ill lose the confidence of all men, will be prostituted and disgraced by
such a proceeding, I say, "You know best, Judge; you have been through the
mill." But I cannot shake Judge Douglas's teeth loose from the Dred Scott
decision. Like some obstinate animal (I mean no disrespect) that will hang
on when he has once got his teeth fixed, you may cut off a leg, or you may
tear away an arm, still he will not relax his hold. And so I may point out
to the Judge, and say that he is bespattered all over, from the beginning
of his political life to the present time, with attacks upon judicial
decisions; I may cut off limb after limb of his public record, and strive
to wrench him from a single dictum of the court,--yet I cannot divert him
from it. He hangs, to the last, to the Dred Scott decision. These things
show there is a purpose strong as death and eternity for which he adheres
to this decision, and for which he will adhere to all other decisions of
the same court.

[A HIBERNIAN: "Give us something besides Dred Scott."]

Yes; no doubt you want to hear something that don't hurt. Now, having
spoken of the Dred Scott decision, one more word, and I am done. Henry
Clay, my beau-ideal of a statesman, the man for whom I fought all my
humble life, Henry Clay once said of a class of men who would repress all
tendencies to liberty and ultimate emancipation that they must, if they
would do this, go back to the era of our Independence, and muzzle the
cannon which thunders its annual joyous return; they must blow out the
moral lights around us; they must penetrate the human soul, and eradicate
there the love of liberty; and then, and not till then, could they
perpetuate slavery in this country! To my thinking, Judge Douglas is, by
his example and vast influence, doing that very thing in this
community, when he says that the negro has nothing in the Declaration of
Independence. Henry Clay plainly understood the contrary. Judge Douglas
is going back to the era of our Revolution, and, to the extent of his
ability, muzzling the cannon which thunders its annual joyous return. When
he invites any people, willing to have slavery, to establish it, he is
blowing out the moral lights around us. When he says he "cares not
whether slavery is voted down or up,"--that it is a sacred right of
self-government,--he is, in my judgment, penetrating the human soul and
eradicating the light of reason and the love of liberty in this American
people. And now I