its votes. Without hesitation he plunged into the work and
labored successfully to overthrow this law of more than thirty
years' standing.

Lincoln's speech against the repeal had made a deep impression in
Illinois, where he was at once recognized as the people's
spokesman in the cause of freedom. His statements were so clear,
his language so eloquent, the stand he took so just, that all had
to acknowledge his power. He did not then, nor for many years
afterward, say that the slaves ought to be immediately set free.
What he did insist upon was that slavery was wrong, and that it
must not be allowed to spread into territory already free; but
that, gradually, in ways lawful and just to masters and slaves
alike, the country should strive to get rid of it in places where
it already existed. He never let his hearers lose sight of the
great. underlying moral fact. "Slavery," he said, "is founded in
the selfishness of man's nature; opposition to it in his love of
justice." Even Senator Douglas was not prepared to admit that
slavery was right. He knew that if he said that he could never be
President, for the whole North would rise against him. He wished
to please both sides, so he argued that it was not a question for
him or for the Federal Government to decide, but one which each
State and Territory must settle for itself. In answer to this
plea of his that it was not a matter of morals, but of "State
rights"--a mere matter of local self-government--Mr. Lincoln
replied, "When the white man governs himself that is
self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs
another man, that is more than self-government--that is
despotism."