Well, so much being disposed of, what is left?  Why, he is contending for the right of the people, when they come to make a State Constitution, to make it for themselves, and precisely as best suits themselves.  I say again, that is quixotic.  I defy contradiction when I declare that the Judge can find no one to oppose him on that proposition.  I repeat, there is nobody opposing that proposition on principle.  Let me not be misunderstood.  I know that, with reference to the Lecompton Constitution, I may be misunderstood; but when you understand me correctly, my proposition will be true and accurate.  Nobody is opposing, or has opposed, the right of the people, when they form a constitution, to form it for themselves.  Mr. Buchanan and his friends have not done it; they, too, as well as the Republicans and the Anti-Lecompton Democrats, have not done it; but on the contrary, they together have insisted on the right of the people to form a constitution for themselves.  The difference between the Buchanan men on the one hand, and the Douglas men and the Republicans on the other, has not been on a question of principle, but on a question of fact.

The dispute was upon the question of fact, whether the Lecompton Constitution had been fairly formed by the people or not.  Mr. Buchanan and his friends have not contended for the contrary principle any more than the Douglas men or the Republicans.  They have insisted that whatever of small irregularities existed in getting up the Lecompton Constitution were such as happen in the settlement of all new Territories.  The question was, Was it a fair emanation of the people?  It was a question of fact, and not of principle.  As to the principle, all were agreed.  Judge Douglas voted with the Republicans upon that matter of fact.

He and they, by their voices and votes, denied that it was a fair emanation of the people.  The Administration affirmed that it was.  With respect to the evidence bearing upon that question of fact, I readily agree that Judge Douglas and the Republicans had the right on their side, and that the Administration was wrong.  But I state again that, as a matter of principle, there is no dispute upon the right of a people in a Territory, merging into a State, to form a constitution for themselves without outside interference from any quarter.  This being so, what is Judge Douglas going to spend his life for?  Is he going to spend his life in maintaining a principle that nobody on earth opposes?  Does he expect to stand up in majestic dignity, and go through his apotheosis and become a god in the maintaining of a principle which neither man nor mouse in all God’s creation is opposing?  Now something in regard to the Lecompton Constitution more specially; for I pass from this other question of popular sovereignty as the most arrant humbug that has ever been attempted on an intelligent community.