That is Douglas popular sovereignty applied.
... I cannot but express my gratitude that this true view of this
element of discord among us, as I believe it is, is attracting more and
more attention. I do not believe that Governor Seward uttered that
sentiment because I had done so before, but because he reflected upon
this subject, and saw the truth of it. Nor do I believe, because
Governor Seward or I uttered it, that Mr. Hickman of Pennsylvania, in
different language, since that time, has declared his belief in the
utter antagonism which exists between the principles of liberty and
slavery. You see we are multiplying. Now, while I am speaking of
Hickman, let me say, I know but little about him. I have never seen him,
and know scarcely anything about the man; but I will say this much about
him: of all the anti-Lecompton Democracy that have been brought to my
notice, he alone has the true, genuine ring of the metal.
... Judge Douglas ... proceeds to assume, without proving it, that
slavery is one of those little, unimportant, trivial matters which are
of just about as much consequence as the question would be to me,
whether my neighbour should raise horned cattle or plant tobacco; that
there is no moral question about it, but that it is altogether a matter
of dollars and cents; that when a new Territory is opened for
settlement, the first man who goes into it may plant there a thing
which, like the Canada thistle or some other of those pests of the soil,
cannot be dug out by the millions of men who will come thereafter; that
it is one of those little things that is so trivial in its nature that
it has no effect upon anybody save the few men who first plant upon the
soil; that it is not a thing which in any way affects the family of
communities composing these States, nor any way endangers the general
government.
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