I hold myself under constitutional obligations to allow the people in all the States, without interference, direct or indirect, to do exactly as they please, and I deny that I have any inclination to interfere with them, even if there were no such constitutional obligation.
In a debate, Lincoln affirms his constitutional duty to respect states' rights to manage their own affairs, including slavery, without federal interference.
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More from Abraham Lincoln
I do the very best I know how--the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end.
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…
As a general rule I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer.
If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything.
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