ng to bring about a war between
the free and slave States; that he had no thought in the world that
he was doing anything to bring about social and political equality
of the black and white races.

Pursuing this line of argument, he insisted that the first step in
the conspiracy, the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, followed soon
by the Dred Scott Decision--the latter fitting perfectly into
the niche left by the former--"in such a case, we feel it impossible
not to believe that Stephen and Franklin, Roger and James, all
understood one another from the beginning, and all worked upon a
common plan or draft drawn before the first blow was struck."

In closing, Douglas, after indignant denial of the charge of
conspiracy, said:

"I have lived twenty-five years in Illinois; I have served you with
all the fidelity and ability which I possess, and Mr. Lincoln is
at liberty to attack my public action, my votes, and my conduct,
but when he dares to attack my moral integrity by a charge of
conspiracy between myself, Chief Justice Taney, and the Supreme
Court and two Presidents of the United States, I will repel it."

At Freeport, Mr. Lincoln, in opening the discussion, at once declared
his readiness to answer the interrogatories propounded. He said:

"I do not now, nor ever did, stand in favor of the unconditional
repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law; I do not now, nor ever did, stand
pledged against the admission of any more slave States into the
Union; I do not stand 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 do not stand to-day pledged to the abolition
of slavery in the District of Columbia; I do not stand pledged
to the prohibition of the slave trade between the different States;
I am impliedly, if not expressly, pledged to a belief in the right
and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the United
States Territories."

Waiving the form of the interrogatory, as to being pledged, he said:

"As to the first one in regard to the Fugitive Slave Law, I have
never hesitated to say, and I do not now hesitate to say, that I
think under the Constitution of the United States the people of
the Southern States are entitled to a Congressional Fugitive Slave
Law. Having said that, I have had nothing to say in regard to the
existing Fugitive Slave Law further than that I think it should
have been framed so as to be free from some of t