Isaac N. Arnold

“ Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature, opposition to it in his love of justice. These principles are in eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely as slavery extension brings them, shocks and throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. Repeal the Missouri Compromise--repeal all compromise--repeal the Declaration of Independence--repeal all past history, you still cannot repeal human nature. It still will be out of the abundance of man's heart that he will declare slavery extension is wrong ”

“ Conscious of the greatness of his cause, inspired by a genuine love of liberty, and animated and made strong by the moral sublimity of the conflict, he solemnly announced his determination to speak for freedom and against slavery, until, in his own words, wherever the Federal Government has power, "the sun shall shine, the rain shall fall, and the wind shall blow, upon no man who goes forth to unrequited toil." ”

“ He took his stand with the fathers of the republic, against the extension of slavery. He knew that prohibition in the territories would result in no more slave states, and no slave territory. And now, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise shattered all parties into fragments, and he came forward to build up the free soil party, he threw into the conflict all his strength and vigor, and devoted his life to the struggle. From this time, Lincoln was to guide the whirlwind and direct the storm. He realized that the conflict was unavoidable and inevitable. ”

“ Nearly eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to that other declaration, 'that for some men to enslave others is a sacred right of self government.'"
"In our greedy chase to make profit of the negro, let us beware lest we cancel and tear to pieces even the white man's charter of freedom." ”

“ The negro in Kansas did not long remain a slave. The grogshop, the bowie knife and the revolver could not permanently compete with the school house, free labor, order, and thrift. But the struggle was long, and for a time doubtful. On the side of slavery was all the influence of the United States officials, the state government of Missouri, its border militia, ever ready to make a raid into Kansas for plunder, violence, and destruction. ”

“ Some Yankees in the East are sending emigrants to exclude slavery from it, and, so far as I can judge, they expect the question to be decided by voting in some way or other. But the Missourians are awake too. They are within a stone's throw of the contested ground. They hold meetings and pass resolutions, in which not the slightest allusion to voting is made. They resolve that slavery already exists in the territory; that more shall go there; that they remaining in Missouri will protect it, and that abolitionists shall be hung or driven away. ”

“ You may sooner, by act of Congress, compel the sea to suppress its upheavings, and the earth to extinguish its internal fires, than oblige the human mind to cease its inquiries, and the human heart to desist from its throbbings." In its last maddened throes, this early, able champion of liberty was struck down by the hand of slavery, the same hand which assassinated Lincoln, but not until he had lived as Secretary of State, officially to proclaim, that "slavery no longer exists" in the republic.
At five o'clock, on the 3d of March, 1854, the Nebraska bill passed the Senate. ”

“ The slave party, by the aid of votes imported from Missouri, the Missouri militia, and the Federal officers, held for a time the nominal government, and perpetrated a series of outrages, frauds, and ballot stuffings to secure a constitution establishing slavery. But the free state men soon outnumbered their wandering, plundering, whiskey drinking adversaries. The slaves ran away, and found security in the free state settlements or beyond the border. ”

“ When, late in September, 1854, Douglas, after the passage of the Kansas and Nebraska bill, returned to Illinois, he was received with a storm of indignation which would have crushed a man of less power and will. ”

“ A bold and courageous leader, conscious of his personal power over his party, he bravely met the storm and sought to allay it. In October, 1854, the State Fair being then in session at Springfield, and there being a great crowd of people from all parts of the state, Douglas went there and made an elaborate and able speech in defense of the repeal. Mr. Lincoln was called upon by all the opponents of this repeal to reply, and he did so with a power which he never surpassed, and which he had never before equalled. ”

“ She successfully withstood the slave power, backed by the Federal Government. The struggle was watched by the people everywhere, with the most intense solicitude, and it nerved them to a still firmer determination to resist the encroachment of the slaveholders. ”

“ But, says he, "they say if you do this you will be standing with the abolitionists. I say stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong." ”

“ These were all able men, and skillful politicians, and with their votes there would be on joint ballot a majority of two against Douglas.
James Shields, the colleague of Douglas in the Senate, and who had been induced by Douglas's great personal influence to vote for the Kansas and Nebraska bill, was a candidate for re-election. Lincoln had led the opposition, and to his efforts the great revolution in the state was largely to be attributed, and he was naturally selected as the candidate for United States senator. ”