SEPTEMBER 15, 1858

Mr. LINCOLN'S REPLY.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--There is very much in the principles that Judge
Douglas has here enunciated that I most cordially approve, and over which
I shall have no controversy with him. In so far as he has insisted that
all the States have the right to do exactly as they please about all
their domestic relations, including that of slavery, I agree entirely
with him. He places me wrong in spite of all I can tell him, though I
repeat it again and again, insisting that I have no difference with him
upon this subject. I have made a great many speeches, some of which have
been printed, and it will be utterly impossible for him to find anything
that I have ever put in print contrary to what I now say upon this
subject. I hold myself under constitutional obligations to allow the
people in all the States, without interference, direct or indirect, to do
exactly as they please; and I deny that I have any inclination to
interfere with them, even if there were no such constitutional
obligation. I can only say again that I am placed improperly--altogether
improperly, in spite of all I can say--when it is insisted that I
entertain any other view or purposes in regard to that matter.

While I am upon this subject, I will make some answers briefly to certain
propositions that Judge Douglas has put. He says, "Why can't this Union
endure permanently half slave and half free?" I have said that I supposed
it could not, and I will try, before this new audience, to give briefly
some of the reasons for entertaining that opinion. Another form of his
question is, "Why can't we let it stand as our fathers placed it?" That
is the exact difficulty between us. I say that Judge Douglas and his