GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



quest ion. That went all right until 1858, 

 when Senator Douglas became a candidate 

 for re-election to the United States Senate 

 for the third term from Illinois, and that 

 summer he got into seven great joint de- 

 bates in Illinois with . a gentleman by tlie 

 name of Abraham Lincoln; and Douglas 

 laid down his doctrine of popular sov- 

 ereignt}' in tliose debates, and said : "Now, 

 the way to settle the slavery question is to 

 take it out of politics and submit it to the 

 vote of the people. If the people of Kan- 

 sas want slaves, let them have them; and 

 if they don't, they need not. I don't care 

 whether they vote slavery up or vote it 

 down. Let the people rule." 



HOW LTNCOLX PUNCTURED '^'POPULAR SOVER- 

 EIGNTY. " 



That sounds very nice, doesn't it? and 

 it went all right until he turned to Lincoln 

 and said : "What have you got to say to 

 that doctrine of popular sovereignty?" 



Well, Lincoln got up, six feet and three 

 inches tall pliysically, but high as heaven 

 morally, aud said: "Senator Douglas, slav- 

 ery is either right or wrong, and I hold 

 that slavery is wrong; and. Senator Doug- 

 las, if slavery is wrong, I deny the right 

 of Congress, and I deny the right of the 

 legislature of Kansas, and I deny the right 

 of any majority of the voters of Kansas, 

 by i)opular sovereignty or otherwise, to 

 put a slave where there never was a slave." 



What ! Denying the right of the majority 

 to decide what is right or wrong? 



"Yes," declared Lincoln. "If it is moral- 

 ly icrong, no majority can make it right.'' 



And then he went on in those famous 

 words: "This nation can not live half slave 

 and half free." 



What did he mean by that? That you 

 could not settle that great moral question 

 with two standards of morals. 



His illustration was to the point: "You 

 can not settle this question while you have 

 this condition of things: A penitentiary 

 offense to sell a black man north of the 

 Ohio River, but as legal as selling Bibles 

 if you sell him south of the Ohio River" — 

 wrong on one side of the river, right on 

 the other; wrong on one side of the State 

 line, right on the other — tioo standards of 

 morals. 



FROM LINCOLN — TO LORIilER. 



After the second debate, Lincoln's polit- 

 ical friends got ai'ound him and exclaimed, 

 "Now, Mr. Lincoln, you have got to take 

 that position back. A majority of the vot- 

 ers of Illinois and of this nation believe 

 that the majority should rule, right or 

 wrong, morals or no morals." And Mr. 

 Lincoln replied: "I will not take it back. 



I an) I'ight, and Douglas is wrong." "Then 

 Donglas will beat you for the senatoi'ship." 

 "Perhaps so," retorted Lincoln; "but I will 

 not take it back, even if he does." 



Ladies and gentlemen, can you imagine 

 sucii a thing happening as a man laying- 

 aside the senatorship for the sake of being 

 right in the State of Illinois — noiv} 

 Friends, it is a long way, isn't it? from 

 Lincoln clear down to Lorimer! 



EXIT "SQUATTER SOVEREIGNTY." 



"Ah, but," Lincoln says, "if he gets the 

 senatorship on that issue, in two j-ears from 

 now the fallacy of pojiular sovereignty 

 will get into the heads of the American 

 people, and he will never be President of 

 th.e United States." And, if I remember 

 liistoiy correctl}', Stephen A. Douglas never 

 nas President; and in two years that doc- 

 trine got into the heads of the people, and 

 then what happened? 



The Republican party took that doctrine 

 of Lincoln's and made a platform out of 

 it. The Republican party was born upon 

 the proposition of one standard of morals 

 for the entire nation on that question. 



And I want j'ou to remember another 

 thing, to keep in mind that, during that 

 AA'hole controversy, Lincoln and his people 

 always dealt with slavery from the stand- 

 point of its being wrong. Two sentences 

 from Lincoln's inaugural address confirm 

 this fact : "One section of our country 

 believes that slavery is right and ought to 

 be extended, while the other believes it is 

 ivrong and ought not to be extended. That 

 is the only substantial dispute." 



WHAT SETTLED THE SLAVERY QUESTION. 



The whole controversy was over the ques- , 

 tion of whether slavery was right or wrong. I 

 After the Republicans had builded the plat- - 

 form upon that doctrine, then they took 

 the man who had made the issue and put 

 him on that platform, and, thank God, 

 Abraham Lincoln became President of the i 

 United States on that platform and on that I 

 doctrine, and slaveiy died. 



Did the comi^romise measure of tlie con- 

 stitution settle the slavery question when 

 the constitution provided that slavery 

 should go on for twentv years? 



No. 



Did the Missouri Compromise settle the 

 sla\erv question ? 



No." 



Did the tariff measure of 1833 settle it? 



No. 



Did the Wilmot Proviso settle it? 



No. 



Did the compromise measure of 1850 

 settle it? 



No. 



