ld not come to Egypt unless he forced me--that I
could not be got here unless he, giant-like, had hauled me down here. That
statement he makes, too, in the teeth of the knowledge that I had made the
stipulation to come down here and that he himself had been very reluctant
to enter into the stipulation. More than all this: Judge Douglas, when
he made that statement, must have been crazy and wholly out of his sober
senses, or else he would have known that when he got me down here, that
promise--that windy promise--of his powers to annihilate me, would n't
amount to anything. Now, how little do I look like being carried away
trembling? Let the Judge go on; and after he is done with his half-hour, I
want you all, if I can't go home myself, to let me stay and rot here; and
if anything happens to the Judge, if I cannot carry him to the hotel and
put him to bed, let me stay here and rot. I say, then, here is something
extraordinary in this statement. I ask you if you know any other living
man who would make such a statement? I will ask my friend Casey, over
there, if he would do such a thing? Would he send that out and have his
men take it as the truth? Did the Judge talk of trotting me down to Egypt
to scare me to death? Why, I know this people better than he does. I was
raised just a little east of here. I am a part of this people. But the
Judge was raised farther north, and perhaps he has some horrid idea of
what this people might be induced to do. But really I have talked about
this matter perhaps longer than I ought, for it is no great thing; and yet
the smallest are often the most difficult things to deal with. The Judge
has set about seriously trying to make the impression that when we meet
at different places I am literally in his clutches--that I am a poor,
helpless, decrepit mouse, and that I can do nothing at all. This is one
of the ways he has taken to create that impression. I don't know any other
way to meet it except this. I don't want to quarrel with him--to call him
a liar; but when I come square up to him I don't know what else to call
him if I must tell the truth out. I want to be at peace, and reserve all
my fighting powers for necessary occasions. My time now is very nearly
out, and I give up the trifle that is left to the Judge, to let him set my
knees trembling again, if he can. set my knees trembling again, if he can.

THE PAPERS AND WRITINGS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

VOLUME FOUR

CONSTITUTIONAL