e says on these mighty questions,--then it needs only the
formality of a second Dred Scott decision, which he indorses in advance,
to make slavery alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new,
North as well as South.

_Lincoln's Reply to Judge Douglas in the Second Joint Debate. Freeport,
Illinois. August 27, 1858_

... The plain truth is this. At the introduction of the Nebraska policy,
we believed there was a new era being introduced in the history of the
Republic, which tended to the spread and perpetuation of slavery. But in
our opposition to that measure we did not agree with one another in
everything. The people in the north end of the State were for stronger
measures of opposition than we of the southern and central portions of
the State, but we were all opposed to the Nebraska doctrine. We had that
one feeling and one sentiment in common. You at the north end met in
your conventions, and passed your resolutions. We in the middle of the
State and further south did not hold such conventions and pass the same
resolutions, although we had in general a common view and a common
sentiment. So that these meetings which the Judge has alluded to, and
the resolutions he has read from, were local, and did not spread over
the whole State. We at last met together in 1856, from all parts of the
State, and we agreed upon a common platform. You who held more extreme
notions, either yielded those notions, or if not wholly yielding them,
agreed to yield them practically, for the sake of embodying the
opposition to the measures which the opposite party were pushing forward
at that time. We met you then, and if there was anything yielded, it was
for practical purposes. We agreed then upon a platform for the party
throughout the entire State of Illinois, and now we are all bound as a
party to that platform. And I say here to you, if any one expects of me
in the case of my election, that I will do anything not signified by
our Republican platform and my answers here to-day, I tell you very
frankly, that person will be deceived. I do not ask for the vote of any
one who supposes that I have secret purposes or pledges that I dare not
speak out.... If I should never be elected to any office, I trust I may
go down with no stain of falsehood upon my reputation, notwithstanding
the hard opinions Judge Douglas chooses to entertain of me.

_From Lincoln's Reply at Jonesboro'. September 15, 1858_

Ladies and Gentlemen, Th