stantially in a former speech, that he cares not if
slavery is voted up or down; he tells you the struggle on Lecompton is
past; it may come up again or not, and if it does, he stands where
he stood when, in spite of him and his opposition, you built up the
Republican party. If you indorse him, you tell him you do not care whether
slavery be voted up or down, and he will close or try to close your mouths
with his declaration, repeated by the day, the week, the month, and the
year. Is that what you mean? [Cries of "No," one voice "Yes."] Yes, I have
no doubt you who have always been for him, if you mean that. No doubt of
that, soberly I have said, and I repeat it. I think, in the position in
which Judge Douglas stood in opposing the Lecompton Constitution, he was
right; he does not know that it will return, but if it does we may know
where to find him, and if it does not, we may know where to look for him,
and that is on the Cincinnati platform. Now, I could ask the Republican
party, after all the hard names that Judge Douglas has called them by all
his repeated charges of their inclination to marry with and hug negroes;
all his declarations of Black Republicanism,--by the way, we are
improving, the black has got rubbed off,--but with all that, if he be
indorsed by Republican votes, where do you stand? Plainly, you stand ready
saddled, bridled, and harnessed, and waiting to be driven over to the
slavery extension camp of the nation,--just ready to be driven over, tied
together in a lot, to be driven over, every man with a rope around his
neck, that halter being held by Judge Douglas. That is the question. If
Republican men have been in earnest in what they have done, I think they
had better not do it; but I think that the Republican party is made up
of those who, as far as they can peaceably, will oppose the extension of
slavery, and who will hope for its ultimate extinction. If they believe
it is wrong in grasping up the new lands of the continent and keeping them
from the settlement of free white laborers, who want the land to bring
up their families upon; if they are in earnest, although they may make a
mistake, they will grow restless, and the time will come when they will
come back again and reorganize, if not by the same name, at least upon the
same principles as their party now has. It is better, then, to save the
work while it is begun. You have done the labor; maintain it, keep it.
If men choose to serve you, go wi