conference; and while we do not know that it was absolutely so, yet it
looks so probable that we have a right to call upon the man who knows the
true reason why it was done to tell what the true reason was. When he
will not tell what the true reason was, he stands in the attitude of an
accused thief who has stolen goods in his possession, and when called to
account refuses to tell where he got them. Not only is this the evidence,
but when he comes in with the bill having the provision stricken out, he
tells us in a speech, not then but since, that these alterations and
modifications in the bill had been made by HIM, in consultation with
Toombs, the originator of the bill. He tells us the same to-day. He says
there were certain modifications made in the bill in committee that he
did not vote for. I ask you to remember, while certain amendments were
made which he disapproved of, but which a majority of the committee voted
in, he has himself told us that in this particular the alterations and
modifications were made by him, upon consultation with Toombs. We have
his own word that these alterations were made by him, and not by the
committee. Now, I ask, what is the reason Judge Douglas is so chary about
coming to the exact question? What is the reason he will not tell you
anything about How it was made, BY WHOM it was made, or that he remembers
it being made at all? Why does he stand playing upon the meaning of words
and quibbling around the edges of the evidence? If he can explain all
this, but leaves it unexplained, I have the right to infer that Judge
Douglas understood it was the purpose of his party, in engineering that
bill through, to make a constitution, and have Kansas come into the Union
with that constitution, without its being submitted to a vote of the
people. If he will explain his action on this question, by giving a
better reason for the facts that happened than he has done, it will be
satisfactory. But until he does that--until he gives a better or more
plausible reason than he has offered against the evidence in the case--I
suggest to him it will not avail him at all that he swells himself up,