Year: 1860

the north. Southern abuse, by yiolont
men, of northern statesmen and the
northern people, is essential to the tri-.
umph Of the republican cause. Hence
the course of argument which we have
to meet is not only repclling the appcals
to northern passion and prejudice, but
we have to encounter their appeals TO
southern men TO assail us, in order that
they may iustify their assaults upon the
plea of self-defence.


Sir, when L returned home in 1858,
for the purpose of canvassing Illinois
with view to a reelection, had to
meet this issue of the "irrepressibc con-
flict." 1t is true that the Senator from
New York had not then made his Roches-
ter speech, and did not for four months
afterwards. 1t is true that he had not
given the doctrine that precise name and
form; but the principle was in existence,
and had been proclaimed by the ablest
and the most clear-hcaded men Of the
party. will call your attention, sir, to
a single passage from a speech, to show
the language in which this doctrine was
stated in Illinois before it received the
name of the A" irrepressible conflict. -,
The republican party assembled in State
convention in June, 1858, in Illinois, and
unanimously adopted Abraham Lincoln
ator. Mr.. Lincoln appeared before the
convention, accepted the nomination, and
made speech-which had been previous
ly written and agreed to in caucus by
most of the leaders of the party. i will
read single extract from that speech:


In my opinion it 1.-THE slavery agita-
tion] will not cease until crisis shall
have been reached and passed. a house
divided against itself cannot stand /
believe this government cannot endure
permanently half slave and half free. I
do not not expect the house to fall, butt
do expect it will cease to divide. 1t viii
become all one thing or all the other
Either the opponents of slavery will
arrest the further spread of it, and place
it where the public mind shall rest in the
belief that it is in the course of ultimate
extinction, or its advocates will push for
ward till it shall become alike lawful in
all the States-old as well as new, north
as well as SOUTH"


Sir, the moment landed upon the soil
OF Illinois, at vast gathering of many
thousands of my constituents to welcome
me home, / read that passage, and took
direct issue with the doctrine contained
in it as being revolutionary and treason
able, and inconsistent with the perpetuity
of this republic. That is not merely the
individual opinion of MIR. Lincoln; nor is
it the individual opinion merely Of the
Senator from New York, who four
months afterwards asserted the same
doctrine in different language; but, so far
as | know, it is the general opinion of
the members of the abolition or republi-
can party. They tell the people Of the
north that, unless they rally as one man
under sectional banner, and make war
upon the south with view to the ulti-
mate extinction of slavery, slavery will
overrun the whole north, and fasten itself
upon the free States. They then tell tho
South, unless you rally as one man, bind
ing the whole southern people into Sec
tional party, and establish slavery all
over the free States, the inevitable con-
sequence will be that we shall abolish il
in the slaveholding States. The same
doctrine is held by the Senator from New
York in his Rochester speech. He tells
us that the States must all become free,
or all become slave; that the south in
other words, must conquer and subduc
the north or the north must triumph
over the south, and drive slavery from
within its limits. al eii


Mr.. President, in order to show that I
have not misinterpreted the position Of
the Senator from New York, in notifying
the south that, if they wish to maintain
slavery within their limits, they must
also fasten it upon the northern States,I
will read an extract from his Rochester
speech Zflal'mu


at is an irrepressiblo conflict between
opposing and enduring forces; aud il
means that the United States must and
will, sooner or later, become either en-
tirely slaveholding nation or entirely a
free labor nation. Either the cotton and
rice fields Of South Carclins, and tho
sugar plantations of Louisiana, will en-
tirely be titled by free labor, and Charles.
ton and New Orleans become marts for
Legitimate merchandise alone, or else the.
rye field and wheat fields of Massachu-
setts and New York must again be sur
rendered by their farmers to slave culture
and 10 the production of slaves, and Bos-
ton and New York become once more
markets for trade in the bodies and souls
of men," na3


Thus, sir, you perceive that the theory
of the republican party is, that there is q
conflict between two different systems Of
institutions in the respective classes Of
States-not conflict in the same State,
but an irrepressiblc conflict between the
free States and the slave States; and they
argue that these two systems Of States
cannot permanently exist in the same
Union that the sectional warfare must
continue TO rage and increase with in
crcasing fury until the free States shall
surrender, or the slave States shall be
subducd. Hence, while they appeal to
the passions Of our own section, their
object is to alarm the people Of the
other section, and drive them to inadncss,
with the hope that they will invade our
riohts rs an cxcuse for some of otlr rco-