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instead of conferring it upon Negroes, Tndiaoa and other inferior races.

Mr. Lincoln, following the example and lead of an the little Abolition orators who go around and lecture in the basements of schools and churches, reads from the Declaration of independence that all men were created equal, and then asks how you can deprive a Negro of that equality which God and the Declaration of Independence award.I to him. I do not question Mr. Lincoln’s conscientious belief that the Negro was made by God as his equal and hence i• hi• lirother but for my own part, I do not regard the Negro as my equal a11d positively deny that he iR my brother or any kin to me whatever.”

LINCOLN: “Anything that argues me into the idea of ·perfect social and political equality with the Negro is but a ‘fantastic arrangement of words by which a man can prove a. horse chestnut to be a chestnut horse I I will say here while upon this rnl-ject of fhe instituticn of slavery in the States where it exists, I bfllieve I have no la\\\<ful .right to interfere

and t have no inclination to do so. I have no intention to

introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which in my judgment will probably forever forbid their Jiving together upon equal terms and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity, as much as Judge Douglas, I am in favour of the raoo to which I belong holding the superior poaition. I agree with Judge Douglas that the Negro is not my equal in many respects, certainly not in colour, perhaps not in moral or intelle~tual endowmept. But in the right to earn the bread which biilbwn hand earna, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas and the·equa.I of every Jiving man!”

DOUGLAS : “The last time I came here to make a. speech here in Freeport, Illinois, while talking from the stand to you,

· .p.s I am doing today, I ea.w a. carriage, and a magnificent one it

wa1, drive up and take a position on the outside of the crowd .

.f beautiful young lady was sitting on the box while Fred

~ l>ouglaR and her mother reclined inside and the owner of the

All I have to say is this : that if c.rriage acted as the driver.

103 you blac>k Rap11l1lican think that the Negro ought to be on a social equality with your wives and daughters aud ride in a rarrio.g\<1 with your wife while you drive the team , yon ha.ve a JlArft’ct right 1 o do so.

I am told that one of Fred Do11glaa’l4 kin~man , another rich Negro, is now tra.veling in this pa.rt of Urn t,ate making spe6c>hes for his t’riend Lincoln aR champion of the black man. All I have to say on that subject is tha.t those of you who believe that the Negro is your equal and ought to Le on equality with you socially , politically and legally, havo a right to their opinions and of course will vote for Mr. Lincoln I”

·

LINCOLN : “ l wm say then and there that Tam not nor

ever have been in favour of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that 1 am not nor ever have been in favour making voters or jurors of Negroes nor or qualifying them to hold office nor allowing them to intermarry with ~bite people. But I will also say upon thiR occasion T do not pe~ceive that becau11e the white man l1elongs to the superior race, that the Negro should be denied everything. T \<lo not understand that beeauRe I do not want a Ne~ro woman for a slave, I must necessarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I can just let her alone. I a.m now in my fiftieth yMr and I certainly never had a Mack woman for either a slave or a wife. So it seemR to ·me qui to possible for us to get along without making either slaves or wives of Negroes”.

DOUGLAS : “The signers of the Declaration of Independ· ence never thought of the Negro when they were writing that rlocument. They referred to white men, to men of European birth and European descent w~en they declared the equality of all men. I see a gentleman there in the crowd shaking his head.

Let me remind him that when Thomas Jefferson wrote that document he was the owner, and so continued until his death, of a large number of slaves. Did he intend to say in that Declaration that his Negro slaves which he held and treated as property, were created his equals by Divine law and that he ,,·as violating the Jaw of God every day of hi[^11]life by holdin~ 104 them as slaves 1 It mutt he borne in mind that when that Declaration was put forth, every one of the thirteen coloniee were slaveholding colonies and every man who signed that document represented a slo.veholding constituency. Recollect also, that not one of them emancipated his slaves, muoh leas put them on an equality with himself after he signed tho Declaration. On the contrary, thoy all continued to hold their Negroes as slaves during the Revolutionary War. And yet when you say that the Declaration of Indt>p\<-ndence inc:ludes the Negro, you charge the signers of it with hypocrisy. I aay to you frankly that in my opinion this government was made hy our fathers on the hasis of white supremacy for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever and was intended to be administered by white men for all time to come.”

LINCOLN : “ I assert that Judge Douglas and all his friends may sec.rob the whole historical records of this country and it will be a matter of great astonishment to me if they shall be able to find that one human being ever before uttered the astounding sentiment that t he term ‘all men’ in tho Doolaration of Independence did not include the Negro. And when this new principle-this proposition-is brought forward, I combat it as having an evil tendency, if not an evil design. I oorhbat it as having a tendency to dehumanize the Negro-to take away from him the right of ever striving to be a man. I combat it as being one of the thousand things constantly being done these days to prepare the public mind to make property and nothing but property of the Negro in all tho states of this P,nion I”

DOUGLAS : “l oare more for the great principle of self-

govornment, the right of the people to rule than I do for all the Negroes in Christendom.

I would not blot out the great inalienable rights of the white men for a.II the Negroes that ever existed. Hence J say, l-3t U!’I maintain this Government on tho principles that our fathc>rs macio it, re::ognizing tho right of eaoh State of keep s la.v •ry legal as long n.s its people