friend Mr. Lovejoy, who is here upon this stand, had a hand in it. I
think this is true, and I think if he will remember accurately he will be
able to recollect that he tried to get me into it, and I would not go in.
I believe it is also true that I went away from Springfield when the
convention was in session, to attend court in Tazewell county. It is true
they did place my name, though without authority, upon the committee, and
afterward wrote me to attend the meeting of the committee; but I refused
to do so, and I never had anything to do with that organization. This is
the plain truth about all that matter of the resolutions.

Now, about this story that Judge Douglas tells of Trumbull bargaining to
sell out the old Democratic party, and Lincoln agreeing to sell out the
old Whig party, I have the means of knowing about that: Judge Douglas
cannot have; and I know there is no substance to it whatever. Yet I have
no doubt he is "conscientious" about it. I know that after Mr. Lovejoy
got into the Legislature that winter, he complained of me that I had told
all the old Whigs of his district that the old Whig party was good enough
for them, and some of them voted against him because I told them so. Now,
I have no means of totally disproving such charges as this which the
Judge makes. A man cannot prove a negative; but he has a right to claim
that when a man makes an affirmative charge, he must offer some proof to
show the truth of what he says. I certainly cannot introduce testimony to
show the negative about things, but I have a right to claim that if a man
says he knows a thing, then he must show how he knows it. I always have a
right to claim this, and it is not satisfactory to me that he may be
"conscientious" on the subject.

Now, gentlemen, I hate to waste my time on such things; but in regard to
that general Abolition tilt that Judge Douglas makes, when he says that I
was engaged at that time in selling out and Abolitionizing the old Whig