took the stand to reply, and gave notice that the Republican State convention would meet instantly in the Senate chamber, and called upon the Republicans to retire there and go into this very Convention, instead of remaining and listening to me. [Three cheers for Douglas.]
Mr. Lincoln, interrupting, excitedly and angrily.—Judge, add that I went along with them. [This interruption was made in a pitiful, mean, sneaking way, as Lincoln floundered around the stand.]
Mr. Douglas.—Gentlemen, Mr. Lincoln tells me to add that he went along with them to the senate chamber. I will not add that, because I do not know whether he did or not.
Mr. Lincoln, again interrupting.—I know he did not. [Two of the Republican committee here seized Mr. Lincoln, and by a sudden jerk caused him to disappear from the front of the stand, one of them saying quite audibly, "What are you making such a fuss for? Douglas didn't interrupt you, and can't you see that the people don't like it?"]
Mr. Douglas.—I do not know whether he knows it or not, that is not the point and I will yet bring him to the question.
In the first place, Mr. Lincoln was selected by the very men who made the Republican organization on that day, to reply to me. He spoke for them and for that party, and he was the leader of the party; and on the very day he made his speech in reply to me, preaching up this same doctrine of negro equality under the Declaration of Independence, this Republican party met in Convention. [Three cheers for Douglas.] Another evidence that he was acting in concert with them is to be found in the fact that that Convention waited an hour after its time of meeting to hear Lincoln's speech, and Codding, one of their leading men, marched in the moment Lincoln got through, and gave notice that they did not want to hear me, and would proceed with the business of the Convention. ["Strike him again,"—three cheers, etc.] Still another fact. I have here a newspaper printed at Springfield, Mr. Lincoln's own town, in October, 1854, a few days afterward, publishing these resolutions, charging Mr. Lincoln with entertaining these sentiments, and trying to prove that they were also the sentiments of Mr. Yates, then candidate for Congress. This has been published on Mr. Lincoln over and over again, and never before has he denied it. ["Three cheers."]
But, my friends, this denial of his that he did not act on the committee, is a miserable quibble to avoid this main issue, [Applause,}}
