There is another point I desire to make in regard to this matter, before I leave it.  From the adoption of the Constitution down to 1820 is the precise period of our history when we had comparative peace upon this question,—­the precise period of time when we came nearer to having peace about it than any other time of that entire one hundred and sixty years in which he says it began, or of the eighty years of our own Constitution.  Then it would be worth our while to stop and examine into the probable reason of our coming nearer to having peace then than at any other time.  This was the precise period of time in which our fathers adopted, and during which they followed, a policy restricting the spread of slavery, and the whole Union was acquiescing in it.  The whole country looked forward to the ultimate extinction of the institution.  It was when a policy had been adopted, and was prevailing, which led all just and right-minded men to suppose that slavery was gradually coming to an end, and that they might be quiet about it, watching it as it expired.  I think Judge Douglas might have perceived that too; and whether he did or not, it is worth the attention of fair-minded men, here and elsewhere, to consider whether that is not the truth of the case.  If he had looked at these two facts,—­that this matter has been an element of discord for one hundred and sixty years among this people, and that the only comparative peace we have had about it was when that policy prevailed in this government which he now wars upon, he might then, perhaps, have been brought to a more just appreciation of what I said fifteen months ago,—­that “a house divided against itself cannot stand.  I believe that this government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free.  I do not expect the house to fall, I do not expect the Union to dissolve; but I do expect it will cease to be divided.  It will become all one thing, or all the other.  Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind will rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward until it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South.”  That was my sentiment at that time.  In connection with it, I said:  “We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was inaugurated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation.  Under the operation of the policy that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented.”  I now say to you here that we are advanced still farther into the sixth year since that policy of Judge Douglas—­that popular sovereignty of his—­for quieting the slavery question was made the national policy.  Fifteen months more have been added since I uttered that sentiment; and I call upon you and all other right-minded men to say whether that fifteen months have belied or corroborated my words.