is first prohibited therein, my answer is such
that I could add nothing by way of illustration, or making myself
better understood, than the answer which I have placed in
writing.

"Now, in all this the judge has me, and he has me on the record.
I suppose he had flattered himself that I was really entertaining
one set of opinions for one place, and another set for another
place--that I was afraid to say at one place what I uttered at
another. What I am saying here I suppose I say to a vast audience
as strongly tending to abolitionism as any audience in the State
of Illinois, and I believe I am saying that which, if it would be
offensive to any persons and render them enemies to myself, would
be offensive to persons in this audience."[74]

Here, then, is the position of Mr. Lincoln set forth with deliberation
and care. He was opposed to any coercive measures in settling the
slavery question; he was for gradual emancipation; and for admitting
States into the Union with a slave constitution. Within twenty-four
months, without a change of views, he was nominated for and elected to
the Presidency of the United States.

With no disposition to interfere with the institution of slavery, Mr.
Lincoln found himself chief magistrate of a great _nation_ in the
midst of a great rebellion. And in his inaugural address on the 4th of
March, 1861, he referred to the question of slavery again in a manner
too clear to admit of misconception, affirming his previous views:

"There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives
from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly
written in the Constitution as any other of its provisions:

"'No person held to service or labor in one State under the laws
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law
or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor,
but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such
service or labor may be due.'

"It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by
those who made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive
slaves; and the intention of the lawgiver is the law.

"All members of Congress swear their support to the whole
Constitution--to this provision as well as any other. To the
proposition, then, that slaves whose cases come within the terms
of this