st upon is that the new territories shall be kept free from it while
in the territorial condition. Judge Douglas assumes that we have no
interest in them, that we have no right whatever to interfere. I think
we have some interest. I think that as white men we have. Do we not wish
for an outlet for our surplus population, if I may so express myself? Do
we not feel an interest in getting to that outlet with such institutions
as we would like to have prevail there? If you go to the territory
opposed to slavery and another man comes to the same ground with his
slave, upon the assumption that the things are equal, it turns out that
he has the equal right all his way and you have no part of it your way.

The real issue in this controversy is the sentiment on the part of one
class that looks upon the institution of slavery as a wrong, and of
another class that does not look upon it as wrong. It is the sentiment
around which all their actions, all their arguments circle, from which
all their propositions radiate. They look upon it as being a moral,
social, and political wrong. Has anything ever threatened the existence
of this Union save this very institution of slavery? What is it that we
hold most dear amongst us? Our own liberty and prosperity. What has ever
threatened our liberty and prosperity except this institution of
slavery? If this be true, how do you propose to improve the condition of
things by enlarging it? You may have a cancer upon your person and not
be able to cut it out lest you bleed to death, but surely it is no way
to cure it to graft it and spread it over your body. That is no proper
way of treating what you regard as wrong.

That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this
country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself are silent.
It is the eternal struggle between these two principles, right and
wrong, throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood
face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to
struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other is the
divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it
develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, "You work and toil and
earn bread and I'll eat it." No matter in what shape it comes, whether
from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own
nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as
an apology for enslavi