to the Union; but I must
add that if slavery shall be kept out of the Territories during the
territorial existence of any one given Territory, and then the people
shall, having a fair chance and a clear field, when they come to adopt
the constitution, do such an extraordinary thing as to adopt a slave
constitution, uninfluenced by the actual presence of the institution among
them, I see no alternative, if we own the country, but to admit them into
the Union.

The third interrogatory is answered by the answer to the second, it being,
as I conceive, the same as the second.

The fourth one is in regard to the abolition of slavery in the District of
Columbia. In relation to that, I have my mind very distinctly made up.
I should be exceedingly glad to see slavery abolished in the District of
Columbia. I believe that Congress possesses the constitutional power to
abolish it. Yet as a member of Congress, I should not, with my present
views, be in favor of endeavoring to abolish slavery in the District
of Columbia, unless it would be upon these conditions: First, that the
abolition should be gradual; second, that it should be on a vote of the
majority of qualified voters in the District; and third, that compensation
should be made to unwilling owners. With these three conditions, I
confess I would be exceedingly glad to see Congress abolish slavery in the
District of Columbia, and, in the language of Henry Clay, "sweep from our
capital that foul blot upon our nation."

In regard to the fifth interrogatory, I must say here that, as to the
question of the abolition of the slave-trade between the different States,
I can truly answer, as I have, that I am pledged to nothing about it.
It is a subject to which I have not given that mature consideration that
would make me feel authorized to state a position so as to hold myself
entirely bound by it. In other words, that question has never been
prominently enough before me to induce me to investigate whether we really
have the constitutional power to do it. I could investigate it if I had
sufficient time to bring myself to a conclusion upon that subject; but I
have not done so, and I say so frankly to you here, and to Judge Douglas.
I must say, however, that if I should be of opinion that Congress does
possess the constitutional power to abolish the slave-trade among the
different States, I should still not be in favor of the exercise of that
power, unless upon some conservative prin