The real issue in this controversy--the one pressing upon
every mind--is the sentiment upon the part of one class that looks upon
the institution of slavery as a wrong, and of another class that does
not look upon it as a wrong. The sentiment that contemplates the
institution of slavery in this country as a wrong is the sentiment of
the Republican party. It is the sentiment around which all their
actions, all their arguments, circle, from which all their propositions
radiate. That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in
this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall
be silenced. It is the eternal struggle between these two
principles--right and wrong--throughout the world. They are the two
principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of Time, and
will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity
and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same spirit that
says: 'You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it.' No matter in
what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to
bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their
labor, or from one race of man as an apology for enslaving another race,
it is the same tyrannical principle."
What had come over Lincoln? He was no longer awkward.
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