At Springfield, twelve days ago, where I had spoken substantially as I
have here, Judge Douglas replied to me; and as he is to reply to me here,
I shall attempt to anticipate him by noticing some of the points he made
there. He commenced by stating I had assumed all the way through that the
principle of the Nebraska Bill would have the effect of extending
slavery. He denied that this was intended or that this effect would
follow.
I will not reopen the argument upon this point. That such was the
intention the world believed at the start, and will continue to believe.
This was the countenance of the thing, and both friends and enemies
instantly recognized it as such. That countenance cannot now be changed
by argument. You can as easily argue the color out of the negro's skin.
Like the "bloody hand," you may wash it and wash it, the red witness of
guilt still sticks and stares horribly at you.
Next he says that Congressional intervention never prevented slavery
anywhere; that it did not prevent it in the Northwestern Territory, nor
in Illinois; that, in fact, Illinois came into the Union as a slave
State; that the principle of the Nebraska Bill expelled it from Illinois,
from several old States, from everywhere.
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