The circumstances were much the same as at Ottawa; and he spoke in much the same vein.  He rang the changes upon his great fundamental principle; he defended his course in respect to Lecomptonism; he denounced the Republican party as a sectional organization whose leaders were bent upon “outvoting, conquering, governing, and controlling the South.”  Douglas laid great stress upon this sectional aspect of Republicanism, which made its southward extension impossible.  “Not only is this Republican party unable to proclaim its principles alike in the North and in the South, in the free States and in the slave States, but it cannot even proclaim them in the same forms and give them the same strength and meaning in all parts of the same State.  My friend Lincoln finds it extremely difficult to manage a debate in the center part of the State, where there is a mixture of men from the North and the South."[755]

Here Douglas paused to read from Lincoln’s speeches at Chicago and at Charleston, and to ask his hearers to reconcile the conflicting statements respecting negro equality.  He pronounced Lincoln’s doctrine, that the negro and the white man are made equal by the Declaration of Independence and Divine Providence, “a monstrous heresy.”

Lincoln protested that nothing was farther from his purpose than to “advance hypocritical and deceptive and contrary views in different portions of the country.”  As for the charge of sectionalism, Judge Douglas was himself fast becoming sectional, for his speeches no longer passed current south of the Ohio as they had once done.  “Whatever may be the result of this ephemeral contest between Judge Douglas and myself, I see the day rapidly approaching when his pill of sectionalism, which he has been thrusting down the throats of Republicans for years past, will be crowded down his own throat."[756]

And Lincoln again scored on his opponent, when he pointed out that his political doctrine rested upon the major premise, that there was no wrong in slavery.  “If you will take the Judge’s speeches, and select the short and pointed sentences expressed by him,—­as his declaration that he ’don’t care whether slavery is voted up or down’—­you will see at once that this is perfectly logical, if you do not admit that slavery is wrong....  Judge Douglas declares that if any community wants slavery they have a right to have it.  He can say that logically, if he says that there is no wrong in slavery; but if you admit that there is a wrong in it, he cannot logically say that anybody has a right to do wrong."[757]

Those who now read these memorable debates dis-passionately, will surely acquit Lincoln of inconsistency in his attitude toward the negro.  His speech at Charleston supplements the speech at Chicago; at Galesburg, he made an admirable re-statement of his position.  Nevertheless, there was a marked difference in point of emphasis between his utterances in Northern and in Southern Illinois.  Even the casual reader