Part 10 (1/2)
In closing, Douglas, after indignant denial of the charge of conspiracy, said:
”I have lived twenty-five years in Illinois; I have served you with all the fidelity and ability which I possess, and Mr Lincoln is at liberty to attack my public action, my votes, and rity by a charge of conspiracy between myself, Chief Justice Taney, and the Supreme Court and two Presidents of the United States, I will repel it”
At Freeport, Mr Lincoln, in opening the discussion, at once declared his readiness to answer the interrogatories propounded He said:
”I do not now, nor ever did, stand in favor of the unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law; I do not now, nor ever did, stand pledged against the admission of any ainst the admission of a new State into the Union with such a Constitution as the people of that State ed to the abolition of slavery in the District of Colued to the prohibition of the slave trade between the different States; I aht and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the United States Territories”
Waiving the fored, he said:
”As to the first one in regard to the Fugitive Slave Law, I have never hesitated to say, and I do not now hesitate to say, that I think under the Constitution of the United States the people of the Southern States are entitled to a Congressional Fugitive Slave Law Having said that, I have had nothing to say in regard to the existing Fugitive Slave Law further than that I think it should have been framed so as to be free fro its efficiency In regard to whether I aed to the admission of any lad to know that there would never be another slave State admitted into the Union; but I must add that if slavery shall be kept out of the Territories during the Territorial existence of any one given Territory, and then the people shall, having a fair chance and a clear field when they co as to adopt a slavery Constitution uninfluenced by the actual presence of the institution a them, I see no alternative, if n the country, but to adlad to see slavery abolished in the District of Coluress possesses Constitutional power to abolish it Yet, as ato abolish slavery in the District of Columbia unless it would be upon these conditions: First, that the abolition should be gradual; second, that it should be on a vote of the majority of qualified voters in the district; third, that co owners With these conditions, I confess I should be exceedingly glad to see Congress abolish slavery in the District of Colue of Henry Clay, 'Sweep from our Capital that foul blot upon our nation'”
These carefully prepared ansill never cease to be of profound interest to the student of human affairs They indicate unmistakably the conservative tendency of Mr Lincoln, and his position at the tial status of the institution of slavery
But ”courage mounteth with occasion” Five years later, and froreat procla a race The hour had struck--and slavery perished
The cohty upheaval, but as the stubble before the fla to the Freeport debates, Mr Lincoln propounded to his opponent four interrogatories as follows:
”First, if the people of Kansas shall by means entirely unobjectionable in all other respects adopt a State Constitution and ask admission into the Union under it before they have the requisite nu to the bill--some ninety-three thousand-- will you vote to admit them? Second, can the people of a United States Territory in any laay, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State Constitution? Third, if the Supreme Court of the United States shall decide that States cannot exclude slavery fro, and following such decision as a rule of political action? Fourth, are you in favor of acquiring additional territory in disregard of how such acquisition may affect the nation on the slavery question?”
The questions propounded reached the marrow of the controversy, and were yet to have a much wider field for discussion This was especially true of the second of the series Upon this widely divergent--irreconcilable--vieere entertained by Northern and Southern Democrats The evidence of this is to be found in the respective national platfore were two years later rival candidates of a divided party The second interrogatory of Mr Lincoln clearly emphasized this conflict of opinion as it existed at the tilas--of whom little that is kindly has in late years been spoken--to say that there was nothing in the question to cause hie if during the protracted debates with Senators representing extreonistic views, a matter so vital as the interpretation of the Kansas-Nebraska Act--as indicated by the interrogatory--had never been under discussion
Conclusive evidence on this point is to be found in the speech delivered by Senator Douglas at Blooton, July 16, forty-two days before the Freeport debate, in which he said:
”I tell you, my friends, it is impossible under our institutions to force slavery on an unwilling people If this principle of popular sovereignty, asserted in the Nebraska Bill, be fairly carried out by letting the people decide the question for themselves by a fair vote, at a fair election, and with honest returns, slavery will never exist one day or one hour in any Territory against the unfriendly legislation of an unfriendly people Hence if the people of a Territory want slavery they will encourage it by passing affirulations; if they do not want it, they ithhold that legislation, and by withholding it slavery is as dead as if it were prohibited by a Constitutional prohibition They could pass such local laws and police regulations as would drive slavery out in one day or one hour if they were opposed to it, and therefore, so far as the question of slavery in the Territories is concerned in its practical operation, it matters not how the Dred Scott case may be decided with reference to the Territories My own opinion on that point is well known It is shown by ain to the Freeport debate, in reply to the first interrogatory, Douglas declared that in reference to Kansas it was his opinion that if it had population enough to constitute a slave State, it had people enough for a free State; that he would not make Kansas an exceptional case to the other States of the Union; that he held it to be a sound rule of universal application to require a Territory to contain the requisite population for a ress before its ad been decided that Kansas has people enough for a slave State, ”I hold it has enough for a free State”
As to the third interrogatory, he said that only one ton, had held such view, and that he, Douglas, had at the time denounced it on the floor of the Senate; that Mr Lincoln cast an i that it would violate the Constitution; that it would be an act of moral treason that no man on the bench could ever descend to To the fourth--which he said was very ”ingeniously and cunningly put”--he answered that, whenever it becaress to acquire more territory he was in favor of it without reference to the question of slavery, and e had acquired it, he would leave the people to do as they pleased, either to make it free, or slave territory as they preferred
The answer to the second interrogatory--of which e could hardly be more clear or effective He said:
”To the next question propounded to me I answer emphatically, as Mr Lincoln has heard me answer a hundred times, that in my opinion the people of a Territory can by lawful means exclude slavery from their limits prior to the formation of a State Constitution It matters not ay the Supreme Court may hereafter decide as to the abstract question whether slavery o into a Territory under the Constitution, the people have the lawful means to introduce it or exclude it, as they please, for the reason that slavery cannot exist a day, or an hour anywhere, unless it is supported by local police regulations These police regulations can only be established by the local Legislature, and if the people are opposed to slavery they will elect representatives to that body ill by unfriendly legislation effectually prevent the introduction of it into their islature will favor its extension Hence, no matter what the decision of the Supreht of the people to make a slave Territory or a free Territory is perfect and coht, the un to hu years, las to the question of abstract right involved in the memorable discussion
It must be reulf separates us from that eventful period, in which practical statesmen were co And not to be forgotten are the words of the great interpreter of the human heart,
”But know thou this, that las and Lincoln--the like of which we shall not hear again--had ended and passed to the domain of history To the inquiry, ”Which of the participants was the victor?”
there can be no absolute answer Judged by the immediate result, the for, the latter
Within three years fro been elected and inaugurated President--was upon the threshold of hty events which are now the onist in the now historic debates had passed frolas was arievously hath he answered it”
We may well believe that, with like honorable areat popular leaders of different periods--Clay and Blaine --his goal was the Presidency