When Judge Douglas says that whoever or whatever community wants slaves, they have a right to have them, he is perfectly logical if there is nothing wrong in the institution; but if you admit that it is wrong, he cannot logically say that anybody has a right to do wrong.
In notes for speeches from October 1858, Lincoln argues that Stephen Douglas's popular sovereignty is only logical if slavery is not considered wrong, as no one has a right to do wrong.
Share
More from Abraham Lincoln
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?
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…
If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything.
If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business.
Other voices in this conversation
