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.