Is that irresistible power which for fifty years has shaken the government and agitated the people, to be stilled and subdued by pretending that it is an exceedingly simple thing, and we ought not to talk about it?
Editor's note · Context
In his final debate with Stephen Douglas, Lincoln challenged the notion that the deeply divisive issue of slavery could be resolved by simply ignoring it.
Share
More from Abraham Lincoln
He said, with a great deal of emphasis, and with an expression of countenance I shall never forget: "When a man is sincerely penitent for his misdeeds, and gives satisfactory evidence of the same, he can safely be pardoned, and there is no…
Second. That the flag, when raised, be saluted by one hundred guns from Fort Sumter and by a national salute from every fort and rebel battery that fired upon Fort Sumter.
In answer to the Senate's resolution of the 6th instant, requesting the return of a certain joint resolution, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State.
Or, if one out of four will, for his own freedom fight to keep the other three in slavery, he ought to be a slave for his selfish meanness.





