Stephen A Douglas
Good morning everyone and thank you all for listening. Before I share my thoughts let me tell you a little about my past. I was born in Brandon, Vermont in 1813. I lived with my mother Sally and father Stephen before he passed away when I was only 3 months. My mother decided to move to my uncle’s house on a farm where I lived for the next 17 years. In my early teen years, I was a cabinet maker but soon found that the appeal of law and political studies made me change my craft. Not long after that, I moved to New York to get my career going. I joined the Hubbell law firm and studied law for six months before I moved West where I knew I could obtain a law license in less time. In Illinois I obtained my law license, married my first wife, and moved to Chicago with her. When my wife Martha’s father died, we inherited a cotton plantation with 100 slaves.
When Martha passed in 1853, I continued to derive income from the plantation but constantly denied that I ever personally owned the slaves. My position on slavery was severely debated by many historians. I didn’t really care if slavery was voted up or down, but I knew owning slaves would cause me political debates and hurt my chances running against Abe Lincoln. Lincoln pressured me to say definitively whether I believed if slavery was morally right. I said that was disputable and that the constitution allowed slavery to exist. I will confess, I believed in slavery, but to a certain point.
For four months Lincoln and I crisscrossed Illinois, traveling over 10,000 miles to participle in seven debates. The main focus of these debates was slavery. My strategy during the debates was to present Lincoln as a fanatical black republican, whose goal was to encourage civil war, emancipate the slaves, and set blacks the social and political equals of whites. Lincoln believed slaves were human and had the fundamental right to life, liberty, and happiness. Now I didn’t disagree with this, but I believed in the inferiority of African Americans. It was up to citizens in respective states to decide whether or not they wanted slavery. Whether blacks were free or enslaved did not matter to me, what mattered was that they would never been citizens and always be inferior to whites. I wanted citizenship for whites only. In this world slavery could not exist a day or hour anywhere unless it is supported by local police regulations, which in most states it was. I was following the rules. I brought up popular sovereignty several times in the debates. The premise was simple. Let the people of the territories decide themselves whether slavery was permitted. In a country that has championed democracy, letting the people decide seemed right, if not obvious. I had many supporters with me, but popular sovereignty was difficult to put into practice. Would the people vote directly or indirectly? If slavery were voted down, would the individuals who owned slaves have the right to keep them? With all the stirring questions my point was voted down.
In the election of 1858, the general public did not have the opportunity to vote for Lincoln or I. In the final balloting the republicans outpolled the democrats. Although Lincoln failed to win a senate seat, his defeat was not a slip and fall. I was appointed secretary of state and won against Abe by a narrow victory. I may have won the battle, but Lincoln won the war in the 1860 president election.
Let me finish with this. The constitution allowed slavery, article 1, section 2, the 3/5 clause. Provisions allowed southern states to count slaves as 3/5 of a person. Owning slaves was not wrong, as it is clearly stated in thee constitution. Thank you.
Further Reading & Sources:
https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3284
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