hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there
shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal.




SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD, JULY 17, 1858.

DELIVERED SATURDAY EVENING

(Mr. Douglas was not present.)

FELLOW-CITIZENS:--Another election, which is deemed an important one, is
approaching, and, as I suppose, the Republican party will, without much
difficulty, elect their State ticket. But in regard to the Legislature,
we, the Republicans, labor under some disadvantages. In the first place,
we have a Legislature to elect upon an apportionment of the
representation made several years ago, when the proportion of the
population was far greater in the South (as compared with the North) than
it now is; and inasmuch as our opponents hold almost entire sway in the
South, and we a correspondingly large majority in the North, the fact
that we are now to be represented as we were years ago, when the
population was different, is to us a very great disadvantage. We had in
the year 1855, according to law, a census, or enumeration of the
inhabitants, taken for the purpose of a new apportionment of
representation. We know what a fair apportionment of representation upon
that census would give us. We know that it could not, if fairly made,
fail to give the Republican party from six to ten more members of the
Legislature than they can probably get as the law now stands. It so
happened at the last session of the Legislature that our opponents,