It is a question of discrimination between them and him. But there is not
an inch of ground left for his claiming that their opinions, their
example, their authority, are on his side in the controversy.
Again, is not Nebraska, while a Territory, a part of us? Do we not own
the country? And if we surrender the control of it, do we not surrender
the right of self-government? It is part of ourselves. If you say we
shall not control it, because it is only part, the same is true of every
other part; and when all the parts are gone, what has become of the
whole? What is then left of us? What use for the General Government, when
there is nothing left for it to govern?
But you say this question should be left to the people of Nebraska,
because they are more particularly interested. If this be the rule, you
must leave it to each individual to say for himself whether he will have
slaves. What better moral right have thirty-one citizens of Nebraska to
say that the thirty-second shall not hold slaves than the people of the
thirty-one States have to say that slavery shall not go into the
thirty-second State at all?
But if it is a sacred right for the people of Nebraska to take and hold
slaves there, it is equally their sacred right to buy them where they can
buy them cheapest; and that, undoubtedly, will be on the coast of Africa,
provided you will consent not to hang them for going there to buy them.
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