. Abraham Lincoln as a man of letters . a Territory can, by lawfulmeans, exclude slavery from their limits prior to theformation of a State constitution. Naturally, theeffect was disastrous to Douglass logic. He hadunwittingly permitted himself to be lured into theawkward position of trying to ride two horses goingin opposite directions. He had maintained that Lin-coln, by arguing against the Dred Scott decision, wasdisloyal to the Supreme Court. His answer to Lin-colns interrogatory disclosed to his Southern sup-porters that he likewise was an impossible exponentof the judicial doctrine which
. Abraham Lincoln as a man of letters . a Territory can, by lawfulmeans, exclude slavery from their limits prior to theformation of a State constitution. Naturally, theeffect was disastrous to Douglass logic. He hadunwittingly permitted himself to be lured into theawkward position of trying to ride two horses goingin opposite directions. He had maintained that Lin-coln, by arguing against the Dred Scott decision, wasdisloyal to the Supreme Court. His answer to Lin-colns interrogatory disclosed to his Southern sup-porters that he likewise was an impossible exponentof the judicial doctrine which had given the hope offresh vitality to their peculiar institution. Lincolnhad eclipsed his opponents ambitions for the Presi-dency. That star was moving in the direction of hisown fortune. The debate was a well-staged and ably conductedbattle in political dialectics. In the effort to disclosethe proper policy of government toward the para-mount question, each of the two men sought tomould public opinion to his side of the The Lincoln-Douglas Debate 65 Lincoln felt that he was the spokesman of an ad-vancing civilization. Douglas was not so fortunatein his theme. He was defending ideals destined tobe abolished. He not only held by the act of 1854and by the adjudication which rendered that act nulland void; he supported slavery by maintaining thatLincoln stood for dead uniformity of institutions ina country whose diversity of climate and resourcescalled for variegation in laws and social organiza-tion. He believed that the Government and its cit-izenship were for white men and their posterityforever; that those who opposed the extension ofslavery would make the negro socially and politicallythe equal of the white man—the prelude, he thought,to the amalgamation of the two races. He antici-pated nothing with respect to the moral wrong ofslavery, offered no objection to its spread under hishypothesis of democracy, and saw in it no economicinjustice to the white man.
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