atter what rights he
might have under the Constitution. Lincoln declared that the answer was
historically false, for slaves had been held in Territories in spite of
unfriendly legislation, and pointed out that if the Dred Scott decision
was right the members of a territorial legislature, when they took an
oath to support the Constitution, bound themselves to grant slavery
protection. Later, in a fifth and last question, he asked whether, in
case the slave-owners of a Territory demanded of Congress protection for
their property, Douglas would vote to give it to them. But Douglas fell
back upon his old position that Congress had no right to intervene. He
would not break with his supporters in Illinois, but by his "Freeport
Doctrine" of unfriendly legislation he had broken forever with the men
who were now in control of his party in the Southern States.

It was Lincoln who took the aggressive on principles. A famous paragraph
of his speech before the convention which nominated him began with the
words: "'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this
government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free." That was
a direct challenge to Douglas and his whole plan with slavery, and
throughout the debate, at every meeting, the doctrine of the divided
house was attacked and defended. Douglas declared that Lincoln was
inciting half his countrymen to make war upon the other half; that he
went for uniformity of domestic institutions everywhere, instead of
letting different communities manage their domestic affairs as they
chose. But no, Lincoln protested, he was merely for resisting the spread
of slavery and putting it in such a state that the public mind would
rest in the hope of its ultimate extinction. "But why," cried Douglas,
"cannot this government go on as the fathers left it, as it has gone on
for more than a century?" Lincoln met him on that ground, and had the
better of him in discussing what the fathers meant concerning slavery.
They did not mean, he argued, to leave it alone to grow and spread, for
they prohibited it in the Northwest Territory, they left the word
"slave" out of the Constitution in the hope of a time when there should
be no slaves under the flag. Over the true meaning of the Declaration of
Independence, however, Douglas had a certain advantage, for Lincoln
found the difficulty which candid minds still find in applying the
principle of equality to races of unequal strength. Douglas