recently at Jonesboro in the south, and there was a very different cast
of sentiment in the speeches made at the different points. I will not
charge upon Judge Douglas that he wilfully misrepresents me, but I call
upon every fair-minded man to take these speeches and read them, and I
dare him to point out any difference between my speeches north and south.
While I am here perhaps I ought to say a word, if I have the time, in
regard to the latter portion of the Judge's speech, which was a sort of
declamation in reference to my having said I entertained the belief that
this government would not endure half slave and half free. I have said
so, and I did not say it without what seemed to me to be good reasons. It
perhaps would require more time than I have now to set forth these
reasons in detail; but let me ask you a few questions. Have we ever had
any peace on this slavery question? When are we to have peace upon it, if
it is kept in the position it now occupies? How are we ever to have peace
upon it? That is an important question. To be sure, if we will all stop,
and allow Judge Douglas and his friends to march on in their present
career until they plant the institution all over the nation, here and
wherever else our flag waves, and we acquiesce in it, there will be
peace. But let me ask Judge Douglas how he is going to get the people to
do that? They have been wrangling over this question for at least forty
years. This was the cause of the agitation resulting in the Missouri
Compromise; this produced the troubles at the annexation of Texas, in the
acquisition of the territory acquired in the Mexican War. Again, this was
the trouble which was quieted by the Compromise of 1850, when it was
settled "forever" as both the great political parties declared in their
National Conventions. That "forever" turned out to be just four years,
when Judge Douglas himself reopened it. When is it likely to come to an
end? He introduced the Nebraska Bill in 1854 to put another end to the
slavery agitation. He promised that it would finish it all up
immediately, and he has never made a speech since, until he got into a