existed so long as
a geographical line marked out by Congress existed over the national
domain to separate Free and Slave States; and the leaving of the
question of slavery to the local legislatures; by them only had it been
or could it be created, and by them only had it been or could it be
abolished. When the national territory was made free by the law of
non-intervention, slavery was left entirely to the local law, and as
freedom is the rule and slavery the exception, the chances were three to
one in favor of free institutions in every new State.

And yet it is for bringing the slavery agitation to this result--a
result of which the men of the South upon their own principles cannot
complain, and of which their best men do not complain, and of which the
North has no reason to complain, but rather to rejoice, that Stephen A.
Douglas, the ablest statesman of whom this nation can boast since
the mighty intellect of Webster ceased to speak in words of
power, has been covered all over with the vilest and bitterest
denunciation--denunciation that would seem to be more the outpouring of
personal malignity than the voice of mere partisan hostility. It is for
this result that Douglas has been outlawed by a professedly Democratic
administration, and the Democratic party itself broken up by Southern
disunionists, aided by that same administration. BUT A NATION'S
RETURNING JUSTICE WILL YET LIFT ALOFT HER SCALE, AND STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS
CAN AFFORD TO ABIDE HIS TIME.

I have thus, I fear tediously to you, brought you to the last act of the
great national drama of slavery agitation.

Let us now briefly review the ground, sum up the points, and see how we
stand for the final struggle near at hand.

These are the propositions I have aimed to establish:

1. Slavery existed in all the States of the Union when it was formed,
and no power was conceded to Congress, under the Confederation to
interfere with it.

2. The Jefferson ordinance of 1784, the first act of Congress relating
to the territory of the United States, conceded to the people of the
territories as inchoate States, full power of internal legislation, and
did not prohibit slavery.

3. The Dane ordinance of 1787, applied only to territory not adapted to
negro slave labor; it was adopted under an implied power, if any, in the
Congress of the Confederation. Viewed on strict constitutional grounds,
it was a usurpation, like many other powers exercised by the old
Congress,