This is a mere question of fact, and can be determined by evidence. I
only want to ask this question: Why did not Judge Douglas say that these
words were not stricken out of the Toomb's bill, or this bill from which
it is alleged the provision was stricken out,--a bill which goes by the
name of Toomb's, because he originally brought it forward? I ask why, if
the Judge wanted to make a direct issue with Trumbull, did he not take
the exact proposition Trumbull made in his speech, and say it was not
stricken out? Trumbull has given the exact words that he says were in the
Toomb's bill, and he alleges that when the bill came back, they were
stricken out. Judge Douglas does not say that the words which Trumbull
says were stricken out were not so stricken out, but he says there was no
provision in the Toomb's bill to submit the constitution to a vote of the
people. We see at once that he is merely making an issue upon the meaning
of the words. He has not undertaken to say that Trumbull tells a lie
about these words being stricken out, but he is really, when pushed up to
it, only taking an issue upon the meaning of the words. Now, then, if
there be any issue upon the meaning of the words, or if there be upon the
question of fact as to whether these words were stricken out, I have
before me what I suppose to be a genuine copy of the Toomb's bill, in
which it can be shown that the words Trumbull says were in it were, in
fact, originally there. If there be any dispute upon the fact, I have got
the documents here to show they were there. If there be any controversy
upon the sense of the words,--whether these words which were stricken out
really constituted a provision for submitting the matter to a vote of the
people,--as that is a matter of argument, I think I may as well use
Trumbull's own argument. He says that the proposition is in these words:

"That the following propositions be and the same are hereby offered to
the said Convention of the people of Kansas when formed, for their free
acceptance or rejection; which, if accepted by the Convention and