ation of his great, patent, everlasting principle of "popular
sovereignty." [Laughter.] Well, now, that argument must be answered, for
it has a little grain of truth at the bottom. I do not mean that it is
true in essence, as he would have us believe. It could not be essentially
true if the Ordinance of '87 was valid. But, in point of fact, there
were some degraded beings called slaves in Kaskaskia and the other French
settlements when our first State constitution was adopted; that is a fact,
and I don't deny it. Slaves were brought here as early as 1720, and were
kept here in spite of the Ordinance of 1787 against it. But slavery did
not thrive here. On the contrary, under the influence of the ordinance the
number decreased fifty-one from 1810 to 1820; while under the influence of
squatter sovereignty, right across the river in Missouri, they increased
seven thousand two hundred and eleven in the same time; and slavery
finally faded out in Illinois, under the influence of the law of freedom,
while it grew stronger and stronger in Missouri, under the law or practice
of "popular sovereignty." In point of fact there were but one hundred and
seventeen slaves in Illinois one year after its admission, or one to every
four hundred and seventy of its population; or, to state it in another
way, if Illinois was a slave State in 1820, so were New York and New
Jersey much greater slave States from having had greater numbers, slavery
having been established there in very early times. But there is this vital
difference between all these States and the Judge's Kansas experiment:
that they sought to disestablish slavery which had been already
established, while the Judge seeks, so far as he can, to disestablish
freedom, which had been established there by the Missouri Compromise.
[Voices: "Good!"]
The Union is under-going a fearful strain; but it is a stout old ship, and
has weathered many a hard blow, and "the stars in their courses," aye, an
invisible Power, greater than the puny efforts of men, will fight for us.
But we ourselves must not decline the burden of responsibility, nor take
counsel of unworthy passions. Whatever duty urges us to do or to omit must
be done or omitted; and the recklessness with which our adversaries break
the laws, or counsel their violation, should afford no example for us.
Therefore, let us revere the Declaration of Independence; let us continue
to obey the Constitution and the laws; let us keep step to t
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