Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). Political Debates Between Lincoln and Douglas. 1897.
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| consent of the governed.” There is the origin of Popular Sovereignty. Who, then, shall come in at this day and claim that he invented it? | 12 |
| The Lecompton Constitution connects itself with this question, for it is in this matter of the Lecompton Constitution, that our friend Judge Douglas claims such vast credit. I agree that in opposing the Lecompton Constitution, so far as I can perceive, he was right. I do not deny that at all; and, gentlemen, you will readily see why I could not deny it, even if I wanted to. But I do not wish to; for all the Republicans in the nation opposed it, and they would have opposed it just as much without Judge Douglas’s aid as with it. They had all taken ground against it long before he did. Why, the reason that he urges against that Constitution, I urged against him a year before. I have the printed speech in my hand. The argument that he makes, why that Constitution should not be adopted, that the people were not fairly represented nor allowed to vote, I pointed out in a speech a year ago, which I hold in my hand now, that no fair chance was to be given to the people. [“Read it.” “Read it.”] I shall not waste your time by trying to read it. [“Read it.” “Read it.”] Gentlemen, reading from speeches is a very tedious business, particularly for an old man that has to put on spectacles, and more so if the man be so tall that he has to bend over to the light. | 13 |
| A little more, now, as to this matter of Popular Sovereignty and the Lecompton Constitution. The Lecompton Constitution, as the Judge tells us, was defeated. The defeat of it was a good thing or it was not. He thinks the defeat of it was a good thing, and so do I, and we agree in that. Who defeated it? | 14 |
| A VOICE: Judge Douglas. | 15 |
| MR. LINCOLN: Yes, he furnished himself, and if you suppose he controlled the other Democrats that went with him, he furnished three votes, while the Republicans furnished twenty. | 16 |
| That is what he did to defeat it. In the House of Representatives he and his friends furnished some twenty votes, and the Republicans furnished ninety odd. Now who was it that did the work? | 17 |
| A VOICE: Douglas. | 18 |
| MR. LINCOLN: Why, yes, Douglas did it! To be sure he did. | 19 |