The dictated statement read as follows:  “The Quincy Whig and other Whig papers are publishing an article purporting to be copied from a Mississippi paper abusing Judge Douglas as the owner of 100 slaves and at the same time accusing him of being a Wilmot Free-soiler.  That the article originated in this State, and was sent to Mississippi for publication in order that it might be re-published here we shall not question nor take the trouble to prove.  The paternity of the article, the malice that prompted it, and the misrepresentations it contains are too obvious to require particular notice.  If it had been written by a Mississippian he would have known that the statement in regard to the ownership of the negroes was totally untrue.  No one will pretend that Judge Douglas has any other property in Mississippi than that which was acquired in the right of his wife by inheritance upon the death of her father, and anyone who will take the trouble to examine the statutes of that State in the Secretary’s office in this City will find that by the laws of Mississippi all the property of a married woman, whether acquired by will, gift or otherwise, becomes her separate and exclusive estate and is not subject to the control or disposal of her husband nor subject to his debts.  We do not pretend to know whether the father of Mrs. Douglas at the time of his death owned slaves in Mississippi or not.  We have heard the statement made by the Whigs but have not deemed it of sufficient importance to inquire into its truth.  If it should turn out so, in no event could Judge Douglas become the owner or have the disposal of or be responsible for them.  The laws of the State forbid it, and also forbid slaves under such circumstances from being removed without or emancipated within the limits of the State.”

Born a Yankee, bred a Westerner, wedded to the mistress of a Southern plantation, Douglas represented a Commonwealth whose population was made up of elements from all sections.  The influences that shaped his career were extraordinarily complex.  No account of his subsequent public life would be complete, without reference to the peculiar social and political characteristics of his constituency.

The people of early Illinois were drawn southward by the pull of natural forces:  the Mississippi washes the western border on its gulf-ward course; and the chief rivers within the State have a general southerly trend.[302] But quite as important historically is the convergence of the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee on the southern border of Illinois; for it was by these waterways that the early settlers reached the Illinois Territory from the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina.  The apex of the irregular, inverted triangle of Illinois, thrust down to the 37th parallel of latitude, brought the first settlers well within the sphere of Southern influence.  Two slave States flanked this southern end.  Nearly one-half of Illinois lay south of a direct, westward extension of Mason and Dixon’s line.