We have in this nation the element of domestic
slavery. It is a matter of absolute certainty that it is a distributing
element. . . . The Republican party think it wrongwe think it is a
moral, a social, and a political wrong. We think it is a wrong not
confining itself merely to the persons or the States where it exists but
that it is a wrong which in its tendency, to say the least, affects the
existence of the whole nation. Because we think it wrong, we propose a
course of policy that shall deal with it as a wrong. We deal with it as
with any other wrong, insofar as we can prevent its growing any larger,
and so deal with it that in the run of time there may be some promise of
an end to it. We have a due regard to the actual presence of it amongst
us, and the difficulties of getting rid of it in any satisfactory way,
and all the constitutional obligations thrown about it. I suppose that
in reference both to its actual existence in the nation, and to our
constitutional obligations, we have no right at all to disturb it in the
States where it exists, and we profess that we have no more inclination
to disturb than we have the right to do it. . . . We also oppose it as
an evil so far as it seeks to spread itself. We insist on the policy
that shall restrict it to its present limits. We don't suppose that in
doing this we violate anything due to the actual presence of the
institution, or anything due to the constitutional guaranties thrown
around it.
We oppose the Dred Scott decision in a certain way,
upon which I ought perhaps to address you a few words. We do not
propose that when Dred Scott has been decided to be a slave by the
court, we, as a mob, will decide him to be free. We do not propose that,
when any other one, or one thousand, shall be decided by that court to
be slaves, we will in any violent way disturb the rights of property
thus settled; but we nevertheless do oppose that decision as a political
rule, which shall be binding on the voter to vote for nobody who thinks
it wrong, which shall be binding on the members of Congress or the
President to favor no measure that does not actually concur with the
principles of that decision. We do not propose to be bound by it as a
political rule in that way, because we think it lays the foundation not
merely of enlarging and spreading out what we consider an evil, but it
lays the foundation for spreading that evil into the States themselves.
We propose so resisting it as to have it reversed if we can, and a new
judicial rule established upon this subject.
LINCOLN OPENING SPEECH, SIXTH JOINT DEBATE,
AT QUINCY, ILL., OCTOBER 13, 1858.