[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we have now heard the leading arguments are the two candidates the high office of United States Senator from Illinois Judge Steven a Douglas and mr. Abraham Lincoln each of the candidates will now speak in rebuttal judge Douglas my fellow citizens my good friend mr. Lincoln has addressed you with his usual artless sincerity is pure homely charm his perennial Native humor like Brutus in Shakespeare's immortal tragedy mr. Lincoln is an honorable man but also like Brutus he is an adept at the art of inserting daggers between an opponent's ribs just when said opponent least expects it behold me ladies and gentlemen I am covered with sky mr. Lincoln hops constantly on this subject of equality it repeats all over and over the argument used by Lovejoy and other abolitionists to it that the Declaration of Independence having declared all men free and equal by divine law thus Negro equality is an inalienable right contrary to this stands the verdict of the Supreme Court in the case of Dred Scott mr. Lincoln is a lawyer and I presume therefore that he knows that when he seeks to destroy public confidence in the integrity the inviolability of the Supreme Court is preaching a revolution he asks me to state my opinion of the Dred Scott decision and I answer him only critically by saying I take the decisions of the Supreme Court to be the law of the land and I intend to obey them as such now will I be swayed from that position by all our ranting of all the fanatics who preach racial equality who ask us to vote eat sleep and marry with egos and I say father let each state mind its own business and leave its neighbors alone if we will stand on that principle then mr. Lincoln will find that this great Republic can exist forever divided into free and slave states and we can go on as we have done increasing in wealth in population in power until we shall become the admiration and the terror of the world mr. Abraham Lincoln [Applause] now you've heard the judge make allusion to those who advocate building and eating and marrying and sleeping with Negroes whether he meant me specifically I do not know if he did I can only say that just because I do not want a colored woman for a slave I do not necessarily want her for a wife I do not need to have her for either I can just leave her alone is some respect she is certainly not my equal any more than I am the judge is equal in some respects but in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with her own hands without asking leave of somebody else she is my equal and the equal of all others the purpose of the Dred Scott decision is to make property and nothing but property of the negro in all states of the union as a nation we began by declaring all men are created equal there was no mention of any exception to that rule in the Declaration of Independence but we now practically read it all men are created equal except Negroes what is to stop us in future from degrees all men are created equal except Negroes foreigners Catholics Jews or just poor people this is the complacent policy of indifference to evil and that policy I cannot but hate I hate it because it deprives our Republic of its just influence in the world enables the enemies of free institutions everywhere to taunt us as epic rates causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity in his final words tonight the judge said that we can be the terror of the world I don't think we want to be that I think we would prefer to be the encouragement of the world the that at last man is worthy to be free but we shall provide no such encouragement unless we can establish our ability as a nation to live and grow and we shall surely do neither if the states fail to remain united there can be no distinction in the definition of liberty as between one section and another one class and another one race and another a house divided against itself cannot stand this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free [Applause]