I believe I have
no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. I have no
purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and
the black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which,
in my judgment, will probably for ever forbid their living together upon
the footing of perfect equality; and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity
that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in
favour of the race to which I belong having the superior position. I
have never said anything to the contrary; but I hold, that,
notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro
is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration
of Independence,--the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man.
I agree with Judge Douglas, he is not my equal in many respects,
certainly not in colour, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment.
But in the right to eat the bread, without the leave of anybody, which
his own hand earns, he is my equal, and the equal of Judge Douglas, and
the equal of any living man.
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