Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1858-1859, 1858-08-28

know as it would be q great sin, if had been,
Int he is mistaken. Lincoln never kept a
grocery anywhere in the world. Laughter.
| # is true that Lincoln did work the latter
mart of one winter in little still-house, up al
the head of hollow. Roars Of laughter.
And so l think my friend, the Judge, is
equally at fault when he charges me at the
time when was in Congress OF having OPP
posed our soldiers who were fighting in the
Mexican war. The Judge did not make his
charge very distinctly but can tell you wha'
he can prove by referring to the record on
remember was an old Wing, and whenever
the Democratic party tried to get me to vote
that the war had been righteously begun Dy
the President would not do it. But when
ever they asked for any money, or land war
rants, or anything to pay the soldiers mere
during all that time, | gave the same votes
that Judge Douglas did. Loud applause
You can think as you please as to whether
that was consistent. Such is the truth; and
the Judge has the right to make all he car
out of it. But when he, by general charge
CONVEYS the idea that | withheld supplies
from the soldiers who were lighting IN the
Mexican war. or did any thing else to hinder
the soldiers, he is, to say the least, grossly
the records will prove to him.
ASH have not used up so much OF my time
as had supposed will dwell little longer
mon one or two of these minor topics upon
which the Judge has spoken. He has read
from nv speech in Springfield, in which L say
that "a house divided against itself cannot
stand.n Does the Judge say it can stand
II,auohterl | don't know whether he does
or not. The Judge does not seem to be at
tending to me Just now, but would like to
know if it is his opinion that house divided
AGAINST itself can stand If he does, then
there is a question of veraclty, not between
him and me, but between the Judge and an
authority of somewhat higher character
Laughter and applause.]
Now, my friends, | ask your attention to
this matter for the purpose OF saying some
thing seriously. I know that the Judge may
readily enough agree with me that the maxim
which was put forth by the Savior is true
but he may allege that misapply it; and
the Judge has right to urge that, in my
application, do not misapply it, and then
have a right to show that do not msapply
it. When he undertakes to say that because
1 think this nation, so far as the question OF
slavery is concerned, will all become one
thing or all the other, am in favor OF bring
ing about a dead uniformity in the various
States, in all their institutions, he argues er-
roneousIy. The great variety OF the local
institutions in the States, springing from diff
ferences in the soil, differences in the face OF
the country, aud in the climate, are bonds Of
Union. They do not make a house divided
against ITSELF" but they make house united
If they produce in one section of the country
what is called for by the wants OF another
section and this other section can supply the
wants of the first they are not matters oil
discord but bonds of union, true bonds OF
union But can this question of slavery be
considered as among these varieties in the in
situations of the country? Ileave it to you
to say whether, in the history Of our govern
ment, this institution of slavery has not always
failed to be tond of union, and, on the con-
trary, been an apple of discord and an element
of division in the house. (Cries of ''Ye s,
yes" and applause.) l ask you to consider
whether, so long as the moral constitution OF
mems minds shall continue to be the same
after this generation and assemblage shall
sink into the grave, and another race shall
arise. with the same moral and intellectual
development we have-whether, if that insti
tuition is standing in the same irritating posi-
ton in which it now is, it will not continue
an element of division? (Cr.es of ayes
yes.'0 If so, then l have right to say that
in regard to this question, the Union is a
house divided against ITSELF and when the
Judge reminds me that have often said to
him that the institution of slavery has ex
listed for eighty years in some States, and yet
it does not exist in some others. | agree to
the fact, and account for it by looking al
the postion in which our fathers originally
placed it-restrictng it from the new Tel
tories where it had not gone and legislatine
to cut off it's source by the abrogation of the
slave trade, thus putting the seal of legislation
oqainst its spread. The public mind did rest
in the belief that it was in the course of ulti
mate extinction. (Cries of ayes, yes" But
lately, | think-and in this | charge nothing
on the Judges motives-lately, think, that
he, and those acting with him, have placed
that institution on new basis, which looks to
the uerpetuHy and naturalization Of slarery
loud cheers.) And while it is placed upon
this new basis, say, and have said, that
believe we shall not have peace upon the
question until the opponents Of slavery arrest
the further spread of it, and place it where
the public mind shall rest in the belief that
|
on the other hand, that its advocates will
lawful in all the States, old as we'll as new
North as we'll as South. Now, believe, il
we could arrest the spread, and place it where
Washington, and Jefferson, and Madison
placed it, it ,could be in the course of ultimate
extinction, and the public mind aoOuld, as for
eighty years past, believe that it was in the
course of ultimate extinction. The crisis
would be past and the institution might be
let alone for hundred years, if it should
live so long, in the States where it exists, yet
it would be going out of existence in the way
best for both the black and the white races
| Great cheering)
A Voice-Then do you repudiate Popular
Sovereignty
Mr.. Lincoln-Well, then, let us talk about
Popular Sovereignty Laughterl What
is Popular Sovereignty? [Cries of "a hum
bug,""a humbug."] Is it the right of the
people to have Slavery or not have it, as they
see fit, in the territories [ will state-and
| have an able man to watch me--my under
standing is that Popular Sovereignty, as now
applied to the question of Slavery, does allow
the people of Territory to have Slavery il
they want to, but does not allow them not to
have it if they do not want it. Applause and
laughter] 1 do not mean that if this vast
concourse of people were in Territory OF
the United States, any one of them would be
obliged to have slave if he did not wan,
one; but do say that, as understand the
bred Scott decision, if any one man wants
slaves, all the rest have no way of keeping
that one man from holding them.
When made my speech at Springfield, Of
which the Judge complains, and from which
he quotes, really was not thinking of the
things which he ascribes to me at ALL I had
no thought in the world that 1 was doing
anything to bring about war between the
free and slave States. I had no thought in
the world that l was doing anything to bring
| ahont q nolitical and social equality of the