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If there is any one principle dearer and more sacred than all others in free governments, it is that which asserts the exclusive right of a free people to form and adopt their own fundamental law, and to manage and regulate their own internal affairs and domestic institutions.

— Stephen A. Douglas

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More quotes by Stephen A. Douglas

There are only two sides to this question. Every man must be for the United States or against it. There can be no neutrals in this war; only patriots and traitors.

There can be but two great political parties in this country.

I do not regard the Negro as my equal, and positively deny that he is my brother, or any kin to me whatever.

Abolitionism proposes to destroy the right and extinguish the principle of self-government for which our forefathers waged a seven years' bloody war, and upon which our system of free government is founded.

I hold that a Negro is not and never ought to be a citizen of the United States. I hold that this government was made on the white basis; made by the white men, for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever, and should be administered by white men and none others.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Stephen A. Douglas (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.