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256 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

cious to leave slavery to the chance of defeat in a fair vote by the people of a
territory. Of all property none could less afford to take such a risk, for no
property can require more strongly favoring conditions for its existence. Not
only the intelligence of the slave, but the instincts of humanity, must be
barred by positive law, hence Breckinridge and his friends erected the flinty
walls of the Constitution and the Supreme Court for the protection of slavery
at the outset. Against both Douglas and Breckinridge Abraham Lincoln proposed
his grand historic doctrine of the power and duty of the National
Government to prevent the spread and perpetuity of slavery. Into this contest
I threw myself, with firmer faith and more ardent hope than ever before, and
what I could do by pen or voice was done with a will. The most remarkable
and memorable feature of this canvass, was that it was prosecuted under the
portentous shadow of a threat: leading public men of the South had with the
vehemence of fiery purpose, given it out in advance that in case of their failure
to elect their candidate (Mr. John C. Breckinridge) they would proceed to
take the slaveholding States out of the Union, and that in no event whatever
would they submit to the rule of Abraham Lincoln. To many of the peace-loving
friends of the Union, this was a fearful announcement, and it doubtless
cost the Republican candidate many votes. To many others, however, it was
deemed a mere bravado-sound and fury signifying nothing. With a third
class its effect was very different. They were tired of the rule-or-ruin intimidation
adopted by the South, and felt then, if never before, that they had
quailed before it too often and too long. It came as an insult and a challenge
in one, and imperatively called upon them for independence, self-assertion,
and resentment. Had Southern men puzzled their brains to find the most
effective means to array against slavery and slaveholding manners the solid
opposition of the North, they could not have hit upon any expedient better
suited to that end, than was this threat. It was not only unfair, but insolent, and
more like an address to cowardly slaves than to independent freemen; it had
in it the meanness of the horse-jockey, who, on entering a race, proposes, if
beaten, to run off with the stakes. In all my speeches made during this canvass,
I did not fail to take advantage of this southern bluster and bullying.

As I have said, this southern threat lost many votes, but it gained more
than would cover the lost. It frightened the timid, but stimulated the brave
and the result was — the triumphant election of Abraham Lincoln.

Then came the question, what will the South do about it? Will she eat
her bold words, and submit to the verdict of the people, or proceed to the
execution of the programme she had marked out for herself prior to the election?
The inquiry was an anxious one, and the blood of the North stood still,