He was burned in effigy and branded a traitor, a Judas, a Benedict Arnold.  The whole mob power was used against him.  But he was Hercules furious.  He was against the wall, but unrepentant.  He came to Chicago and announced that he would speak in front of the North Market Hall.  It was September, and still lovely summer weather.  I could not induce Dorothy to go, so Mr. Williams, Abigail, Aldington, and I went to hear Douglas defend himself.  All the afternoon before this evening bells were tolled, flags were hung at half-mast.  I got to Douglas, telling him that I feared violence to his person.  He waved me off.  His brow was heavy with scowls, his eyes deep with emotion.  He was like a man ready to fight and die.  Finally the hour arrived, and he mounted the platform intrepidly, amid hisses and howls.  He paused to let the tumult die.  He began again.  He was hooted.  He stepped forward undaunted, and let forth the full power of his voice: 

“I come to tell you that an alliance has been made of abolitionism, Maine liquor-lawism, and what there was left of northern Whiggism, and then the Protestant feeling against the Catholic, and the native feeling against the foreigner.  All these elements were melted down in one crucible, and the result is Black Republicanism.”

A voice called out:  “You’re drunk!” Bedlam broke loose.  In a silence Douglas retorted:  “Let a sober man say that.”  There were cheers.  He went on: 

“How do you dare to yell for negro freedom and then deny me the freedom of speech?  I claim to be a man of practical judgment.  I do not seek the unattainable.  I am not for Utopias.”

“Topers!” said a voice, and there were yells.

“Nor for topers,” resumed Douglas.

“I want results.  What have you done with prohibition of slavery in the North by Federal law?  You who want negro equality, why don’t you repeal the laws of Illinois that forbid the intermarriage of white and blacks, that forbid a negro from testifying against a white man, that allow indentures of apprenticeship, and that require registration of negroes brought into the state, the same as you license a dog?  The Federal government does not prevent you.  The Ordinance of 1787 gave you the start that you want for Kansas and Nebraska.  Yet you have these things; and you don’t have slavery.  Why?  Not because the Federal government says you can’t have it, but because you yourself do not want it.  I say that this northern country is dedicated by God to freedom, law or no law; if it hadn’t been, General Harrison, who introduced slavery into Indiana against the Ordinance of 1787 would have introduced something that would be there now.  So much for you Whigs who voted for Harrison in 1840.”

A voice: 

“How about Kansas and Nebraska?” There were more yells.  “I am telling you, if you will hear me.  You old Whigs who followed Henry Clay to the end, why do you denounce me when the Kansas-Nebraska bill is the same in principle as Clay’s Compromises of 1850 ...”