,
his own powers were constantly at their tension.

"the blood more stirs
To rouse a lion than to start a hare."

In opening, Senator Douglas made brief reference to the political
condition of the country prior to the year 1854. He said:

"The Whig and the Democratic were the two great parties then in
existence; both national and patriotic, advocating principles that
were universal in their application; while these parties differed in
regard to banks, tariff, and sub-treasury, they agreed on the
slavery question which now agitates the Union. They had adopted
the compromise measures of 1850 as the basis of a full solution of
the slavery question in all its forms; that these measures had
received the endorsement of both parties in their National Conventions
of 1852, thus affirming the right of the people of each State
and Territory to decide as to their domestic institutions for
themselves; that this principle was embodied in the bill reported by
me in 1854 for the organization of the Territories of Kansas and
Nebraska; in order that there might be no misunderstanding,
these words were inserted in that bill: 'It is the true intent
and meaning of this act, not to legislate slavery into any State
or Territory, or to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the
people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic
institutions in their own way, subject only to the Federal
Constitution.'"

Turning to his opponent, he said:

"I desire to know whether Mr. Lincoln to-day stands as he did in
1854 in favor of the unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave
Law; whether he stands pledged to-day as he did in 1854 against
the admission of any more slave States into the Union, even if the
people want them; whether he stands pledged against the admission of
a new State into the Union with such a Constitution as the people of
that State may see fit to make. I want to know whether he
stands to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery in the District of
Columbia; I desire to know whether he stands pledged to prohibit
slavery in all the Territories of the United States north as well as
south of the Missouri Compromise line. I desire him to answer
whether he is opposed to acquisition of any more territory
unless slavery is prohibited therein. I want his answer to
these questions."

Douglas then addressed himself to the already quoted words of
Mr. Lincoln's Springfield speech commencing: "A house divided
against its