this is the only thing
that has ever threatened the perpetuity of the Union itself....

[Sidenote] Lincoln Cincinnati Speech, Sept. 17, 1859. Debates, pp.
267-8.

I say we must not interfere with the institution of slavery in the
States where it exists, because the Constitution forbids it, and
the general welfare does not require us to do so. We must not
withhold an efficient fugitive-slave law, because the Constitution
requires us, as I understand it, not to withhold such a law. But
we must prevent the outspreading of the institution, because
neither the Constitution nor the general welfare requires us to
extend it. We must prevent the revival of the African slave trade,
and the enacting by Congress of a Territorial slave code. We must
prevent each of these things being done by either congresses or
courts. The people of these United States are the rightful masters
of both congresses and courts, not to overthrow the Constitution,
but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

[Sidenote] Parsons and others to Lincoln, Dec. 7, 1859. Debates,
preface.

The Ohio Republicans gained a decided success at the October election.
Ascribing this result in a large measure to the influence of Lincoln's
speeches, the State Executive Committee resolved to publish in cheap
book form the full Illinois joint debates and the two Ohio addresses,
to serve as campaign material for the ensuing year. "We regard them,"
wrote the committee to Lincoln, "as luminous and triumphant
expositions of the doctrines of the Republican party, successfully
vindicated from the aspersions of its foes, and calculated to make a
document of great practical service to the Republican party in the
approaching Presidential contest."

[Sidenote] Lincoln to Parsons and others, Dec. 19, 1859. Ibid.

Lincoln, thanking them for the flattering terms of their request,
explained in his reply: "The copies I send you, are as reported and
printed by the respective friends of Senator Douglas and myself at the
time--that is, his by his friends, and mine by mine. It would be an
unwarrantable liberty for us to change a word or a letter in his, and
the changes I have made in mine, you perceive, are verbal only, and
very few in number. I wish the reprint to be precisely as the copies I
send, without any comment whatever."

The enterprise proved a success beyond the most sanguine expectations.
A Colum