ve him in the great Lincoln-Douglas debates of the following year.
Repeated and amplified at that time, it became in the eyes of the South
the unpardonable political heresy which lost him the Presidential
nomination and caused the rupture of the Democratic National
Convention at Charleston in the summer of 1860. For the moment, however,
the sophism doubtless satisfied his many warm partisans. He did not
dwell on the dangerous point, but trusted for oratorical effect rather
to his renewed appeals to the popular prejudice against the blacks, so
strong in central Illinois, indorsing and emphasizing Chief-Justice
Taney's assertion that negroes were not included in the words of the
Declaration of Independence, and arguing that if the principle of
equality were admitted and carried out to its logical results, it
would necessarily lead not only to the abolition of slavery in the
slave-States, but to the general amalgamation of the two races.

The Republican party of Illinois had been greatly encouraged and
strengthened by its success in electing the State officers in the
previous autumn; and as their recognized leader and champion, Lincoln
made a reply to this speech some two weeks later, June 26, 1857, also
at Springfield. Though embracing other topics, the question of the
hour, the Dred Scott decision, was nevertheless its chief subject. The
extracts here presented from it will give the reader some idea of its
power of statement and eloquence:

And now [said Mr. Lincoln] as to the Dred Scott decision. That
decision declares two propositions--first, that a negro cannot sue
in the United States courts; and secondly, that Congress cannot
prohibit slavery in the Territories. It was made by a divided
court--dividing differently on the different points. Judge Douglas
does not discuss the merits of the decision, and in that respect I
shall follow his example, believing I could no more improve on
McLean and Curtis, than he could on Taney. He denounces all who
question the correctness of that decision, as offering violent
resistance to it. But who resists it? Who has, in spite of the
decision, declared Dred Scott free, and resisted the authority of
his master over him? Judicial decisions have two uses--first, to
absolutely determine the case decided, and, secondly, to indicate
to the public how other similar cases will be decided when they
arise. For the latter use they ar