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Stephen A. Douglas by Allen Johnson

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Douglas then read from the first platform of the Black Republicans.
"My object in reading these resolutions," he said, "was to put the
question to Abraham Lincoln this day, whether he now stands and will
stand by each article in that creed and carry it out. I desire to know
whether Mr. Lincoln to-day stands, as he did in 1854, in favor of the
unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave law. I desire him to answer
whether he stands pledged to-day, as he did in 1854, against the
admission of any more slave States into the Union, even if the people
want them. I want to know whether he stands pledged against the
admission of a new State into the Union with such a Constitution as
the people of that State may see fit to make. I want to know whether
he stands to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery in the District
of Columbia. I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to the
prohibition of the slave trade between the different States. I desire
to know whether he stands pledged to prohibit slavery in all the
Territories of the United States, North as well as South of the
Missouri Compromise line. I desire him to answer whether he is opposed
to the acquisition of any more territory, unless slavery is prohibited
therein."[712]

In all this there was a rude vehemence and coarse insinuation that was
regrettable; yet Douglas sought to soften the asperity of his manner,
by adding that he did not mean to be disrespectful or unkind to Mr.
Lincoln. He had known Mr. Lincoln for twenty-five years. While he was
a school-teacher, Lincoln was a flourishing grocery-keeper. Lincoln
was always more successful in business; Lincoln always did well
whatever he undertook; Lincoln could beat any of the boys wrestling or
running a foot-race; Lincoln could ruin more liquor than all the boys
of the town together. When in Congress, Lincoln had distinguished
himself by his opposition to the Mexican War, taking the side of the
enemy against his own country.[713] If this disparagement of an
opponent seems mean and ungenerous, let it be remembered that in the
rough give-and-take of Illinois politics, hard hitting was to be
expected. Lincoln had invited counter-blows by first charging Douglas
with conspiracy. No mere reading of cold print can convey the virile
energy with which Douglas spoke. The facial expression, the animated
gesture, the toss of the head, and the stamp of the foot, the full,
resonant voice--all are wanting.

To a man of Lincoln's temperament, this vigorous invective was
indescribably irritating. Rather unwisely he betrayed his vexation in
his first words. His manner was constrained. He seemed awkward and ill
at ease, but as he warmed to his task, his face became more animated,
he recovered the use of his arms, and he pointed his remarks with
forceful gestures. His voice, never pleasant, rose to a shrill treble
in moments of excitement. After the familiar manner of Western
speakers of that day, he was wont to bend his knees and then rise to
his full height with a jerk, to enforce some point.[714] Yet with all
his ungraceful mannerisms, Lincoln held his hearers, impressing most
men with a sense of the honesty of his convictions.

Instead of replying categorically to Douglas's questions, Lincoln read
a long extract from a speech which he had made in 1854, to show his
attitude then toward the Fugitive Slave Act. He denied that he had had
anything to do with the resolutions which had been read. He believed
that he was not even in Springfield at the time when they were
adopted.[715] As for the charge that he favored the social and
political equality of the black and white races, he said, "Anything
that argues me into his idea of perfect social and political equality
with the negro, is but a specious and fantastic arrangement of words,
by which a man can prove a horse-chestnut to be a chestnut horse.... I
have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the
white and the black races. There is a physical difference between the
two, which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living
together upon the footing of perfect equality ... notwithstanding all
this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to
all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of
Independence,--the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness."[716] Slavery had always been, and would always be, "an
apple of discord and an element of division in the house." He
disclaimed all intention of making war upon Southern institutions, yet
he was still firm in the belief that the public mind would not be easy
until slavery was put where the fathers left it. He reminded his
hearers that Douglas had said nothing to clear himself from the
suspicion of having been party to a conspiracy to nationalize slavery.
Judge Douglas was not always so ready as now to yield obedience to
judicial decisions, as anyone might see who chose to inquire how he
earned his title.[717]

