... We
profess constantly that we have no more inclination than belief in the
power of the government to disturb it; yet we are driven constantly to
defend ourselves from the assumption that we are warring upon the rights
of the States. What I insist upon is, that the new Territories shall be
kept free from it while in the territorial condition ...
... These are false issues, upon which Judge Douglas has tried to force
the controversy....
The real issue in this controversy--the one dressing upon every mind--is
the sentiment on the part of one class that looks upon the institution
of slavery as a wrong, and of another class that does not look upon it
as a wrong. The sentiment that contemplates the institution of slavery
in this country as a wrong is the sentiment of the Republican party. It
is the sentiment around which all their actions, all their arguments,
circle; from which all their propositions radiate. They look upon it as
being a moral, social, and political wrong; and while they contemplate
it as such, they nevertheless have due regard for its actual existence
among us, and the difficulties of getting rid of it in any satisfactory
way, and to all the constitutional obligations thrown about it.
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