The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, vol 5 | Page 8

every other question in which we are interested. It has
divided the Methodist and Presbyterian churches, and has sown discord
in the American Tract Society. The churches have split and the society
will follow their example before long. So it will be seen that slavery is
agitated in the religious as well as in the political world. Judge Douglas
is very much afraid in the triumph that the Republican party will lead to
a general mixture of the white and black races. Perhaps I am wrong in
saying that he is afraid, so I will correct myself by saying that he
pretends to fear that the success of our party will result in the
amalgamation of the blacks and whites. I think I can show plainly, from
documents now before me, that Judge Douglas's fears are groundless.
The census of 1800 tells us that in that year there were over four
hundred thousand mulattoes in the United States. Now let us take what
is called an Abolition State-- the Republican, slavery-hating State of
New Hampshire--and see how many mulattoes we can find within her
borders. The number amounts to just one hundred and eighty-four. In
the Old Dominion--in the Democratic and aristocratic State of
Virginia--there were a few more mulattoes than the Census-takers
found in New Hampshire. How many do you suppose there were?
Seventy-nine thousand, seven hundred and seventy-five--twenty-three
thousand more than there were in all the free States! In the slave States
there were in 1800, three hundred and forty-eight thousand mulattoes
all of home production; and in the free States there were less than sixty
thousand mulattoes --and a large number of them were imported from
the South.

FRAGMENT OF SPEECH AT EDWARDSVILLE, ILL.,
SEPT. 13, 1858.
I have been requested to give a concise statement of the difference, as I
understand it, between the Democratic and Republican parties, on the
leading issues of the campaign. This question has been put to me by a
gentleman whom I do not know. I do not even know whether he is a
friend of mine or a supporter of Judge Douglas in this contest, nor does
that make any difference. His question is a proper one. Lest I should
forget it, I will give you my answer before proceeding with the line of
argument I have marked out for this discussion.

The difference between the Republican and the Democratic parties on
the leading issues of this contest, as I understand it, is that the former
consider slavery a moral, social and political wrong, while the latter do
not consider it either a moral, a social or a political wrong; and the
action of each, as respects the growth of the country and the expansion
of our population, is squared to meet these views. I will not affirm that
the Democratic party consider slavery morally, socially and politically
right, though their tendency to that view has, in my opinion, been
constant and unmistakable for the past five years. I prefer to take, as the
accepted maxim of the party, the idea put forth by Judge Douglas, that
he don't care whether slavery is voted down or voted up." I am quite
willing to believe that many Democrats would prefer that slavery
should be always voted down, and I know that some prefer that it be
always voted up"; but I have a right to insist that their action, especially
if it be their constant action, shall determine their ideas and preferences
on this subject. Every measure of the Democratic party of late years,
bearing directly or indirectly on the slavery question, has corresponded
with this notion of utter indifference whether slavery or freedom shall
outrun in the race of empire across to the Pacific--every measure, I say,
up to the Dred Scott decision, where, it seems to me, the idea is boldly
suggested that slavery is better than freedom. The Republican party, on
the contrary, hold that this government was instituted to secure the
blessings of freedom, and that slavery is an unqualified evil to the
negro, to the white man, to the soil, and to the State. Regarding it as an
evil, they will not molest it in the States where it exists, they will not
overlook the constitutional guards which our fathers placed around it;
they will do nothing that can give proper offence to those who hold
slaves by legal sanction; but they will use every constitutional method
to prevent the evil from becoming larger and involving more negroes,
more white men, more soil, and more States in its deplorable
consequences. They will, if possible, place it where the public mind
shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate peaceable
extinction in God's own good time. And to this end they will, if