In his reply, Douglas endeavored to refresh Lincoln's memory in
respect to the resolutions. They were adopted while he was in
Springfield, for it was the season of the State Fair, when both had
spoken at the Capitol. He had not charged Mr. Lincoln with having
helped to frame these resolutions, but with having been a responsible
leader of the party which had adopted them as its platform. Was Mr.
Lincoln trying to dodge the questions? Douglas refused to allow
himself to be put upon the defensive in the matter of the alleged
conspiracy, since Lincoln had acknowledged that he did not know it to
be true. He would brand it as a lie and let Lincoln prove it if he
could.[718]

At the conclusion of the debate, two young farmers, in their exuberant
enthusiasm, rushed forward, seized Lincoln in spite of his
remonstrances, and carried him off upon their stalwart shoulders. "It
was really a ludicrous sight," writes an eye-witness,[719] "to see
the grotesque figure holding frantically to the heads of his
supporters, with his legs dangling from their shoulders, and his
pantaloons pulled up so as to expose his underwear almost to his
knees." Douglas was not slow in using this incident to the
discomfiture of his opponent. "Why," he said at Joliet, "the very
notice that I was going to take him down to Egypt made him tremble in
his knees so that he had to be carried from the platform. He laid up
seven days, and in the meantime held a consultation with his political
physicians,"[720] etc. Strangely enough, Lincoln with all his sense of
humor took this badinage seriously, and accused Douglas of telling a
falsehood.[721]

The impression prevailed that Douglas had cornered Lincoln by his
adroit use of the Springfield resolutions of 1854. Within a week,
however, an editorial in the Chicago _Press and Tribune_ reversed the
popular verdict, by pronouncing the resolutions a forgery. The
Republicans were jubilant. "The Little Dodger" had cornered himself.
The Democrats were chagrined. Douglas was thoroughly nonplussed. He
had written to Lanphier for precise information regarding these
resolutions, and he had placed implicit confidence in the reply of his
friend. It now transpired that they were the work of a local
convention in Kane County.[722] Could any blunder have been more
unfortunate?

When the contestants met at Freeport, far in the solid Republican
counties of the North, Lincoln was ready with his answers to the
questions propounded by Douglas at Ottawa. In most respects Lincoln
was clear and explicit. While not giving an unqualified approval of
the Fugitive Slave Law, he was not in favor of its repeal; while
believing that Congress possessed the power to abolish slavery in the
District of Columbia, he favored abolition only on condition that it
should be gradual, acceptable to a majority of the voters of the
District, and compensatory to unwilling owners; he would favor the
abolition of the slave-trade between the States only upon similar
conservative principles; he believed it, however, to be the right and
duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the Territories; he was
not opposed to the honest acquisition of territory, provided that it
would not aggravate the slavery question. The really crucial
questions, Lincoln did not face so unequivocally. Was he opposed to
the admission of more slave States? Would he oppose the admission of a
new State with such a constitution as the people of that State should
see fit to make?

Lincoln answered hesitatingly: "In regard to the other question, of
whether I am pledged to the admission of any more slave States into
the Union, I state to you very frankly that I would be exceedingly
sorry ever to be put in a position of having to pass upon that
question. I should be exceedingly glad 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 come to adopt the
Constitution, do such an extraordinary thing as to adopt a slave
Constitution, uninfluenced by the actual presence of the institution
among them, I see no alternative, if we own the country, but to admit
them into the Union."[723]

It was now Lincoln's turn to catechise his opponent. He had prepared
four questions, the second of which caused his friends some
misgivings.[724] It read: "Can the people of a United States
Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the
United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation
of a State Constitution?"

Lincoln knew well enough that Douglas held to the power of the people
practically to exclude slavery, regardless of the decision of the
Supreme Court; Douglas had said as much in his hearing at Bloomington.
What he desired to extort from Douglas was his opinion of the legality
of such action in view of the Dred Scott decision. Should Douglas
answer in the negative, popular sovereignty would become an empty
phrase; should he answer in the affirmative, he would put himself, so
Lincoln calculated, at variance with Southern Democrats, who claimed
that the people of a Territory were now inhibited from any such power
over slave property. In the latter event, Lincoln proposed to give
such publicity to Douglas's reply as to make any future evasion or
retraction impossible.[725]

