These charges are more
distinctly made than anything else in the speech.
Judge Douglas has carefully read and re-read that speech. He has not, so
far as I know, contradicted those charges. In the two speeches which I
heard he certainly did not. On his own tacit admission I renew that
charge. I charge him with having been a party to that conspiracy and to
that deception, for the sole purpose of nationalizing slavery.
_From Lincoln's Reply to Douglas in the First Joint Debate at Ottawa,
Illinois. August 21, 1858_
When a man bears himself somewhat misrepresented, it provokes him--at
least, I find it so with myself; but when misrepresentation becomes very
gross and palpable, it is more apt to amuse him.... [After stating the
charge of an arrangement between himself and Judge Trumbull.]
Now, all I have to say upon that subject is, that I think no man--not
even Judge Douglas--can prove it, because it is not true. I have no
doubt he is "conscientious" in saying it. As to those resolutions that
he took such a length of time to read, as being the platform of the
Republican party in 1854, I say I never had anything to do with them,
and I think Trumbull never had.
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