That disparate interests in the states should not
make hostility between them; and that hostility arising from attacks and
agitation should be put down. He went on to denounce the Republican
party for holding and preaching a faith that arrayed one section of the
country against another; and with great satire and invective he showed
that the Republicans stood upon sectional principles which could not be
preached in the South and not everywhere in the North. "But now you have
a sectional organization," he had said to a theocratic audience at
Galesburg, "a party which appeals to the northern section of the Union
against the southern, a party which appeals to northern passion,
northern pride, northern ambition, and northern prejudices, against
southern people, the southern states, and southern institutions. The
leaders of that party hope to be able to unite the northern states in
one great sectional party; and inasmuch as the North is the strongest
section they will thus be enabled to outvote, conquer, and control the
South. Is there a Republican in Galesburg who can travel into Kentucky
and carry his principles with him across the Ohio?"
Douglas had even shown that Lincoln did not utter the same sentiments
in all parts of Illinois. In Chicago where there was a large alien vote
Lincoln had said: "I should like to know if taking this old Declaration
of Independence which declares that all men are equal upon principle and
making exceptions to it, where will it stop? If one man says it does not
mean a negro, why may not another man say it does not mean another man?
If the Declaration is not the truth let us get the statute books in
which we find it and tear it out.
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