Fragment of a Speech1Jump to section
From time to time, ever since the Chicago ``Times'' and ``Illinois State Register'' declared their opposition to the Lecompton constitution,2Jump to section and it began to be understood that Judge Douglas was also opposed to it, I have been accosted by friends of his with the question, ``What do you think now?'' Since the delivery of his speech in the Senate,3Jump to section the question has been varied a little. ``Have you read Douglas's speech?'' ``Yes.'' ``Well, what do you think of it?'' In every instance the question is accompanied with an anxious inquiring stare, which asks, quite as plainly as words could, ``Can't you go for Douglas now?'' Like boys who have set a bird-trap, they are watching to see if the birds are picking at the bait and likely to go under.
I think, then, Judge Douglas knows that the Republicans wish Kansas to be a free State. He knows that they know, if the question be fairly submitted to a vote of the people of Kansas, it will be a free State; and he would not object at all if, by drawing their attention to this particular fact, and himself becoming vociferous for such fair vote, they should be induced to drop their own organization, fall into rank behind him, and form a great free-State Democratic party.
But before Republicans do this, I think they ought to require a few questions to be answered on the other side. If they so fall in with Judge Douglas, and Kansas shall be secured as a free State, there then remaining no cause of difference between him and the regular Democracy, will not the Republicans stand ready, haltered and harnessed, to be handed over by him to the regular Democracy,