ancestors have come hither and settled here, finding themselves our
equals in all things. If they look back through this history to trace
their connection with those days by blood, they find they have none, they
cannot carry themselves back into that glorious epoch and make themselves
feel that they are part of us; but when they look through that old
Declaration of Independence, they find that those old men say that "We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal";
and then they feel that that moral sentiment, taught in that day,
evidences their relation to those men, that it is the father of all moral
principle in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they
were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh, of the men who wrote
that Declaration; and so they are. That is the electric cord in that
Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men
together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of
freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world.

Now, sirs, for the purpose of squaring things with this idea of "don't
care if slavery is voted up or voted down," for sustaining the Dred Scott
decision, for holding that the Declaration of Independence did not mean
anything at all, we have Judge Douglas giving his exposition of what the
Declaration of Independence means, and we have him saying that the people
of America are equal to the people of England. According to his
construction, you Germans are not connected with it. Now, I ask you in
all soberness if all these things, if indulged in, if ratified, if
confirmed and indorsed, if taught to our children, and repeated to them,
do not tend to rub out the sentiment of liberty in the country, and to
transform this government into a government of some other form. Those
arguments that are made, that the inferior race are to be treated with as
much allowance as they are capable of enjoying; that as much is to be
done for them as their condition will allow,--what are these arguments?