he negro was not included in the Declaration of
Independence; I think I may defy Judge Douglas to show that he ever said
so, that Washington ever said so, that any President ever said so, that
any member of Congress ever said so, or that any living man upon the
whole earth ever said so, until the necessities of the present policy of
the Democratic party in regard to slavery had to invent that
affirmation. And I will remind Judge Douglas and this audience, that
while Mr. Jefferson was the owner of slaves, as undoubtedly he was, in
speaking on this very subject, he used the strong language that "he
trembled for his country when he remembered that God was just;" and I
will offer the highest premium in my power to Judge Douglas if he will
show that he, in all his life, ever uttered a sentiment at all akin to
that of Jefferson.

... I want to call to the Judge's attention an attack he made upon me in
the first one of these debates.... In order to fix extreme Abolitionism
upon me, Judge Douglas read a set of resolutions which he declared had
been passed by a Republican State Convention, in October 1854, held at
Springfield, Illinois, and he declared that I had taken a part in that
convention. It turned out that although a few men calling themselves an
anti-Nebraska State Convention had sat at Springfield about that time,
yet neither did I take any part in it, nor did it pass the resolutions
or any such resolutions as Judge Douglas read. So apparent had it become
that the resolutions that he read had not been passed at Springfield at
all, nor by any State Convention in which I had taken part, that seven
days later at Freeport ... Judge Douglas declared that he had been
misled ... and promised ... that when he went to Springfield he would
investigate the matter.... I have waited as I think a sufficient time
for the report of that investigation.

... A fraud, an absolute forgery, was committed, and the perpetration of
it was traced to the three,--Lanphier, Harris, and Douglas.... Whether
it can be narrowed in any way, so as to exonerate any one of them, is
what Judge Douglas's report would probably show. The main object of that
forgery at that time was to beat Yates and elect Harris to Congress, and
that object was known to be exceedingly dear to Judge Douglas at that
time.

... The fraud having been apparently successful upon that occasion, both
Harris and Douglas have more than once since then been attempting to put
it to n