ra being introduced in the history of
the Republic, which tended to the spread and perpetuation of slavery. But
in our opposition to that measure we did not agree with one another in
everything. The people in the north end of the State were for stronger
measures of opposition than we of the central and southern portions of the
State, but we were all opposed to the Nebraska doctrine. We had that one
feeling and that one sentiment in common. You at the north end met in your
conventions and passed your resolutions. We in the middle of the State and
farther south did not hold such conventions and pass the same resolutions,
although we had in general a common view and a common sentiment. So that
these meetings which the Judge has alluded to, and the resolutions he has
read from, were local, and did not spread over the whole State. We at last
met together in 1886, from all parts of the State, and we agreed upon a
common platform. You, who held more extreme notions, either yielded
those notions, or, if not wholly yielding them, agreed to yield them
practically, for the sake of embodying the opposition to the measures
which the opposite party were pushing forward at that time. We met you
then, and if there was anything yielded, it was for practical purposes. We
agreed then upon a platform for the party throughout the entire State of
Illinois, and now we are all bound, as a party, to that platform.

And I say here to you, if any one expects of me--in case of my
election--that I will do anything not signified by our Republican platform
and my answers here to-day, I tell you very frankly that person will be
deceived. I do not ask for the vote of any one who supposes that I have
secret purposes or pledges that I dare not speak out. Cannot the Judge be
satisfied? If he fears, in the unfortunate case of my election, that my
going to Washington will enable me to advocate sentiments contrary to
those which I expressed when you voted for and elected me, I assure him
that his fears are wholly needless and groundless. Is the Judge really
afraid of any such thing? I'll tell you what he is afraid of. He is afraid
we'll all pull together. This is what alarms him more than anything else.
For my part, I do hope that all of us, entertaining a common sentiment in
opposition to what appears to us a design to nationalize and perpetuate
slavery, will waive minor differences on questions which either belong
to the dead past or the distant future, and