Judge Douglas ignores altogether the very well-known fact
that we have never had a serious menace to our political existence
except it sprang from this thing, which he chooses to regard as only
upon a par with onions and potatoes.
... Did you ever, five years ago, hear of anybody in the world saying
that the negro had no share in the Declaration of National Independence;
that it did not mean negroes at all; and when "all men" were spoken of,
negroes were not included?
... Then I suppose that all now express the belief that the Declaration
of Independence never did mean negroes. I call upon one of them to say
that he said it five years ago. If you think that now, and did not think
it then, the next thing that strikes me is to remark that there has been
a _change_ wrought in you, and a very significant change it is, being no
less than changing the negro, in your estimation, from the rank of a man
to that of a brute....
Is not this change wrought in your minds a very important change? Public
opinion in this country is everything. In a nation like ours this
popular sovereignty and squatter sovereignty have already wrought a
change in the public mind to the extent I have stated.
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