In the course of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, the former, among his
friends, announced that at the next meeting he would put a "settler" to
his contestant, and "I don't care a continental which way he answers
it."
As he did not explain, all awaited the evening's speeches for
enlightenment. In the midst of Douglas' "piece," Lincoln begged to be
allowed a _leetle_ question. The Lincolnian "leetle questions" were
beginning to be rankling darts.
Formally, the question was: "Can the people of a United States
territory, in a lawful way, against the wishes of any citizen of the
United States, exclude slavery from its limits, prior to the foundation
of a State constitution?"
In the homely way Lincoln put it, it ran:
"Suppose, _jedge_ (for Judge Douglas) there was a new town or colony,
just started in some Western territory; and suppose there was precisely
one hundred householders--voters, there--and suppose, jedge, that
ninety-nine did not want slavery and the one did. What would be done
about it?"
This was the argument about "Free Soil" and "squatter sovereignty" in a
nutshell.
The wily politician strove to avoid the loop, but finally admitted that
on American principles the majority must rule. This caused the
Charleston Convention of 1860 to split on this point, and Douglas lost
all hope of the Presidency.
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