FELLOW-CITIZENS: It follows as a matter of course that a half-hour answer
to a speech of an hour and a half can be but a very hurried one. I shall
only be able to touch upon a few of the points suggested by Judge
Douglas, and give them a brief attention, while I shall have to totally
omit others for the want of time.

Judge Douglas has said to you that he has not been able to get from me an
answer to the question whether I am in favor of negro citizenship. So far
as I know the Judge never asked me the question before. He shall have no
occasion to ever ask it again, for I tell him very frankly that I am not
in favor of negro citizenship. This furnishes me an occasion for saying a
few words upon the subject. I mentioned in a certain speech of mine,
which has been printed, that the Supreme Court had decided that a negro
could not possibly be made a citizen; and without saying what was my
ground of complaint in regard to that, or whether I had any ground of
complaint, Judge Douglas has from that thing manufactured nearly
everything that he ever says about my disposition to produce an equality
between the negroes and the white people. If any one will read my speech,
he will find I mentioned that as one of the points decided in the course
of the Supreme Court opinions, but I did not state what objection I had
to it. But Judge Douglas tells the people what my objection was when I
did not tell them myself. Now, my opinion is that the different States
have the power to make a negro a citizen under the Constitution of the
United States if they choose. The Dred Scott decision decides that they
have not that power. If the State of Illinois had that power, I should be
opposed to the exercise of it. That is all I have to say about it.

Judge Douglas has told me that he heard my speeches north and my speeches
south; that he had heard me at Ottawa and at Freeport in the north and