Is the one right any better than
the other? If I wished to refuse to give legislative support to slave
property in the Territories, if a member of Congress, I could not do it,
holding the view that the Constitution establishes that right. If I did
it at all, it would be because I deny that this decision properly
construes the Constitution. But if I acknowledge with Judge Douglas that
this decision properly construes the Constitution, I cannot conceive
that I would be less than a perjured man if I should refuse in Congress
to give such protection to that property as in its nature it needed....
_From Lincoln's Reply to Judge Douglas at Charleston, Illinois.
September 18, 1858_
Judge Douglas has said to you that he has not been able to get from me
an answer to the question whether I am in favour of negro citizenship.
So far as I know, the Judge never asked me the question before. He shall
have no occasion ever to ask it again, for I tell him very frankly that
I am not in favour of negro citizenship.... Now my opinion is, that the
different States have the power to make a negro a citizen under the
Constitution of the United States, if they choose.
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