My friend has said to me that I am a poor hand to quote Scripture. I will
try it again, however. It is said in one of the admonitions of our Lord,
"As your Father in heaven is perfect, be ye also perfect." The Savior, I
suppose, did not expect that any human creature could be perfect as the
Father in heaven; but he said, "As your Father in heaven is perfect, be
ye also perfect." He set that up as a standard; and he who did most
towards reaching that standard attained the highest degree of moral
perfection. So I say in relation to the principle that all men are
created equal, let it be as nearly reached as we can. If we cannot give
freedom to every creature, let us do nothing that will impose slavery
upon any other creature. Let us then turn this government back into the
channel in which the framers of the Constitution originally placed it.
Let us stand firmly by each other. If we do not do so, we are turning in
the contrary direction, that our friend Judge Douglas proposes--not
intentionally--as working in the traces tends to make this one universal
slave nation. He is one that runs in that direction, and as such I resist
him.

My friends, I have detained you about as long as I desired to do, and I
have only to say: Let us discard all this quibbling about this man and
the other man, this race and that race and the other race being inferior,
and therefore they must be placed in an inferior position; discarding our
standard that we have left us. Let us discard all these things, and unite
as one people throughout this land, until we shall once more stand up
declaring that all men are created equal.

My friends, I could not, without launching off upon some new topic, which
would detain you too long, continue to-night. I thank you for this most
extensive audience that you have furnished me to-night. I leave you,