Douglas made a successful appeal to the sympathy of the crowd, when he said of his conduct in the Lecompton fight, “Most of the men who denounced my course on the Lecompton question objected to it, not because I was not right, but because they thought it expedient at that time, for the sake of keeping the party together, to do wrong.  I never knew the Democratic party to violate any one of its principles, out of policy or expediency, that it did not pay the debt with sorrow.  There is no safety or success for our party unless we always do right, and trust the consequences to God and the people.  I chose not to depart from principle for the sake of expediency on the Lecompton question, and I never intend to do it on that or any other question."[768]

Both at Quincy and at Alton, Douglas paid his respects to the “contemptible crew” who were trying to break up the party and defeat him.  At first he had avoided direct attacks upon the administration; but the relentless persecution of the Washington Union made him restive.  Lincoln derived great satisfaction from this intestine warfare in the Democratic camp.  “Go it, husband!  Go it, bear!” he cried.

In this last debate, both sought to summarize the issues.  Said Lincoln, “You may turn over everything in the Democratic policy from beginning to end, ... it everywhere carefully excludes the idea that there is anything wrong in it [slavery].

“That is the real issue.  That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent.  It is the eternal struggle between these two principles—­right and wrong—­throughout the world....  I was glad to express my gratitude at Quincy, and I re-express it here, to Judge Douglas,—­that he looks to no end of the institution of slavery.  That will help the people to see where the struggle really is."[769]

To the mind of Douglas, the issue presented itself in quite another form.  “He [Lincoln] says that he looks forward to a time when slavery shall be abolished everywhere.  I look forward to a time when each State shall be allowed to do as it pleases.  If it chooses to keep slavery forever, it is not my business, but its own; if it chooses to abolish slavery, it is its own business,—­not mine.  I care more for the great principle of self-government, the right of the people to rule, than I do for all the negroes in Christendom.  I would not endanger the perpetuity of this Union, I would not blot out the great inalienable rights of the white men, for all the negroes that ever existed."[770]