Such are the inconsistencies of slavery, where a horse is more sacred than a man; and the essence of squatter or popular sovereignty--I don't care how you call it--is that if one man chooses to make a slave of another, no third man shall be allowed to object.
Lincoln exposes the moral contradictions inherent in slavery and critiques the principle of popular sovereignty as a justification for one person to enslave another without intervention.
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I believe that it is not only possible, but in fact easier, to do this without deciding or even considering whether these States have ever been out of the Union, than with it.
Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps towards it, than by running backward over them?
If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything.
The question is, will it be wiser to take it as it is and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse it?
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