Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln's Fifth Joint Debate with Stephen Douglas, Galesburg, Illinois, October 7, 1858
In these general maxims about liberty--in his assertions that he "don't care whether slavery is voted up or down;" that "whoever wants slavery has a right to it;" that "upon principles of equality it should be allowed to go everywhere;" that "there is no inconsistency between free and slave institutions." In this he is also preparing (whether purposely or not) the way for making the institution of slavery national! I repeat again, for I wish no misunderstanding, that I do not charge that he means it so; but I call upon your minds to inquire, if you were going to get the best instrument you could, and then set it to work in the most ingenious way, to prepare the public mind for this movement, operating in the free states, where there now is an abhorrence of the institution of slavery, could you find an instrument so capable of doing it as Judge Douglas? Or one employed in so apt a way to it?
I have said once before, and I will repeat now, that Mr. Clay, when he was once answering an objection to the Colonization Society, that it had a tendency to the ultimate emancipation of the slaves, said that "those who would repress all tendencies to liberty and ultimate emancipation must do more than put down the benevolent efforts of the Colonization Society--they must go back to the era of our liberty and independence, and muzzle the cannon that thunders its annual joyous return--they must blot out the moral lights around us--they must penetrate the human soul, and eradicate the light of reason and the love of liberty!" And I do think--I repeat, though I said it on a former occasion--that Judge Douglas, and whoever like him teaches that the negro has no share, humble though it may be, in the Declaration of Independence, is going back to the era of our liberty and independence, and, so far as in him lies, muzzling the cannon that thunders its annual joyous return; that he is blowing out the moral lights around us, when he contends that whoever wants slaves has a right to hold them; that he is penetrating, so far as lies in his power, the human soul, and eradicating the light of reason and the love of liberty, when he is in very possible way preparing the public mind, by his vast influence, for making the institution of slavery perpetual and national.
In these general maxims about liberty--in his assertions that he "don't care whether slavery is voted up or down;" that "whoever wants slavery has a right to it;" that "upon principles of equality it should be allowed to go everywhere;" that "there is no inconsistency between free and slave institutions." In this he is also preparing (whether purposely or not) the way for making the institution of slavery national! I repeat again, for I wish no misunderstanding, that I do not charge that he means it so; but I call upon your minds to inquire, if you were going to get the best instrument you could, and then set it to work in the most ingenious way, to prepare the public mind for this movement, operating in the free states, where there now is an abhorrence of the institution of slavery, could you find an instrument so capable of doing it as Judge Douglas? Or one employed in so apt a way to it?
I have said once before, and I will repeat now, that Mr. Clay, when he was once answering an objection to the Colonization Society, that it had a tendency to the ultimate emancipation of the slaves, said that "those who would repress all tendencies to liberty and ultimate emancipation must do more than put down the benevolent efforts of the Colonization Society--they must go back to the era of our liberty and independence, and muzzle the cannon that thunders its annual joyous return--they must blot out the moral lights around us--they must penetrate the human soul, and eradicate the light of reason and the love of liberty!" And I do think--I repeat, though I said it on a former occasion--that Judge Douglas, and whoever like him teaches that the negro has no share, humble though it may be, in the Declaration of Independence, is going back to the era of our liberty and independence, and, so far as in him lies, muzzling the cannon that thunders its annual joyous return; that he is blowing out the moral lights around us, when he contends that whoever wants slaves has a right to hold them; that he is penetrating, so far as lies in his power, the human soul, and eradicating the light of reason and the love of liberty, when he is in very possible way preparing the public mind, by his vast influence, for making the institution of slavery perpetual and national.
