ABRAHAM LINCOLN -- CHAPTER 14

DOUGLAS SPEAKS      Stephen Douglas was a great orator, He said; "My fellow citizens, Mr. Lincoln has spoken to you with his usual simple charm and humor.   His jokes make you laugh. His pictures of the sad fate of the black slave labor make you cry. He always speak to you as if guiding you to the very door of truth, but then as you are about to enter it, he turns your attention elsewhere."      " For one thing- he never mentions the condition of labor here in the north! Perhaps he     does not know that tens of thousands of working  men and women in the cotton mill in New England are now on strike! And why are they on strike? Because from early morning till night - fourteen hours a day - these'free' citizens must work in factories and never see   the sun!      " Because, when their day's work is done. they must go back to their home, which are not even fit for animals! " I ask you, what kind of liberty is this? Hungry men are marching through the streets, because they are not paid enough to keep the flesh upon the bones of their bodies! What kind of liberty is this?      "Mr. Lincoln repeats the argument of lovejoy and other abolitionists. He says that the  Declaration of Independence, having declared all men free and equal, gives equal rights to negroes. But the highest court in our land clearly states that this is not true. The negroes are established , by the Dred Scott Decision, as a lower race of beings, enslaved    by a higher race. They are property, like all other property!      " Mr. Lincoln is a lawyer. I supposed, therefore, he knows that he seeks to destroy public confidence in the decision of the Supreme Court, he is stirring up revolt. He is working on the passion of men, so that they may turn to the use of force instead of law. He is sitting brother against brother!      " And I say further - let each state mind its own business and leave its neighbors alone.    If we stand by that principle, then Mr. Lincoln will find that this great country, divided into free and slave states, can exist forever. We can go on as we have done, increasing in wealth, in population, in power, until we shall be the admiration and the terror of the world."