o which the negro has been conveyed
by his master, and not for the United States Courts, to decide whether
that Negro, having been held to actual Slavery in a Free State, has, by
virtue of residence in such State, himself become Free.

Now it was, that the meaning of the words, "subject only to the
Constitution," as used in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, began to be
discerned. For if the people of a Territory were to be "perfectly
free," to deal with Slavery as they chose, "subject only to the
Constitution" they were by this Judicial interpretation of that
instrument "perfectly free" to deal with Slavery in any way so long as
they did not attempt "to exclude" it! The thing was all one-sided.
Mr. Douglas's attitude in inventing the peculiar phraseology in the
Kansas-Nebraska Act--which to some seemed as if expressly "made to
order" for the Dred Scott decision--was criticized with asperity; the
popularity, however, of his courageous stand against President Buchanan
on the Lecompton fraud, seemed to make it certain that, his term in the
United States Senate being about to expire, he would be overwhelmingly
re-elected to that body.

But at this juncture occurred something, which for a long time held the
result in doubt, and drew the excited attention of the whole Nation to
Illinois as the great battle-ground. In 1858 a Republican State
Convention was held at Springfield, Ill., which nominated Abraham
Lincoln as the Republican candidate for United States Senator to succeed
Senator Douglas in the National Legislature. On June 16th--after such
nomination--Mr. Lincoln made to the Convention a speech--in which, with
great and incisive power, he assailed Mr. Douglas's position as well as
that of the whole Democratic Pro-Slavery Party, and announced in compact
and cogent phrase, from his own point of view, the attitude, upon the
Slavery question, of the Republican Party.

In that remarkable speech--which at once attracted the attention of the
Country--Mr. Lincoln said: "We are now far into the fifth year, since a
policy was initiated with the avowed object, and confident promise, of
putting an end to Slavery agitation. Under the operation of that
policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly
augmented. In my opinion it will not cease, until a crisis shall have
been reached and passed. 'A House divided against itself cannot stand.'
I believe this Government cannot endure permanently half Slave and half
Free