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the country, but to admit them into the Union. [Applause.]

"The third interrogatory is answered by the answer to the second, it being, as I conceive, the same as the second.

"The fourth one is in regard to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. In relation to that, I have my mind very distinctly made up. I should be exceedingly glad to see slavery abolished in the District of Columbia. I believe that Congress has Constitutional power to abolish it. Yet, as a member of Congress, I should not with my present views be in favor of endeavoring to 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 of the District; and third, that a compensation should be made to unwilling owners. With these three conditions, I confess that I would be exceedingly glad to see Congress abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and, in the language of Henry Clay, 'sweep from our Capital that foul blot upon our Nation.'

"In regard to the fifth interrogatory, I must say, that, as to the question of abolition of the slave trade between the different States, I can truly answer, as I have, that I am pledged to nothing about it. It is a subject to which I have not given that mature consideration that would make me feel authorized to state a position so as to hold myself entirely bound by it. In other words, that question has never been prominently enough before me to induce me to investigate whether we really have the constitutional power to do it. I could investigate if I had sufficient time to bring myself to a conclusion upon that subject; but I have not done so,

and I say so frankly to you here, and to Judge Douglas. I must say, however, that if I should be of the opinion that Congress does possess the Constitutional power to abolish slave trading among the different States, I should not still be in favor of that power unless upon some conservative principle, as I conceive it, akin to what I have said in relation to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.

"My answer as to whether I desire that slavery should be prohibited in all Territories of the United States, is full and explicit within itself, and cannot be made clearer by any comment of mine. So I suppose,

in regard to the question whether I am opposed to the acquisition of any more territory unless slavery is abolished, is such that I could add nothing by way of illustration, or making myself better understood, than the answer which I have placed in writing.

"Now, in all this, the Judge has me, and he has me on the record. I suppose he had flattered himself that I was really entertaining one set of opinions for one place and another set for another place-that I was afraid to say at one time what I uttered at another. What I am saying here I suppose I say to a vast audience in the State of Illinois, and I believe I am saying that which, if it would be offensive to any persons and render them enemies to myself, would be offensive to persons in this audience."

A HUMOROUS SPEECH - LINCOLN IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR.

The friends of General Cass, when that gentleman was a candidate for the Presidency, endeavored to

endow him with a military reputation. Mr. Lincoln, at that time a representative in Congress, delivered a speech before the House, which, in its allusion to Mr. Cass, was exquisitely sarcastic and irresistibly humor

ous:

"By the way, Mr. Speaker," said Mr. Lincoln, "do you know I am a military hero? Yes, sir, in the days of the Black Hawk War, I fought, bled, and came away. Speaking of General Cass's career reminds me of my own. I was not at Stillman's defeat, but I was about as near it as Cass to Hull's surrender; and like him I saw the place very soon afterwards. It is quite certain I did not break my sword, for I had none to break, but I bent my musket pretty badly on one occasion. . . . If General Cass went in advance of me picking whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charging upon the wild onion. If he saw any live, fighting Indians, it was more than I did, but I had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes, and although I never fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say that I was often very hungry.”

Mr. Lincoln concluded by saying that if he ever turned Democrat and should run for the Presidency, he hoped they would not make fun of him by attempting to make him a military hero!

JOINT DEBATE BETWEEN MR. DOUGLAS AND MR. LINCOLN.

First Joint Debate at Ottawa, August 21, 1858.

MR. DOUGLAS'S SPEECH.

"Ladies and Gentlemen: I appear before you to-day for the purpose of discussing the leading political topics which now agitate the public mind.

"By an arrangement between Mr. Lincoln and myself, we are present here to-day for the purpose of having a joint discussion, as the representatives of the two great parties of the State and Union, upon the principles in issue between these parties; and this vast concourse of people shows the deep feeling which pervades the public mind in regard to the questions dividing us.

"Prior to 1854 this country was divided into two great political parties known as the Whig and Democratic parties. Both were national and patriotic, advocated principles that were universal in their application.

"An old-line Whig could proclaim his principles in Louisiana and Massachusetts alike. Whig principles had no boundary sectional line-they were not limited by the Ohio River, nor by the Potomac, nor by the line of the free and slave States, but applied and were proclaimed wherever the Constitution ruled, or the American flag waved over the American soil. So it was, and so it is with the great Democratic party, which, from the days of Jefferson until this period, has proved itself to be the historic party of this nation.

"While the Whig and Democratic parties differed in regard to a bank, the tariff distribution, the specie circular and the sub-treasury, they agreed on the great slavery question, which now agitates the Union.

"I say that the Whig party and the Democratic party agreed on this slavery question, while they differed on those matters of expediency to which I have referred.

"The Whig party and the Democratic party adopted the Compromise measures of 1850 as the basis of a proper and just solution of the slavery question in all its forms.

"Clay was the great leader, with Webster on his right and Cass on his left, and sustained by the patriots in the Whig and Democratic ranks, who had devised and enacted the Compromise measure of 1850.

"In 1851 the Whig party and the Democratic party united in Illinois in adopting resolutions indorsing and approving the principles of the Compromise measure of 1850 as the proper adjustment of that question.

"In 1852, when the Whig party assembled in convention in Baltimore for the purpose of nominating a candidate for the Presidency, the first thing it did was to declare the Compromise measure of 1850, in substance and in principle, a suitable adjustment of that question. [Applause.] My friends, silence will be more acceptable to me in the discussion of these questions than applause. I desire to address myself to your judgment, your understanding, and your consciences, and not to your passion or your enthusiasm.

"When the Democratic Convention assembled in Baltimore in the same year, for the purpose of nominating a Democratic candidate for the Presidency, it also adopted the Compromise measure of 1850 as the basis of Democratic action. Thus you see, that up to 1853-54, the Whig party and the Democratic party both stood on the same platform with regard to the slavery question. That platform was the right of the people of each State and each Territory to decide their local and domestic institutions for themselves, subject only to the Federal Constitution. During the session of Congress of 1853-54, I introduced into the Senate of the United States a bill to organize the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska on that principle which had been adopted in the Compromise measure of 1850, approved

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