Writings of Abraham Lincoln, the — Volume 3: the Lincoln-Douglas debates eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 162 pages of information about Writings of Abraham Lincoln, the — Volume 3.

Writings of Abraham Lincoln, the — Volume 3: the Lincoln-Douglas debates eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 162 pages of information about Writings of Abraham Lincoln, the — Volume 3.
it.  I think, in the position in which Judge Douglas stood in opposing the Lecompton Constitution, he was right; he does not know that it will return, but if it does we may know where to find him, and if it does not, we may know where to look for him, and that is on the Cincinnati platform.  Now, I could ask the Republican party, after all the hard names that Judge Douglas has called them by all his repeated charges of their inclination to marry with and hug negroes; all his declarations of Black Republicanism,—­by the way, we are improving, the black has got rubbed off,—­but with all that, if he be indorsed by Republican votes, where do you stand?  Plainly, you stand ready saddled, bridled, and harnessed, and waiting to be driven over to the slavery extension camp of the nation,—­just ready to be driven over, tied together in a lot, to be driven over, every man with a rope around his neck, that halter being held by Judge Douglas.  That is the question.  If Republican men have been in earnest in what they have done, I think they had better not do it; but I think that the Republican party is made up of those who, as far as they can peaceably, will oppose the extension of slavery, and who will hope for its ultimate extinction.  If they believe it is wrong in grasping up the new lands of the continent and keeping them from the settlement of free white laborers, who want the land to bring up their families upon; if they are in earnest, although they may make a mistake, they will grow restless, and the time will come when they will come back again and reorganize, if not by the same name, at least upon the same principles as their party now has.  It is better, then, to save the work while it is begun.  You have done the labor; maintain it, keep it.  If men choose to serve you, go with them; but as you have made up your organization upon principle, stand by it; for, as surely as God reigns over you, and has inspired your mind, and given you a sense of propriety, and continues to give you hope, so surely will you still cling to these ideas, and you will at last come back again after your wanderings, merely to do your work over again.

We were often,—­more than once, at least,—­in the course of Judge Douglas’s speech last night, reminded that this government was made for white men; that he believed it was made for white men.  Well, that is putting it into a shape in which no one wants to deny it; but the Judge then goes into his passion for drawing inferences that are not warranted.  I protest, now and forever, against that counterfeit logic which presumes that because I did not want a negro woman for a slave, I do necessarily want her for a wife.  My understanding is that I need not have her for either, but, as God made us separate, we can leave one another alone, and do one another much good thereby.  There are white men enough to marry all the white women, and enough black men to marry all the black women; and in God’s name let them be so married.  The Judge regales us with the terrible enormities that take place by the mixture of races; that the inferior race bears the superior down.  Why, Judge, if we do not let them get together in the Territories, they won’t mix there.

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Writings of Abraham Lincoln, the — Volume 3: the Lincoln-Douglas debates from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.