hn Cotton, save us from such pulpits!

Imprudent to defend the liberty of the press! Why? Because the defense
was unsuccessful? Does success gild crime into patriotism, and the want
of it change heroic self-devotion into imprudence? Was Hampden imprudent
when he drew the sword and threw away the scabbard? Yet he, judged by
that single hour, was unsuccessful. After a short exile the race he
hated sat again upon the throne.

Imagine yourself present when the first news of Bunker Hill battle
reached a New England town. The tale would have run thus, "The patriots
are routed, the redcoats victorious, Warren lies dead upon the field."
With what scorn would that Tory have been received who should have
charged Warren with imprudence, who should have said that, bred as a
physician, he was "out of place" in the battle, and "died as the fool
dieth!" How would the intimation have been received that Warren and his
associates should have waited a better time?

Presumptuous to assert the freedom of the press on American ground! Is
the assertion of such freedom before the age? So much before the age as
to leave one no right to make it because it displeases the community?
Who invents this libel on his country? It is this very thing that
entitles Lovejoy to greater praise. The disputed right which provoked
the revolution--taxation without representation--is far beneath that for
which he died. As much as thought is better than money, so much is the
cause in which Lovejoy died nobler than a mere question of taxes. James
Otis thundered in this hall when the king did but touch his pocket.
Imagine if you can his indignant eloquence had England offered to put a
gag upon his lips.

FOOTNOTE:

[33] Phillips points to portraits in the hall.

V. THE SLAVERY ISSUE

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

An extract from a speech delivered at Alton, Ill., October 15,
1858. It is taken from one of a series of seven speeches delivered
in joint debate with Douglas in the Senatorial campaign in
Illinois. Lincoln lost the Senatorship but won the Presidency by
this series of speeches.

Fellow-citizens, I have not only made the declaration that I do not mean
to produce a conflict between the states, but I have tried to show by
fair reasoning that I propose nothing but what has a most peaceful
tendency. The quotation that "a house divided against itself cannot
stand," and which has proved so offensive to Judge Douglas, was part of
th