Douglas faced the critical question without the slightest hesitation.
"It matters not what way the Supreme Court may hereafter decide as to
the abstract question whether slavery may or may not go 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. Those 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 who will by
unfriendly legislation effectually prevent the introduction of it into
their midst. If, on the contrary, they are for it, their legislation
will favor its extension. Hence, no matter what the decision of the
Supreme Court may be on that abstract question, still the right of the
people to make a slave Territory or a free Territory is perfect and
complete under the Nebraska Bill. I hope Mr. Lincoln deems my answer
satisfactory on that point"[726]

The other three questions involved less risk for the advocate of
popular sovereignty. He would vote to admit Kansas without the
requisite population for representation in Congress, if the people
should frame an unobjectionable constitution. He would prefer a
general rule on this point, but since Congress had decided that Kansas
had enough people to form a slave State, she surely had enough to
constitute a free State. He scouted the imputation in the third
question, that the Supreme Court could so far violate the Constitution
as to decide that a State could not exclude slavery from its own
limits. He would always vote for the acquisition of new territory,
when it was needed, irrespective of the question of slavery.[727]

Smarting under Lincoln's animadversions respecting the Springfield
resolutions, Douglas explained his error by quoting from a copy of the
Illinois _State Register_, which had printed the resolutions as the
work of the convention at the capital. He gave notice that he would
investigate the matter, "when he got down to Springfield." At all
events there was ample proof that the resolutions were a faithful
exposition of Republican doctrine in the year 1854. Douglas then read
similar resolutions adopted by a convention in Rockford County. One
Turner, who was acting as one of the moderators, interrupted him at
this point, to say that he had drawn those very resolutions and that
they were the Republican creed exactly. "And yet," exclaimed Douglas
triumphantly, "and yet Lincoln denies that he stands on them. Mr.
Turner says that the creed of the Black Republican party is the
admission of no more slave States, and yet Mr. Lincoln declares that
he would not like to be placed in a position where he would have to
vote for them. All I have to say to friend Lincoln is, that I do not
think there is much danger of his being placed in such a position....
I propose, out of mere kindness, to relieve him from any such
necessity."[728]

As he continued, Douglas grew offensively denunciatory. His opponents
were invariably Black Republicans; Lincoln was the ally of rank
Abolitionists like Giddings and Fred Douglass; of course those who
believed in political and social equality for blacks and whites would
vote for Lincoln. Lincoln had found fault with the resolutions because
they were not adopted on the right spot. Lincoln and his friends were
great on "spots." Lincoln had opposed the Mexican War because
American blood was not shed on American soil in the right spot.
Trumbull and Lincoln were like two decoy ducks which lead the flock
astray. Ambition, personal ambition, had led to the formation of the
Black Republican party. Lincoln and his friends were now only trying
to secure what Trumbull had cheated them out of in 1855, when the
senatorship fell to Trumbull. Under this savage attack the crowd grew
restive. As Douglas repeated the epithet "Black" Republican, he was
interrupted by indignant cries of "White," "White." But Douglas
shouted back defiantly, "I wish to remind you that while Mr. Lincoln
was speaking there was not a Democrat vulgar and blackguard enough to
interrupt him," and browbeat his hearers into quiet again.[729]

Realizing, perhaps, the immense difficulty of exposing the fallacy of
Douglas's reply to his questions, in the few moments at his disposal,
Lincoln did not refer to the crucial point. He contented himself with
a defense of his own consistency. His best friends were dispirited,
when the half-hour ended. They could not shake off the impression that
Douglas had saved himself from defeat by his adroit answers to
Lincoln's interrogatories.[730]

The next joint debate occurred nearly three weeks later down in Egypt.
By slow stages, speaking incessantly at all sorts of meetings, Douglas
and Lincoln made their several ways through the doubtful central
counties to Jonesboro in Union County. This was the enemy's country
for Lincoln; and by reason of the activities of United States Marshal
Dougherty, a Buchanan appointee, the county was scarcely less hostile
to Douglas. The meeting was poorly attended. Those who listened to the
speakers were chary of applause and appeared politically
apathetic.[731]

