he objections that
pertain to it without lessening its efficiency. In regard to
whether I am pledged to the admission of any more slave States into
the Union, I would be exceedingly glad to know that there would
never be another slave State admitted into the Union; but I must
add that if slavery shall be kept out of the Territories during
the Territorial existence of any one given Territory, and then the
people shall, having a fair chance and a clear field when they come
to adopt the Constitution, do such an extraordinary thing as to
adopt a slavery Constitution uninfluenced by the actual presence
of the institution among them, I see no alternative, if we own the
country, but to admit them into the Union. I should be exceedingly
glad to see slavery abolished in the District of Columbia. I
believe that Congress possesses Constitutional power to abolish
it. Yet, as a member of Congress, I should not be in favor of
endeavoring to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia unless it
would be upon these conditions: First, that the abolition should be
gradual; second, that it should be on a vote of the majority of
qualified voters in the district; third, that compensation should be
made unwilling owners. With these conditions, I confess I should be
exceedingly glad to see Congress abolish slavery in the District of
Columbia, and in the language of Henry Clay, 'Sweep from our Capital
that foul blot upon our nation.'"

These carefully prepared answers will never cease to be of profound
interest to the student of human affairs. They indicate unmistakably
the conservative tendency of Mr. Lincoln, and his position at
the time as to the legal status of the institution of slavery.
But "courage mounteth with occasion." Five years later, and from the
hand that penned the answers given came the great proclamation
emancipating a race. The hour had struck--and slavery perished.
The compromises upon which it rested were, in the mighty upheaval,
but as the stubble before the flame.

Recurring to the Freeport debates, Mr. Lincoln propounded to his
opponent four interrogatories as follows:

"First, if the people of Kansas shall by means entirely unobjectionable
in all other respects adopt a State Constitution and ask admission
into the Union under it before they have the requisite number of
inhabitants according to the bill--some ninety-three thousand--
will you vote to admit them? Second, can the people of a United
States Te