" The statesman was right in his far-seeing judgment and his
conscientious statement of the truth, but the practical politicians were
also right in their prediction of the immediate effect. Douglas
instantly seized upon the declaration that a house divided against itself
cannot stand as the main objective point of his attack, interpreting it
as an incitement to a "relentless sectional war," and there is no doubt
that the persistent reiteration of this charge served to frighten not a
few timid souls.
Lincoln constantly endeavored to bring the moral and philosophical side
of the subject to the foreground. "Slavery is wrong" was the keynote of
all his speeches. To Douglas's glittering sophism that the right of the
people of a Territory to have slavery or not, as they might desire, was
in accordance with the principle of true popular sovereignty, he made the
pointed answer: "Then true popular sovereignty, according to Senator
Douglas, means that, when one man makes another man his slave, no third
man shall be allowed to object." To Douglas's argument that the
principle which demanded that the people of a Territory should be
permitted to choose whether they would have slavery or not "originated
when God made man, and placed good and evil before him, allowing him to
choose upon his own responsibility," Lincoln solemnly replied: "No;
God--did not place good and evil before man, telling him to make his
choice.
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