Douglas opened the debate by a wild, unguarded appeal to partisan
prejudices. Knowing his hearers, he was personally vindictive in his
references to Black Republicans in general and to Lincoln in
particular. He reiterated his stock arguments, giving new vehemence to
his charge of corrupt bargain between Trumbull and Lincoln by quoting
Matheny, a Republican and "Mr. Lincoln's especial and confidential
friend for the last twenty years."[732]

Lincoln begged leave to doubt the authenticity of this new evidence,
in view of the little episode at Ottawa, concerning the Springfield
resolutions. At all events the whole story was untrue, and he had
already declared it to be such.[733] Why should Douglas persist in
misrepresenting him? Brushing aside these lesser matters, however,
Lincoln addressed himself to what had now come to be known as
Douglas's Freeport doctrine. "I hold," said he, "that the proposition
that slavery cannot enter a new country without police regulations is
historically false.... There is enough vigor in slavery to plant
itself in a new country even against unfriendly legislation. It takes
not only law but the enforcement of law to keep it out." Moreover, the
decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case had created
constitutional obligations. Now that the right of property in slaves
was affirmed by the Constitution, according to the Court, how could a
member of a territorial legislature, who had taken the oath to
support the Constitution, refuse to give his vote for laws necessary
to establish slave property? And how could a member of Congress keep
his oath and withhold the necessary protection to slave property in
the Territories?[734]

Of course Lincoln was well aware that Douglas held that the Court had
decided only the question of jurisdiction in the Dred Scott case; and
that all else was a mere _obiter dictum_. Nevertheless, "the Court did
pass its opinion.... If they did not decide, they showed what they
were ready to decide whenever the matter was before them. They used
language to this effect: That inasmuch as Congress itself could not
exercise such a power [_i.e._, pass a law prohibiting slavery in the
Territories], it followed as a matter of course that it could not
authorize a Territorial Government to exercise it; for the Territorial
Legislature can do no more than Congress could do."[735]

The only answer of Douglas to this trenchant analysis was a reiterated
assertion: "I assert that under the Dred Scott decision [taking
Lincoln's view of that decision] you cannot maintain slavery a day in
a Territory where there is an unwilling people and unfriendly
legislation. If the people are opposed to it, our right is a barren,
worthless, useless right; and if they are for it, they will support
and encourage it."[736]

Douglas made much of Lincoln's evident unwillingness to commit himself
on the question of admitting more slave States. In various ways he
sought to trip his adversary, believing that Lincoln had pledged
himself to his Abolitionist allies in 1855 to vote against the
admission of more slave States, if he should be elected senator. "Let
me tell Mr. Lincoln that his party in the northern part of the State
hold to that Abolition platform [no more slave States], and if they do
not in the South and in the center, they present the extraordinary
spectacle of a house-divided-against-itself."[737]

Douglas turned the edge of Lincoln's thrust at the duties of
legislators under the Dred Scott decision by saying, "Well, if you are
not going to resist the decision, if you obey it, and do not intend to
array mob law against the constituted authorities, then, according to
your own statement, you will be a perjured man if you do not vote to
establish slavery in these Territories."[738] And it did not save
Lincoln from the horns of this uncomfortable dilemma to repeat that he
did not accept the Dred Scott decision as a rule for political action,
for he had just emphasized the moral obligation of obeying the law of
the Constitution.

From the darkness of Egypt, Douglas and Lincoln journeyed northward
toward Charleston in Coles County, where the fourth debate was to be
held. Both paused _en route_ to visit the State Fair, then in full
blast at Centralia. Curious crowds followed them around the fair
grounds, deeming the rival candidates quite as worthy of close
scrutiny as the other exhibits.[739] Ten miles from Charleston, they
left the train to be escorted by rival processions along the dusty
highway to their destination. From all the country-side people had
come to town to cheer on their respective champions.[740] This
twenty-fifth district, comprising Coles and Moultrie counties, had
been carried by the Democrats in 1856, but was now regarded as
doubtful. The uncertainty added piquancy to the debate.

