The first inference seems to be that if you do not enslave the negro, you are wronging the white man in some way or other; and that whoever is opposed to the negro being enslaved is in some way or other against the white man.  Is not that a falsehood?  If there was a necessary conflict between the white man and the negro, I should be for the white man as much as Judge Douglas; but I say there is no such necessary conflict.  I say there is room enough for us all to be free, and that it not only does not wrong the white man that the negro should be free, but it positively wrongs the mass of the white men that the negro should be enslaved,—­that the mass of white men are really injured by the effects of slave labour in the vicinity of the fields of their own labour....

There is one other thing that I will say to you in this relation.  It is but my opinion; I give it to you without a fee.  It is my opinion that it is for you to take him or be defeated; and that if you do take him you may be beaten.  You will surely be beaten if you do not take him.  We, the Republicans and others forming the opposition of the country, intend “to stand by our guns,” to be patient and firm, and in the long run to beat you, whether you take him or not.  We know that before we fairly beat you, we have to beat you both together.  We know that “you are all of a feather,” and that we have to beat you all together, and we expect to do it.  We don’t intend to be very impatient about it.  We mean to be as deliberate and calm about it as it is possible to be, but as firm and resolved as it is possible for men to be.  When we do as we say, beat you, you perhaps want to know what we will do with you.

I will tell you, so far as I am authorized to speak for the opposition, what we mean to do with you.  We mean to treat you, as near as we possibly can, as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison treated you.  We mean to leave you alone, and in no way to interfere with your institution; to abide by all and every compromise of the Constitution, and, in a word, coming back to the original proposition, to treat you, so far as degenerate men (if we have degenerated) may, according to the example of those noble fathers—­Washington, Jefferson, and Madison.  We mean to remember that you are as good as we; that there is no difference between us other than the difference of circumstances.  We mean to recognize and bear in mind always, that you have as good hearts in your bosoms as other people, or as we claim to have, and to treat you accordingly.  We mean to marry your girls when we have a chance—­the white ones, I mean, and I have the honour to inform you that I once did have a chance in that way.