Year: 1859

port on the 27th August. 1858. III
said that the people of the Territories
can exclude slavery. in SO many words
You ought. however. to bear in mind
that hc has never said it since. You
may hunt in every speech that he mas
since made, and he has never used the
expression once. lie has never seem
ed to notice that he Is stating his view
/ differently from what hc did then; but.
by some sort of accident, he has al
ways really stated it differently. He
has always since then declared. the
Constitution does not carry Slavery
into the Territories of the L. :. beyond
the power of the people legally to con
troll it, as other property Now there
is difference IN the language used
upon that former occasion and in this
latter day. There may oil may not be
difference in the meaning. hut il is
worth while considering whether there
is not also difference in meaning.


What is it TO exclude? Why, it is
to drive it out. 1t is in some way TO
put it out of the Territory. 1t il to
force it across the line, or change its
character, so that as property it is out
of existence. But what is the con-
trolling of it as other property? l.
it the same thing as the controlling of
other property.-the destruction of it
or driving it away? l should think
not. ] should think the controlling OF
it as other property would be just
about what you in kentucky should
want. | understand the controlling OF
property means the controlling of il
for the benefit Of the owner of it
While | have no doubt the Supreme
Court of the L. S. would say Good
speed to any of the Territorial Legis-
latures that should thus control slave
property, they would sing quite DIFF
lercnt tune ii by the prctcnse of con-
trolling it they were to undertake TO
pass laws which virtually excluded it.
and that upon a very well known
principle TO all lawyers, that what a
Legislature can not directly DO, it can
not do by indirection; that as the leg
islaturc has not the power to drive
slaves out, they have no power by in
direction, 10y tax or by imposing bur
dens in any way on that property, to
effect the same end, and that any at
tempt to DO 30 is unconstitutional.


Douglas is not willing to stand by
his first proposition that they can ex-
clude it, because we have seen that
that proposition amounts to nothing
more nor less than this naked absurd
ity, that you may lawfully drive ont
that which has lawful place in the
Territory. lie admits that the slave
is lawfully taken into the Territories
under the Constitution of the L. s.,
and yet asserted that it may be law
fully driven out. That being the prop
osition, it is the absurdity l have
stated. lie is not willing to stand in
the face of that direct, naked and i'm
pudent absurditv, he has, therefore,
modified his language into the other
imputation.


You Kentuckians don't like this in
Douglass will tell you where it will
go. He now swears by the Court. lie
was once leading man in Illinois to
break down Court, because it had
made a decision he did not like. But
he now not only swcars by the Courts,
the Courts having got to working for
you, but he denounces all men that do
not swear by the Courts as unpatriotic
and as bad citizens. When one OF
these acts of unfriendly legislation
shall impose such heavy burdens as
to, in effect, destroy property in slaves
in a Territory, and show plainly
enough that there can be no mistake
in the purpose Of the Legislature to
make them so bur'lcnsomc. this same
Supreme Court will decide that law to
be unconstitutional, and he will be
ready to say for your benefit, i swear
by the Court; ! give it up and while
that is going on he has been getting
all his men to swear by the Courts.
and to give it up with him. In this
again he serves you faithfully. and as
| say, more wisely than you serve
yourselves.


Again: ] have alluded. in the be-
ginning of these remarks, to the fact
that Judge Douglas has made great
complaint of my having expressed the
opinion that this government 'can not
endure permanently half slave and
half Free lie has complained Of Mr..
Seward for using different language,
and declaring that there is an IRE
pressible conflict between the princi-
pies Of free and slave labor.


a Noice--'He saws it is not orig
inal with Seward. That it is original
with Lincoln


Mr.. Lincoln-I will attend to that
Immediately. sir. Since that time.
Hickman, of Pennsylvania, expressed
the same sentiment. He has never
denounced Hickman. Why? There
is a little chance. Notwithstanding
that opinion in the mouth of Hick-
man, that he yet may lie Douglas
man. That is the difference. Ii j.
not unpatriotic to hold that opinion.
if man is Douglas man.


But neither nor Seward. nor Hick-
man. is entitled to the enviable or un-
cnviable distinction of having first ex-
pressed that idea That same idea
was expressed by the Richmond En-
quirer, in Virginia, in 1886; quite two
years before it was expressed by the
first of us. and while Douglas was
pluming himself, that in the coming
contest with my humble self. last year,
he had 'squelchcd out that fatal here
sy, as he delighted to call it, and had
e,c,octoJ sbat &c ba oo1,. l.. "A n ebo,oo