
gress! Why were all these acts? | might emu
merate more of such aets-but enough. What
were they but clear indication that the fra
mer of the Constitution intended and expected
the ultimate extinction of the institution! (cheers
And now when say, as l say in this speech, that
Judge Douglas has quoted from, when say that
l think the, opponents of slavery will resist the
mind shall rest with the belief that it is in
Of ultimate extinction, l only mean to say that
they will place it where the founders of this gov
eminent originally placed it,
! have said hundred times and have now
no inclination to take it back that believe there
il right, and ought to be NO inclination in the
people of the free States to enter into the slave
States and interfere with the question of slavery
at all have said that always. Judge Douglas
has heard Inc say it-ifnot quite a hundred times
at least good hundred times; and when it
Is said that am in favor o. interfering with fla
very where it exists, know it is unwarrautcd by
anything / ever nten2e3, aud, as | believe, by
anything have ever said. If, by any means,
have ever used language whcl could lairly be SO
Construed (;ts however, / baiieye l never have }
l now CORE t it.
Now in relation to his Inference that l am in
favor of general consolidation of all the local
institutions of the various States. | will attend
to that for little while, and try to inquire, if
can, how on earth it could be that any could
draw such an inference from anything | said. /
have said, very many times, in Judge Douglas
hearing, that no man believed more than in the
principle Of ses-government from beginning To
end | have denied that his Use OF that term ap-
plies properly. But for the thing itself, | deny
that any man has ever gone ahead of me in his
devotion to the principle, whatever he may have
done in efficiency in advocating it. l think that
/ have said it in your hearing-that | believe
each individual is naturally entitled to do as he
pleases with himself aud the fruit of his labor,
tar it in wise interferes with any other 5
rights [applausel that each community, as q
State, has right to do exactly it pleases with
all the conce within that State that interfere
with the rights of no other State, and that the
general government upon. principle, has no right
to interfere with any thing other than that gener
al class of things that does not the whole.
have said that at all times. l have said, as
illustr lions, that do not believe in the right Of
Illinois to interfere with the cranberry laws of
Indiana, the oyster laws of Virginia, tn liquor
laws Of Maine. have said these things over and
over again, and l repeat thom here as my senti-
ments.
DREp SCOTT DECISION.
A little now the other point--the bred Scott
Decision. Another of the issues he says is to
be made with me, is upon his devotion 10 the bred
Scott decision, and my opposition to it.
l have expressed heretofore and now repeat
my opposition to the bred Scott Decision but
should be allowed to state the nature of that OPP
position, and ask your indu gence while do
What is fairly implied by the term Judge Douglas
used-"rcsis,ance to the decison?' l do not re.
sist it, If | wanted to take bred Sc tt from his
master, would be interfering with property, and
that terrible difficulty that Judge Douglas speaks
Of, Of interfering with property would arise. But
am doing no such thing that, but all that j
am doing in refusing to obey it as political rule
Ii were in Congress, and vote should come VI
on n question whether slavery should be prohibit
ed in a new Territory, in spite OF that bred Scot
decision, would vote that it should Applause
good for you" ave hope to see it," that
right
Mr. Lincoln-That is what would do. I.sYo,
will haze chance soon.h1 Judge Douglas sai'
last night, that before the decision he might nd
his opinion, and it mi ght be contrary to tn
decision WHEN it was made but after il was IN I'd
he would abide by it until it was reversed. Jus