" He set that up as a
standard, and he who did most toward reaching that standard attained the
highest degree of moral perfection. So I say in relation to the
principle that all men are created equal, let it be as nearly reached as
we can. If we cannot give freedom to every creature, let us do nothing
that will impose slavery upon any other creature. Let us, then, turn
this government back into the channel in which the framers of the
Constitution originally placed it. Let us stand firmly by each other.
If we do not do so, we are tending in the contrary direction, that our
friend Judge Douglas proposes,--not intentionally,--working in the
traces that tend to make this one universal slave nation. He is one that
runs in that direction, and as such I resist him.
My friends, I have detained you about as long as I desired to do, and I
have only to say, let us discard all this quibbling about this man and
the other man, this race and that race and the other race being
inferior, and therefore they must be placed in an inferior position. Let
us discard all these things, and unite as one people throughout this
land, until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are
created equal.
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