Speech at Clinton, Illinois1Jump to section
Lincoln was loudly called for and he promptly mounted the stand and responded to the call. He spoke of the purpose for which the meeting was called---the Republican triumphs lately obtained in the East and West---that many such demonstrations were being made in many places---that, perhaps, the victories would be celebrated in St. Louis, the chief mart and emporium of the South-Western Slave States, and which was thoroughly Republican in sentiment. He then spoke of the evils and disasters attending the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, by which the barriers protecting freedom and free labor were broken down and the Territories transformed into asylums for slavery and niggers, and clearly