The Writings of Abraham Lincoln: The Lincoln-Douglas debates, II |
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Page 157
... of it : anything that argues me into his idea of perfect social and political equality with the negro , is but a specious and fantastical ar- rangement of words by which a man can prove a horse- chestnut to be a chestnut horse .
... of it : anything that argues me into his idea of perfect social and political equality with the negro , is but a specious and fantastical ar- rangement of words by which a man can prove a horse- chestnut to be a chestnut horse .
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Common terms and phrases
Abolition admit adopted agitation amendment answer attention become believe bill bring brought called charge Chicago clause Clay Congress constitution Convention course decide decision declared Democratic deny desire discussion divided doctrine Dred Scott election equality evidence exist fact fathers favor force forgery forward friends give held hold Illinois institution Judge Douglas Kansas language Lincoln matter mean measures meeting mind Nebraska negro never North opinion opposed original party passed platform political position present principle proposition prove provision question race reason record reference regard reported Republican requiring resolutions Senate slave slavery South speech Springfield stand submitted suppose Supreme Court taken tell Territory thing thought tion true Trumbull understand Union United vote Whigs whole wish wrong
Popular passages
Page 181 - A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction ; or its advocates will...
Page 155 - I hold that notwithstanding all this there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, — the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man.
Page 265 - 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 the divine right of kings.
Page 240 - This they said and this they meant. They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth, that all were then actually enjoying that equality, nor yet that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact, they had no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit.
Page 155 - But in the right to eat the bread, without the leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man.
Page 126 - Now, as we have already said in an earlier part of this opinion, upon a different point, the right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution.
Page 179 - I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races — that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people...
Page 153 - I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.
Page 205 - Has it not got down as thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had starved to death?
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Writings of Abraham Lincoln: The Lincoln-Douglas debates, II Volume 4 of The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Arnold Douglas |
| Author | Abraham Lincoln |
| Editor | Arthur Brooks Lapsley |
| Contributor | Theodore Roosevelt |
| Publisher | G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1905 |
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