om
the beginning, and all worked upon a common plan or draft drawn before the
first blow was struck."

When my friend Judge Douglas came to Chicago on the 9th of July, this
speech having been delivered on the 16th of June, he made an harangue
there, in which he took hold of this speech of mine, showing that he had
carefully read it; and while he paid no attention to this matter at all,
but complimented me as being a "kind, amiable, and intelligent gentleman,"
notwithstanding I had said this, he goes on and eliminates, or draws out,
from my speech this tendency of mine to set the States at war with one
another, to make all the institutions uniform, and set the niggers and
white people to marrying together. Then, as the Judge had complimented me
with these pleasant titles (I must confess to my weakness), I was a little
"taken," for it came from a great man. I was not very much accustomed to
flattery, and it came the sweeter to me. I was rather like the Hoosier,
with the gingerbread, when he said he reckoned he loved it better than any
other man, and got less of it. As the Judge had so flattered me, I could
not make up my mind that he meant to deal unfairly with me; so I went to
work to show him that he misunderstood the whole scope of my speech, and
that I really never intended to set the people at war with one another. As
an illustration, the next time I met him, which was at Springfield, I used
this expression, that I claimed no right under the Constitution, nor had
I any inclination, to enter into the slave States and interfere with the
institutions of slavery. He says upon that: Lincoln will not enter into
the slave States, but will go to the banks of the Ohio, on this side,
and shoot over! He runs on, step by step, in the horse-chestnut style of
argument, until in the Springfield speech he says: "Unless he shall
be successful in firing his batteries until he shall have extinguished
slavery in all the States the Union shall be dissolved." Now, I don't
think that was exactly the way to treat "a kind, amiable, intelligent
gentleman." I know if I had asked the Judge to show when or where it was
I had said that, if I didn't succeed in firing into the slave States until
slavery should be extinguished, the Union should be dissolved, he could
not have shown it. I understand what he would do. He would say: I don't
mean to quote from you, but this was the result of what you say. But I
have the right to ask, and I do ask now, Di