Isaac N. Arnold

“ Against the Constitution, against the memory of the nation, against a previous decision, against a series of enactments, he decided that the slave is property; that the Constitution upholds it in every territory against any act of a local legislature; and even against Congress itself; or, as the President for that term tersely promulgated the saying, 'Kansas is as much a slave state as South Carolina or Georgia; slavery, by virtue of the Constitution, exists in every territory.'"↑ Stephen A. Douglas, Franklin Pierce, Roger B. Taney, and James Buchanan. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Lincoln's speech to this convention was the platform of the memorable debate between him and Douglas, and is one of the most remarkable in American history. It was earnest and solemn, and gave so clear an exposition of the antagonism between liberty and slavery, that his words secured the immediate and universal attention of the nation. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." ”

“ That if any one man choose to enslave another no third man shall be allowed to object. That article was incorporated into the Nebraska bill itself, in the language which follows: "It being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any territory or state, nor to exclude it therefrom; but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States." ”

“ They remind us that he is a great man, and that the largest of us are very small ones. Let this be granted. But "a living dog is better than a dead lion." Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion for this work, is at least a caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don't care anything about it. His avowed mission is impressing the "public heart" to care nothing about it. A leading Douglas democratic newspaper thinks Douglas's superior talent will be needed to resist the revival of the African slave trade. ”

“ The negro's name was "Dred Scott," which name now designates the decision finally rendered in the case. Before the then next presidential election, the law came to, and was argued in the Supreme Court of the United States; but the decision of it was deferred until after the election. Still, before the election, Senator Trumbull, on the floor of the Senate, requested the leading advocate of the Nebraska bill to state his opinion whether the people of a territory can constitutionally exclude slavery from their limits, and the latter answers: "That is a question for the Supreme Court." ”

“ There are those who denounce us openly to their own friends, and yet whisper to us softly, that Senator Douglas is the aptest instrument there is with which to effect that object. They wish us to infer all, from the fact that he now has a little quarrel with the present head of the dynasty ”

“ Thirdly, That whether the holding a negro in actual slavery, in a free state, makes him free, as against the holder, the United States Courts will not decide, but will leave to be decided by the courts of any slave state the negro may be forced into by the master. ”

“ On the 29th of May, 1856, a convention of the people of Illinois, who were opposed to the extension of slavery, met at Bloomington and organized the republican party. It was made up of elements which had never before acted together, and which stood for very conflicting opinions. The committee on resolutions found themselves, after hours of discussion, unable to agree, and at last they sent for Lincoln. He suggested that all could unite on the principles of the Declaration of Independence and hostility to the extension of slavery. ”

“ When President Buchanan, on the 9th of December, 1857, urged Congress to admit Kansas under the fraudulent Lecompton constitution into the Union, Douglas at once announced his opposition, and followed this announcement with an elaborate and able speech against the proposed measure. "Why," said he, "force this constitution down the throats of the people, in opposition to their wishes, and in violation of our pledges?"
"The people want a fair vote, and will never be satisfied without it... ”

“ Let him consider not only what work the machinery is adapted to do, and how well adapted, but also let him study the history of its construction, and trace, if he can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace, the evidences of design, and concert of action, among its chief architects from the beginning. ”

“ Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by, its own undoubted friends--those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work--who do care for the result. Two years ago the republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thousand strong. ”

“ If it is to be forced upon the people, under a submission that is a mockery and an insult, I will resist to the last." Douglas never exhibited more commanding ability, than when he led the opposition, in the United States Senate, to the Lecompton constitution. ”

“ This point is made in order that individual men may fill up the territories with slaves, without danger of losing them as property, and thus to enhance the chances of permanency to the institution through all the future. ”