Thereafter treason had no abiding place within the limits of the State of Illinois.  And no one, it may be safely affirmed, could have so steeled the hearts of men in Southern Illinois for the death grapple.  In a manly passage in his speech, Douglas said, “I believe I may with confidence appeal to the people of every section of the country to bear witness that I have been as thoroughly national as any man that has lived in my day.  And I believe if I should make an appeal to the people of Illinois, or of the Northern States, to their impartial verdict; they would say that whatever errors I have committed have been in leaning too far to the Southern section of the Union against my own....  I have never pandered to the prejudice and passion of my section against the minority section of the Union.”  It was precisely this truth which gave him a hearing through the length and breadth of Illinois and the Northwest during this crisis.

The return of Douglas to Chicago was the signal for a remarkable demonstration of regard.  He had experienced many strange home-comings.  His Democratic following, not always discriminating, had ever accorded him noisy homage.  His political opponents had alternately execrated him and given him grudging praise.  But never before had men of all parties, burying their differences, united to do him honor.  On the evening of his arrival, he was escorted to the Wigwam, where hardly a year ago Lincoln had been nominated for the presidency.  Before him were men who had participated jubilantly in the Republican campaign, with many a bitter gibe at the champion of “squatter sovereignty.”  Douglas could not conceal his gratification at this proof that, however men had differed from him on political questions, they had believed in his loyalty.  And it was of loyalty, not of himself, that he spoke.  He did not spare Southern feelings before this Chicago audience.  He told his hearers unequivocally that the slavery question, the election of Lincoln, and the territorial question, were so many pretexts for dissolving the Union.  “The present secession movement is the result of an enormous conspiracy formed more than a year since, formed by leaders in the Southern Confederacy more than twelve months ago.”  But this was no time to discuss pretexts and causes.  “The conspiracy is now known.  Armies have been raised, war is levied to accomplish it.  There are only two sides to the question.  Every man must be for the United States or against it.  There can be no neutrals in this war; only patriots—­or traitors."[997] It was the first time he had used the ugly epithet.