s expressed who is my friend,--then it is a
good rule for him. I ask, is it not as good a rule for him as it is for
me? In my opinion, it is not a good rule for either of us. Do you think
differently, Judge?

[Mr. DOUGLAS: I do not.]

Judge Douglas says he does not think differently. I am glad of it. Then
can he tell me why he is looking up resolutions of five or six years ago,
and insisting that they were my platform, notwithstanding my protest that
they are not, and never were my platform, and my pointing out the platform
of the State Convention which he delights to say nominated me for the
Senate? I cannot see what he means by parading these resolutions, if it
is not to hold me responsible for them in some way. If he says to me here
that he does not hold the rule to be good, one way or the other, I do not
comprehend how he could answer me more fully if he answered me at greater
length. I will therefore put in as my answer to the resolutions that he
has hunted up against me, what I, as a lawyer, would call a good plea to a
bad declaration. I understand that it is an axiom of law that a poor plea
may be a good plea to a bad declaration. I think that the opinions the
Judge brings from those who support me, yet differ from me, is a bad
declaration against me; but if I can bring the same things against him, I
am putting in a good plea to that kind of declaration, and now I propose
to try it.

At Freeport, Judge Douglas occupied a large part of his time in producing
resolutions and documents of various sorts, as I understood, to make me
somehow responsible for them; and I propose now doing a little of the
same sort of thing for him. In 1850 a very clever gentleman by the name
of Thompson Campbell, a personal friend of Judge Douglas and myself, a
political friend of Judge Douglas and opponent of mine, was a candidate
for Congress in the Galena District. He was interrogated as to his views
on this same slavery question. I have here before me the interrogatories,
and Campbell's answers to them--I will read them:

INTERROGATORIES:

"1st. Will you, if elected, vote for and cordially support a bill
prohibiting slavery in the Territories of the United States?

"2d. Will you vote for and support a bill abolishing slavery in the
District of Columbia?

"3d. Will you oppose the admission of any Slave States which may be formed
out of Texas or the Territories?

"4th. Will you vote for and advocate the repeal of the Fugi