matter being a compromise of the constitution. It was the public
expectation at the time, manifested in a thousand ways, that the spread of
slavery should also be restricted.

Then I say, if this principle is established, that there is no wrong
in slavery, and whoever wants it has a right to have it, is a matter
of dollars and cents, a sort of question as to how they shall deal with
brutes, that between us and the negro here there is no sort of question,
but that at the South the question is between the negro and the crocodile,
that is all, it is a mere matter of policy, there is a perfect right,
according to interest, to do just as you please,--when this is done, where
this doctrine prevails, the miners and sappers will have formed public
opinion for the slave trade. They will be ready for Jeff. Davis and
Stephens and other leaders of that company to sound the bugle for the
revival of the slave trade, for the second Dred Scott decision, for the
flood of slavery to be poured over the free States, while we shall be here
tied down and helpless and run over like sheep.

It is to be a part and parcel of this same idea to say to men who want to
adhere to the Democratic party, who have always belonged to that
party, and are only looking about for some excuse to stick to it, but
nevertheless hate slavery, that Douglas's popular sovereignty is as good
a way as any to oppose slavery. They allow themselves to be persuaded
easily, in accordance with their previous dispositions, into this belief,
that it is about as good a way of opposing slavery as any, and we can do
that without straining our old party ties or breaking up old political
associations. We can do so without being called negro-worshipers. We
can do that without being subjected to the jibes and sneers that are so
readily thrown out in place of argument where no argument can be found.
So let us stick to this popular sovereignty,--this insidious popular
sovereignty.

Now let me call your attention to one thing that has really happened,
which shows this gradual and steady debauching of public opinion,
this course of preparation for the revival of the slave trade, for the
Territorial slave code, and the new Dred Scott decision that is to carry
slavery into the Free States. Did you ever, five years ago, hear of
anybody in the world saying that the negro had no share in the Declaration
of National Independence; that it does not mean negroes at all; and when
"all men" were