SIXTH JOINT DEBATE,

AT QUINCY, OCTOBER 13, 1858.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I have had no immediate conference with Judge
Douglas, but I will venture to say that he and I will perfectly agree
that your entire silence, both when I speak and when he speaks, will be
most agreeable to us.

In the month of May, 1856, the elements in the State of Illinois which
have since been consolidated into the Republican party assembled together
in a State Convention at Bloomington. They adopted at that time what, in
political language, is called a platform. In June of the same year the
elements of the Republican party in the nation assembled together in a
National Convention at Philadelphia. They adopted what is called the
National Platform. In June, 1858,--the present year,--the Republicans of
Illinois reassembled at Springfield, in State Convention, and adopted
again their platform, as I suppose not differing in any essential
particular from either of the former ones, but perhaps adding something
in relation to the new developments of political progress in the country.

The Convention that assembled in June last did me the honor, if it be
one, and I esteem it such, to nominate me as their candidate for the
United States Senate. I have supposed that, in entering upon this
canvass, I stood generally upon these platforms. We are now met together
on the 13th of October of the same year, only four months from the
adoption of the last platform, and I am unaware that in this canvass,
from the beginning until to-day, any one of our adversaries has taken
hold of our platforms, or laid his finger upon anything that he calls
wrong in them.