Year: 1860

Mr.. Fessendcn-I know it not to be true


Mr.. Douglas-Yvu may know it down in
Maine, but you do not know in Illinois.
have always noted that those men who were
so far off from the slave states that they did
not know anything about them, are most
anxious for the fate of the poor slave
Those men who are so far off that they do
not know what a negro is, are distressed to
death about the condition of the poor negro.
Laughter.] But, sir, go into the border
states, where we associate across the line,
where the civilitics of society are constant
ly interchangcd; where we trade with each
other, and have social and commercial in
tercourse, and there you will find them
standing by each other like band Of broth
ers. Take southern Illinois, southern Ind
lana, southern Ohio, and that part of Penn
sylvania bordering on Maryland, and there
you will find social intercourse, commercial
good feeling; because those
people know the condition of the slave on
the opposite side of the line; but just in
as you recede from the slave
states, just in proportion as the people are
ignorant of the facts, Just in that proportion
party leaders can impose on their sympa-
thies and honest prejud.ces.


Sir, know it is the habit Of the Repub-
lican party, as party, whenever have met
th@m, to make the warfare in such way as
to try to rally the whole north on sectional
grounds against the south. know that is
to be the issue, and it is proven by the
speech Of the senator from New York,
which quoted before, and that of Mr.. Lin
coin, so far as they are authority. | hap
pen to have these speeches before me. The
senator from Maine has said that neither of
these speeches justifies the conclusion that
they asserted that the free states and slave
states cannot co-exist permanently in the
same republic. Let US see whether they do
or not Mr.. Lincoln says:


"a house divided against itself cannot
stard. believe this government cannot
endure permanently, half slave and half
free"


Then he goes on to say they must all be
one thing or all the other, or else the Union
cannot endure. What is the meaning of
that language, unless it is that the Union
cannot permanently exist, half slave and
half frce-that it must all become one thing
or all become tha other? That is the dc
laration. The declaration is that the north
must combine as sectional party, and car
ry on the agitation so fiercely, up to the very
borders Of the slaveholding states, that the
master dare not sleep at night for fear that
the robbers, the John Browns, will come
and set his house on fire, and murder the
women and children before morning. 1t is
to surround the slaveholding states by a
Gordon Of free states, to use the language OF
the senator; to hem them in, in order that
you may smother them out. The senator
avowed, in his speech, to-day, their object
to be to hem in the slave states, in order
that slavery may die out. How die out
Confine it to its present limits let the ratio
of increase 60 on by the laws of nature
and just in proportion as the lands in the
slavcholding states wear out, the negroes in
crease, and you will soon reach that point
where the soil will not produce enough to
feed the slaves; then hem them in and let
them starve outlet them die out by star
vation. That is the policy-hcm them in,
and starve them out Doas the French did
in Algeria, when the Arabs took to the cav
erns-smoke them out by making fires at
the mouth of the caverns, and keep them
burning until they die. The police is to
keep up the agitation along the line; make
slave property insecure in the border states;
keep the master in constant apprehension
Of assault, till he will consent to abandon
his native country, leaving his slaves behind
him, or to remove them further south. II
you can force Kentucky thus to abolish
slavery, you make Tennessee the border
state, and begin the same operation upon
her


But, sir, let us see whether the senator
r,.,,,, Il ,I,s, !
doctrine that free states and slave states can
not permanently exist in the same republic
He said:


ut was an irrepressible conflict between
opposing and enduring forces; and it means
that the United States must and will, soon
er or later, become either entirely slave
holding nation, or entirely free labor
nation


The opposing conflict is between thu
states; the Union cannot remain as it now
is, part free and part slave. The confic
between free states and slave states must q
on until they are all slave states That i.
the declaration of the senator from New
York. The senator from Maine tried t.
make the senate believe that had misrep
resented the senator from New York, ant
Mr.. Lincoln, of Illinois, in stating that they
referred to conflict between states. HI
said that all they meant was that it was
conflict between free labor and slave labor
in the same state.


Now, sir, let me submit to that man.
candor whether he will insist on that posi-


ton. They both say the contest will go OF
until the states become all free or all slave
Then, when is the contest going to end
b., e., ~
not be the same conflict between free labor
and slave labor, after every state has becom,
slave state, that there is now? If tha


was the meaning, would the conflict between
! slave labor and free labor cease, even wher
every state had become slaveholding? Hav,
not all the slave holding states a large mum


Der of free laborers within their limits ane
if there is an irrepressiblc conflict between
free labor and slave labor, will you remov,


that conflict by making the states all slave


Yet the senator from New York says they
must all become slave or all free before tn


conflict ceases. Sir, that shows that thu
senator from New York meant what rep


resented him as meaning 1t shows that


man who knows the meaning of words, ant
has the heart to express them as they read
cannot fail to know that that was the mean
ing Of that tactician.
| The boldness with which charge 0
representation may be made in this body


will not give character to it when it is con


tradicted by the facts. dislike to have t.
repel these charges of unfairness and mis-


representation; yet the senator began witt
a series of inuendoes, with series Of com
plants of misrepresentation, showing tina


he was afraid to meet the real issues Of hi


party, and would make up for that by per
sonal assaults and inucndoes against the op
posite party.


He goes back to speech Of mine, in op'
position to the Lecompton constitution, in
which said that if you would send thai


constitution back, and let the people of Kan


sas vote for or against it, if they voted 70,
| a froa statn l uo1,ld 90 for il without CARING