that it is a forgery? What is a forgery? It is the bringing forward
something in writing or in print purporting to be of certain effect when
it is altogether untrue. If you come forward with my note for one hundred
dollars when I have never given such a note, there is a forgery. If you
come forward with a letter purporting to be written by me which I never
wrote, there is another forgery. If you produce anything in writing or in
print saying it is so and so, the document not being genuine, a forgery
has been committed. How do you make this forgery when every piece of the
evidence is genuine? If Judge Douglas does say these documents and
quotations are false and forged, he has a full right to do so; but until
he does it specifically, we don't know how to get at him. If he does say
they are false and forged, I will then look further into it, and presume
I can procure the certificates of the proper officers that they are
genuine copies. I have no doubt each of these extracts will be found
exactly where Trumbull says it is. Then I leave it to you if Judge
Douglas, in making his sweeping charge that Judge Trumbull's evidence is
forged from beginning to end, at all meets the case,--if that is the way
to get at the facts. I repeat again, if he will point out which one is a
forgery, I will carefully examine it, and if it proves that any one of
them is really a forgery, it will not be me who will hold to it any
longer. I have always wanted to deal with everyone I meet candidly and
honestly. If I have made any assertion not warranted by facts, and it is
pointed out to me, I will withdraw it cheerfully. But I do not choose to
see Judge Trumbull calumniated, and the evidence he has brought forward
branded in general terms "a forgery from beginning to end." This is not
the legal way of meeting a charge, and I submit it to all intelligent
persons, both friends of Judge Douglas and of myself, whether it is.

The point upon Judge Douglas is this: The bill that went into his hands
had the provision in it for a submission of the constitution to the