Lincoln at Chicago, July 10, 1858, as reported in the Chicago Daily Democrat, July 13, 1858
My friend has said to me that I am
a poor hand to quote Scripture. I will try it again, however. It is said in one
of the admonitions of the Lord, “As your Father in Heaven is perfect, be ye
also perfect.” The Saviour, I suppose, did not expect that any human creature
could be perfect as the Father in Heaven; but He said, “As your Father in
Heaven, is perfect, be ye also perfect.” He set that up as a standard, and he
who did most towards teaching that standard, attained the highest degree of
moral perfection. So I say in relation to the principle that all men are
created equal, let it be as nearly reached as we can. If we cannot give freedom
to every creature, let us do nothing that will impose slavery upon any other
creature. [Applause.] Let us then turn this government back into the channel in
which the framers of the Constitution originally placed it. Let us stand firmly
by each other. If we do not do so we are turning in the contrary direction,
that our friend Judge Douglas proposes—not intentionally—as working in the
traces tend to make this one universal slave nation. [A voice—“that is so.”] He
is one that runs in that direction, and as such I resist him. (The Complete
Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, ed. Paul M. Angle [Chicago: The University
of Chicago Press, 1958, 1991], 42)