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Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). Political Debates Between Lincoln and Douglas. 1897.

Page 227

friend of Judge Douglas and opponent of mine, was a candidate for Congress in the Galena District. He was interrogated as to his views on this same slavery question. I have here before me the interrogatories and Campbell’s answers to them. I will read them:—

	INTERROGATORIES.
	1st. Will you, if elected, vote for and cordially support a bill prohibiting slavery in the Territories of the United States?
	2nd. Will you vote for and support a bill abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia?
	3rd. Will you oppose the admission of any Slave States which may be formed out of Texas or the Territories?
	4th. Will you vote for and advocate the repeal of the Fugitive Slave law passed at the recent session of Congress?
	5th. Will you advocate and vote for the election of a Speaker of the House of Representatives who shall be willing to organize the committee of that House so as to give the Free States their just influence in the business of legislation?
	6th. What are your views, not only as to the constitutional right of Congress to prohibit slave-trade between the States, but also as to the expediency of exercising that right immediately?

	CAMPBELL’S REPLY.
	To the first and second interrogatories, I answer unequivocally in the affirmative.
	To the third interrogatory I reply, that I am opposed to the admission of any more Slave States into the Union, that may be formed out of Texas or any other Territory.
	To the fourth and fifth interrogatories I unhesitatingly answer in the affirmative.
	To the sixth interrogatory I reply, that so long as the Slave States continue to treat slaves as articles of commerce, the Constitution confers power on Congress to pass laws regulating that peculiar COMMERCE, and that the protection of Human Rights imperatively demands the interposition of every constitutional means to prevent this most inhuman and iniquitous traffic. T. CAMPBELL.

I want to say here that Thompson Campbell was elected to Congress on that platform, as the Democratic candidate in the Galena District, against Martin P. Sweet.

Judge DOUGLAS: Give me the date of the letter.

Mr. LINCOLN: The time Campbell ran was in 1850. I have not the exact date here. It was some time in 1850 that these interrogatories were put and the answer given. Campbell was

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