It was Lincoln's turn to open the joust. At the outset he tried to
allay misapprehensions regarding his attitude toward negro equality.
"I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of
bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the
white and black races; that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of
making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold
office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in
addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the
white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two
races living together on terms of social and political equality. And
inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there
must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any
other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the
white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because
the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be
denied everything. I do not understand that because I do not want a
negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. My
understanding is that I can just let her alone."[741] This was by far
the most explicit statement that he had yet made on the hazardous
subject.

Lincoln then turned upon his opponent, with more aggressiveness than,
he had hitherto exhibited, to drive home the charge which Trumbull had
made earlier in the campaign. Prompted by Trumbull, probably, Lincoln
reviewed the shadowy history of the Toombs bill and Douglas's still
more enigmatical connection with it. The substance of the indictment
was, that Douglas had suppressed that part of the original bill which
provided for a popular vote on the constitution to be drafted by the
Kansas convention. In replying to Trumbull, Douglas had damaged his
own case by denying that the Toombs bill had ever contained such a
provision. Lincoln proved the contrary by the most transparent
testimony, convicting Douglas not only of the original offense but of
an untruth in connection with it.[742]

This was not a vague charge of conspiracy which could be treated with
contempt, but an indictment, accompanied by circumstantial evidence.
While a dispassionate examination of the whole incident will acquit
Douglas of any part in a plot to prevent the fair adoption of a
constitution by the people of Kansas, yet he certainly took a most
unfortunate and prejudicial mode of defending himself.[743] His
personal retorts were so vindictive and his attack upon Trumbull so
full of venom, that his words did not carry conviction to the minds of
his hearers. It was a matter of common observation that Democrats
seemed ill at ease after the debate.[744] "Judge Douglas is playing
cuttle-fish," remarked Lincoln, noting with satisfaction the very
evident discomfiture of his opponent, "a small species of fish that
has no mode of defending itself when pursued except by throwing out a
black fluid, which makes the water so dark the enemy cannot see it,
and thus it escapes."[745]

Douglas, however, did his best to recover his ground by accusing
Lincoln of shifting his principles as he passed from the northern
counties to Egypt; the principles of his party in the north were
"jet-black," in the center, "a decent mulatto," and in lower Egypt
"almost white." Lincoln then dared him to point out any difference
between his speeches. Blows now fell thick and fast, both speakers
approaching dangerously near the limit of parliamentary language.
Reverting to his argument that slavery must be put in the course of
ultimate extinction, Lincoln made this interesting qualification: "I
do not mean that when it takes a turn toward ultimate extinction it
will be in a day, nor in a year, nor in two years. I do not suppose
that in the most peaceful way ultimate extinction would occur in less
than a hundred years at least; but that it will occur in the best way
for both races, in God's own good time, I have no doubt."[746]

Douglas was now feeling the full force of the opposition within his
own party. The Republican newspapers of the State had seized upon his
Freeport speech to convince the South and the administration that he
was false to their creed. The Washington _Union_ had from the first
denounced him as a renegade, with whom no self-respecting Democrat
would associate.[747] Slidell was active in Illinois, spending money
freely to defeat him.[748] The Danites in the central counties plotted
incessantly to weaken his following. Daniel S. Dickinson of New York
sent "a Thousand Greetings" to a mass-meeting of Danites in
Springfield,--a liberal allowance, commented some Douglasite, as each
delegate would receive about ten greetings.[749] Yet the dimensions of
this movement were not easily ascertained. The declination of
Vice-President Breckinridge to come to the aid of Douglas was a rebuff
not easily laughed down, though to be sure, he expressed a guarded
preference for Douglas over Lincoln. The coolness of Breckinridge was
in a measure offset by the friendliness of Senator Crittenden, who
refused to aid Lincoln, because he believed Douglas's re-election
"necessary as a rebuke to the administration and a vindication of the
great cause of popular rights and public justice."[750] The most
influential Republican papers in the East gave Lincoln tardy support,
with the exception of the New York _Times_.[751]

Copyright (c) 2007. bestextbooks.com. All rights reserved.

Various - "Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, No. 421, New Series, Jan. 24, 1852"

Edmund Burke - "The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. I. (of 12)"

Various - "The Brochure Series of Architectural Illustration, Vol 1, No. 11, November, 1895"

Various - "Scientific American Supplement No. 819"

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