exclude, they would let it go. This is substantially all of his reply.
And because Chase would not do that they voted his amendment down.
Well, it turns out, I believe, upon examination, that General Cass took
some part in the little running debate upon that amendment, _and then
ran away and did not vote on it at all_. Is not that the fact? So
confident, as I think, was General Cass that there was a snake
somewhere about, he chose to run away from the whole thing. This is an
inference I draw from the fact that, though he took part in the debate,
his name does not appear in the ayes and noes. But does Judge
Douglas's reply amount to a satisfactory answer? [Cries of "Yes,"
"Yes," and "No," "No."] There is some little difference of opinion
here. But I ask attention to a few more views bearing on the question
of whether it amounts to a satisfactory answer. The men who were
determined that that amendment should not get into the bill, and spoil
the place where the Dred Scott decision was to come in, sought an
excuse to get rid of it somewhere. One of these ways--one of these
excuses--was to ask Chase to add to his proposed amendment a provision
that the people might _introduce_ slavery if they wanted to. They very
well knew Chase would do no such thing--that Mr. Chase was one of the
men differing from them on the broad principle of his insisting that
freedom was _better_ than slavery--a man who would not consent to enact
a law, penned with his own hand, by which he was made to recognize
slavery on the one hand and liberty on the other as _precisely equal_;
and when they insisted on his doing this, they very well knew they
insisted on that which he would not for a moment think of doing, and
that they were only bluffing him. I believe--I have not, since he made
his answer, had a chance to examine the journals or _Congressional
Globe_, and therefore speak from memory--I believe the state of the
bill at that time, according to parliamentary rules, was such that no
member could propose an additional amendment to Chase's amendment. I