vented when he introduced the
Nebraska Bill? He called it Popular Sovereignty. What does that mean?
It means the sovereignty of the people over their own affairs--in other
words, the right of the people to govern themselves. Did Judge Douglas
invent this? Not quite. The idea of popular sovereignty was floating about
several ages before the author of the Nebraska Bill was born--indeed,
before Columbus set foot on this continent. In the year 1776 it took form
in the noble words which you are all familiar with: "We hold these truths
to be self-evident, that all men are created equal," etc. Was not this the
origin of popular sovereignty as applied to the American people? Here we
are told that governments are instituted among men deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed. If that is not popular
sovereignty, then I have no conception of the meaning of words. If Judge
Douglas did not invent this kind of popular sovereignty, let us pursue
the inquiry and find out what kind he did invent. Was it the right of
emigrants to Kansas and Nebraska to govern themselves, and a lot of
"niggers," too, if they wanted them? Clearly this was no invention of his
because General Cass put forth the same doctrine in 1848 in his so called
Nicholson letter, six years before Douglas thought of such a thing. Then
what was it that the "Little Giant" invented? It never occurred to General
Cass to call his discovery by the odd name of popular sovereignty. He had
not the face to say that the right of the people to govern "niggers" was
the right of the people to govern themselves. His notions of the fitness
of things were not moulded to the brazenness of calling the right to put
a hundred "niggers" through under the lash in Nebraska a "sacred" right of
self-government. And here I submit to you was Judge Douglas's discovery,
and the whole of it: He discovered that the right to breed and flog
negroes in Nebraska was popular sovereignty.

SPEECH AT CLINTON, ILLINOIS,

SEPTEMBER 8, 1858.

The questions are sometimes asked "What is all this fuss that is being
made about negroes? What does it amount to? And where will it end?" These
questions imply that those who ask them consider the slavery question a
very insignificant matter they think that it amounts to little or nothing
and that those who agitate it are extremely foolish. Now it must be
admitted that if the great question which has caused so much trouble is
insignificant, we are