he
South."[755]

Here Douglas paused to read from Lincoln's speeches at Chicago and at
Charleston, and to ask his hearers to reconcile the conflicting
statements respecting negro equality. He pronounced Lincoln's
doctrine, that the negro and the white man are made equal by the
Declaration of Independence and Divine Providence, "a monstrous
heresy."

Lincoln protested that nothing was farther from his purpose than to
"advance hypocritical and deceptive and contrary views in different
portions of the country." As for the charge of sectionalism, Judge
Douglas was himself fast becoming sectional, for his speeches no
longer passed current south of the Ohio as they had once done.
"Whatever may be the result of this ephemeral contest between Judge
Douglas and myself, I see the day rapidly approaching when his pill of
sectionalism, which he has been thrusting down the throats of
Republicans for years past, will be crowded down his own throat."[756]

And Lincoln again scored on his opponent, when he pointed out that
his political doctrine rested upon the major premise, that there was
no wrong in slavery. "If you will take the Judge's speeches, and
select the short and pointed sentences expressed by him,--as his
declaration that he 'don't care whether slavery is voted up or
down'--you will see at once that this is perfectly logical, if you do
not admit that slavery is wrong.... Judge Douglas declares that if any
community wants slavery they have a right to have it. He can say that
logically, if he says that there is no wrong in slavery; but if you
admit that there is a wrong in it, he cannot logically say that
anybody has a right to do wrong."[757]

Those who now read these memorable debates dis-passionately, will
surely acquit Lincoln of inconsistency in his attitude toward the
negro. His speech at Charleston supplements the speech at Chicago; at
Galesburg, he made an admirable re-statement of his position.
Nevertheless, there was a marked difference in point of emphasis
between his utterances in Northern and in Southern Illinois. Even the
casual reader will detect subtle omissions which the varying character
of his audience forced upon Lincoln. In Chicago he said nothing about
the physical inferiority of the negro; he said nothing about the
equality of the races in the Declaration of Independence, when he
spoke at Charleston. Among men of anti-slavery leanings, he had much
to say about the moral wrong of slavery; in the d