Speeches of Abraham Lincoln 1858 - Fragment Of Speech At Edwardsville, Ill.
by Abraham Lincoln
SEPT. 13, 1858.
I have been requested to give a concise statement of the difference, as I
understand it, between the Democratic and Republican parties, on the
leading issues of the campaign. This question has been put to me by a
gentleman whom I do not know. I do not even know whether he is a friend
of mine or a supporter of Judge Douglas in this contest, nor does that
make any difference. His question is a proper one. Lest I should forget
it, I will give you my answer before proceeding with the line of argument
I have marked out for this discussion.
The difference between the Republican and the Democratic parties on the
leading issues of this contest, as I understand it, is that the former
consider slavery a moral, social and political wrong, while the latter do
not consider it either a moral, a social or a political wrong; and the
action of each, as respects the growth of the country and the expansion
of our population, is squared to meet these views. I will not affirm that
the Democratic party consider slavery morally, socially and politically
right, though their tendency to that view has, in my opinion, been
constant and unmistakable for the past five years. I prefer to take, as
the accepted maxim of the party, the idea put forth by Judge Douglas,
that he "don't care whether slavery is voted down or voted up." I am quite
willing to believe that many Democrats would prefer that slavery should
be always voted down, and I know that some prefer that it be always voted
up; but I have a right to insist that their action, especially if it be
their constant action, shall determine their ideas and preferences on
this subject. Every measure of the Democratic party of late years,
bearing directly or indirectly on the slavery question, has corresponded
with this notion of utter indifference whether slavery or freedom shall
outrun in the race of empire across to the Pacific--every measure, I say,
up to the Dred Scott decision, where, it seems to me, the idea is boldly
suggested that slavery is better than freedom. The Republican party, on
the contrary, hold that this government was instituted to secure the
blessings of freedom, and that slavery is an unqualified evil to the
negro, to the white man, to the soil, and to the State. Regarding it as
an evil, they will not molest it in the States where it exists, they will
not overlook the constitutional guards which our fathers placed around
it; they will do nothing that can give proper offence to those who hold
slaves by legal sanction; but they will use every constitutional method
to prevent the evil from becoming larger and involving more negroes, more
white men, more soil, and more States in its deplorable consequences.
They will, if possible, place it where the public mind shall rest in the
belief that it is in course of ultimate peaceable extinction in God's own
good time. And to this end they will, if possible, restore the government
to the policy of the fathers, the policy of preserving the new
Territories from the baneful influence of human bondage, as the
Northwestern Territories were sought to be preserved by the Ordinance of
1787, and the Compromise Act of 1820. They will oppose, in all its length
and breadth, the modern Democratic idea, that slavery is as good as
freedom, and ought to have room for expansion all over the continent, if
people can be found to carry it. All, or nearly all, of Judge Douglas's
arguments are logical, if you admit that slavery is as good and as right
as freedom, and not one of them is worth a rush if you deny it. This is
the difference, as I understand it, between the Republican and Democratic
parties.
My friends, I have endeavored to show you the logical consequences of the
Dred Scott decision, which holds that the people of a Territory cannot
prevent the establishment of slavery in their midst. I have stated what
cannot be gainsaid, that the grounds upon which this decision is made are
equally applicable to the free States as to the free Territories, and
that the peculiar reasons put forth by Judge Douglas for indorsing this
decision commit him, in advance, to the next decision and to all other
decisions corning from the same source. And when, by all these means, you
have succeeded in dehumanizing the negro; when you have put him down and
made it impossible for him to be but as the beasts of the field; when you
have extinguished his soul in this world and placed him where the ray of
hope is blown out as in the darkness of the damned, are you quite sure
that the demon you have roused will not turn and rend you? What
constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not
our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, our army and our
navy. These are not our reliance against tyranny All of those may be
turned against us without making us weaker for the struggle. Our reliance
is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in
the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands
everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of
despotism at your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of
bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to
trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own
independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who
rises among you. And let me tell you, that all these things are prepared
for you by the teachings of history, if the elections shall promise that
the next Dred Scott decision and all future decisions will be quietly
acquiesced in by the people.
