Page:Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln, v6.djvu/66

44              SPEECHES         [Mar. 5 at the South are the same as those at the North, barring the difference in circumstances. Public opinion is founded, to a great extent, on a prop- erty basis. What lessens the value of property is opposed; what enhances its value is favored. Public opinion at the South regards slaves as property, and insists upon treating them like other property. On the other hand, the free States carry on their government on the principle of the equality of men. We think slavery is morally wrong, and a direct violation of that principle. We all think it wrong. It is clearly proved, I think, by natural theology, apart from revelation. Every man, black, white, or yellow, has a mouth to be fed, and two hands with which to feed it — and bread should be allowed to go to that mouth without controversy. Slavery is wrong in its effect upon white peo- ple and free labor. It is the only thing that threatens the Union. It makes what Senator Seward has been much abused for calling an "ir- repressible conflict." When they get ready to settle it, we hope they will let us know. Public opinion settles every question here; any policy to be permanent must have public opinion at the bottom — something in accordance with the philosophy of the human mind as it is. The property basis will have its weight. The love of property and a consciousness of right or wrong have conflicting places in our organization, which often make a man's course seem crooked, his conduct a riddle. Some men would make it a question of in- difference, neither right nor wrong, merely a question of dollars and cents; — the Almighty