Concerning sectionalism, Lincoln countered fairly enough on his opponent by asking:  Was it, then, the case that it was slavery which was national, and freedom which was sectional?  Or, “Is it the true test of the soundness of a doctrine that in some places people won’t let you proclaim it?” But the remainder of Douglas’s assault was by no means to be disposed of by quick retort.  When Lincoln was pushed to formulate accurately his views concerning the proper status of the negro in the community, he had need of all his extraordinary care in statement.  Herein lay problems that were vexing many honest citizens and clever men besides himself, and were breeding much disagreement among persons who all were anti-slavery in a general way, but could by no means reach a comfortable unison concerning troublesome particulars.  The “all men free and equal” of the Constitution, and the talk about human brotherhood, gave the Democrats wide scope for harassing anti-slavery men with vexatious taunts and embarrassing cross-interrogatories on practical points.  “I do not question,” said Douglas, “Mr. Lincoln’s conscientious belief that the negro was made his equal, and hence is his brother.  But for my own part, I do not regard the negro as my equal, and positively deny that he is my brother, or any kin to me whatever.”  He said that “the signers of the Declaration had no reference to the negro,... or any other inferior and degraded race, when they spoke of the equality of men,” but meant only “white men, of European birth and descent.”  This topic opens the whole subject of Lincoln’s political affiliations and of his opinions concerning slavery and the negro, opinions which seem to have undergone no substantial change during the interval betwixt this campaign and his election to the presidency.  Some selections from what he said may sufficiently explain his position.

At Freeport, August 27, replying to a series of questions from Douglas, he declared that he had supposed himself, “since the organization of the Republican party at Bloomington, in May, 1856, bound as a party man by the platforms of the party, then and since.”  He said:  “I do not now, nor ever did, stand in favor of the unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law.”  He believed that under the Constitution the Southerners were entitled to such a law; but thought that the existing law “should have been framed so as to be free from some of the objections that pertain to it, without lessening its efficiency.”  He would not “introduce it as a new subject of agitation upon the general question of slavery.”

He should be “exceedingly sorry” ever to have to pass upon the question of admitting more slave States into the Union, and exceedingly glad to know that another never would be admitted.  But “if slavery shall be kept out of the Territories during the territorial existence of any one given Territory, and then the people shall, having a fair chance and a clear field, when they come to adopt