Year: 1860

subsequently adopted, IN substance, at a
congressional convention held in the dis.
trict of represented by my colleague
Mr.. WAsHBURNE,] and which put him
in nomination. He accepted them as his
platform, ran and was elected upon them,
and has never, as far as know, repudia
ted them; and he now appears in this
Hall as the indorser and defender of Mr..
Lincoln. He tells us they have gone to-
gethcr for tcenty gears and of all my
four Republican colleagues on this floor,
he is the one selected as the defender Of
the record and the advocate of the faith
of Mr.. Lincoln. Why? Simply because
he agreed with him more fully than the
others, and was better acquainted with his
views and opinions. Mr.. Lincoln, in
view of their harmony of doctrines and in
innate relations, might, with great ap-
propriateness, apply to my colleague the
language of Ruth and Naomi


Whittier thou goest, l will go, and
where thou lodgest, / will lodge; thy peo-
pie shall be my people, and thy God my
Cod"


How can two walk together in unity
except they be agreed"


In 1855 another Republican convention
was held in Illinois, which designated Mr..
Lincoln as its choice for Senator. Now
he steps out little further on the political
stage and, in dealing with him, it is not
important to inquire what he has or has
not said about this or that matter as
politician. What the people want to be
informed on are his docrtnts and their
results. In that convention he made a
speech, in which he enuSciated and put
forth the Irrepressible. le.confict" scnti-
ment. He declared that this Government
could not exist half slave aud half free !;
that it must become all one thing or all
the other. How was this to be produced :?
He leaves US in no doubt as to his opinion
that it was to come about. How BY a
war of the free upon the slave States by
imbruing our hands in our brothers
blood. Either the slave States are to
subjugate the free States, or the free
States are to subjugate The slave States
They must, says Mr.. Lincoln, ALL become
one thing ALL free or all slave, and, of
course, if he is elected President, he will
not be contented to administer the Gov
ernment as our fathers made it, but will
direct his attention to the consummation
of his object. The consequences can be
easily foreseen. l will not pause to lift
the vail, that l may see what lies beyond.
God save the Republic


Without going too much into detail,
Mr.. Lincolns position is simply this he
denies to the people of the Territories the
right to determine whether they will or
will not have slavery; and declares they
shall not have it. if they want it; thus
violating fundamental principle of self.
government. He is in favor Of making all
the slave States free States. More than
this, he teaches the doctrine of negro
equality. l care not how much he may
deny it, his language is susceptible of but
one rational construction l will read
what he said in some Of his campaign
speeches in I llnois; and let all who hear
me Judge of it,:


~ should like to know if, taking this
old Declaration of Independence, which
declares that all men are equal, man says
it does not mean negro, why not another
say it does not mean some other man
If that declaration is not the truth, let us
get the statute books in which we find it
and tear it out"


And again:


Let us discard all this quibbling about
this man and the other man--this race
and that race and the other race being
inferior, and therefore they must be pla.
ced in an inferior misunderstanding our
standard that we have left us. Let US
discard all these things, and unite as one
people throughout this land, until we shall
once moro stand up declaring that all men
are created equal"


81 leave you, hoping that the lamp of
liberty will burn in your bosoms until there
shall no longer be doubt that all men
are created free and equal"