to the enormity of Lincoln--an
insignificant individual like Lincoln--upon his _ipse dixit_ charging a
conspiracy upon a large number of members of Congress, the Supreme
Court, and two Presidents, to nationalize slavery. I want to say that,
in the first place, I have made no charge of this sort upon my _ipse
dixit_. I have only arrayed the evidence tending to prove it, and
presented it to the understanding of others, saying what I think it
proves, but giving you the means of judging whether it proves it or
not. This is precisely what I have done. I have not placed it upon my
_ipse dixit_ at all. On this occasion, I wish to recall his attention
to a piece of evidence which I brought forward at Ottawa on Saturday,
showing that he had made substantially the _same charge_ against
substantially the _same persons_, excluding his dear self from the
category. I ask him to give some attention to the evidence which I
brought forward, that he himself had discovered a "fatal blow being
struck" against the right of the people to exclude slavery from their
limits, which fatal blow he assumed as in evidence in an article in the
Washington _Union_, published "by authority." I ask by whose
authority? He discovers a similar or identical provision in the
Lecompton Constitution. Made by whom? The framers of that
constitution. Advocated by whom? By all the members of the party in
the nation who advocated the introduction of Kansas into the Union
under the Lecompton Constitution.

I have asked his attention to the evidence that he arrayed to prove
that such a fatal blow was being struck, and to the facts which he
brought forward in support of that charge--being identical with the one
which he thinks so villainous in me. He pointed it not at a newspaper
editor merely, but at the President and his Cabinet, and the members of
Congress advocating the Lecompton Constitution, and those framing that
instrument. I must again be permitted to remind him, that although my
_ipse dixit_ may not be as great as his, yet it somewhat reduces the
force of his calling my attention to the enormity of my making a like
charge against him.

Go on, Judge Douglas.

THE COOPER INSTITUTE ADDRESS, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1860

Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens of New York: The facts with which I
shall deal this evening are mainly old and familiar; nor is there
anything new in the general use I shall make of them. If there shall
be any novelty, it