the thing, they snub over, and they do not seem to remember that
they have an existence upon the face of the earth.

Gentlemen, I fear that I shall become tedious. I leave this branch of
the subject to take hold of another. I take up that part of Judge
Douglas's speech in which he respectfully attended to me.

Judge Douglas made two points upon my recent speech at Springfield. He
says they are to be the issues of this campaign. The first one of these
points he bases upon the language in a speech which I delivered at
Springfield, which I believe I can quote correctly from memory. I said
that "we are now far into the fifth year since a policy was instituted
for the avowed object and with the confident promise of putting an end
to slavery agitation; under the operation of that policy, that agitation
has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. I believe it will
not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. 'A house
divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot
endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union
to be dissolved,"--I am quoting from my speech,--"I do not expect the
house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will
become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery
will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind
shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate
extinction, or its advocates will push it forward until it shall become
alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new; North as well as
South."

That is the paragraph! In this paragraph which I have quoted in your
hearing, and to which I ask the attention of all, Judge Douglas thinks
he discovers great political heresy. I want your attention particularly
to what he has inferred from it. He says I am in favour of making all
the States of this Union uniform in all their internal regulations; that
in all their domestic concerns I am in favour of making them entirely
uniform. He draws this inference from the language I have quoted to you.
He says that I am in favour of making war by the North upon the South
for the extinction of slavery; that I am also in favour of inviting (as
he expresses it) the South to a war upon the North for the purpose of
nationalizing slavery. Now, it is singular enough, if you will carefully
read that passage over, that I did not say that I was in favour of
anything in it. I only s