In
1841 you and I had together a tedious low-water trip on a steamboat from
Louisville to St. Louis. You may remember, as I well do, that from
Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio there were on board ten or a dozen
slaves shackled together with irons. That sight was a continued torment
to me, and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio or any
other slave border. It is not fair for you to assume that I have no
interest in a thing which has, and continually exercises, the power of
making me miserable. You ought rather to appreciate how much the great
body of the Northern people do crucify their feelings, in order to
maintain their loyalty to the Constitution and the Union. I do oppose the
extension of slavery because my judgment and feeling so prompt me, and I
am under no obligations to the contrary. If for this you and I must
differ, differ we must. You say, if you were President, you would send an
army and hang the leaders of the Missouri outrages upon the Kansas
elections; still, if Kansas fairly votes herself a slave State she must
be admitted or the Union must be dissolved. But how if she votes herself
a slave State unfairly, that is, by the very means for which you say you
would hang men? Must she still be admitted, or the Union dissolved? That
will be the phase of the question when it first becomes a practical one.
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