ed as a
Territory and come into the Union as a State without disturbing that
Compromise. There was no sort of necessity for destroying it to organize
these Territories. But, gentlemen, it would take up all my time to meet
all the little quibbling arguments of Judge Douglas to show that the
Missouri Compromise was repealed by the Compromise of 1850. My own opinion
is, that a careful investigation of all the arguments to sustain the
position that that Compromise was virtually repealed by the Compromise of
1850 would show that they are the merest fallacies. I have the report that
Judge Douglas first brought into Congress at the time of the introduction
of the Nebraska Bill, which in its original form did not repeal the
Missouri Compromise, and he there expressly stated that he had forborne to
do so because it had not been done by the Compromise of 1850. I close this
part of the discussion on my part by asking him the question again, "Why,
when we had peace under the Missouri Compromise, could you not have let it
alone?"

In complaining of what I said in my speech at Springfield, in which he
says I accepted my nomination for the senatorship (where, by the way, he
is at fault, for if he will examine it, he will find no acceptance in it),
he again quotes that portion in which I said that "a house divided against
itself cannot stand." Let me say a word in regard to that matter.

He tries to persuade us that there must be a variety in the different
institutions of the States of the Union; that that variety necessarily
proceeds from the variety of soil, climate, of the face of the country,
and the difference in the natural features of the States. I agree to all
that. Have these very matters ever produced any difficulty amongst us? Not
at all. Have we ever had any quarrel over the fact that they have laws
in Louisiana designed to regulate the commerce that springs from the
production of sugar? Or because we have a different class relative to the
production of flour in this State? Have they produced any differences? Not
at all. They are the very cements of this Union. They don't make the house
a house divided against itself. They are the props that hold up the house
and sustain the Union.

But has it been so with this element of slavery? Have we not always had
quarrels and difficulties over it? And when will we cease to have quarrels
over it? Like causes produce like effects. It is worth while to observe
that we have generally h