=430. The Freeport Doctrine.=—The turning point in the debates was at Freeport, where Lincoln put to Douglas this question: “Can the people of a United States territory, in any legal way, against the will of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a state constitution?” The Republican committee managing the campaign, urged Lincoln not to ask Douglas the question. They said, “If Douglas answers ‘yes,’ he will surely be elected, because the people of Illinois believe in Squatter Sovereignty.” Lincoln’s reply was in substance: “Very well, if he answers ‘no,’ he cannot be elected senator in Illinois. If he answers ‘yes,’ as from his Squatter Sovereignty doctrine he will be obliged to do, he will offend the South in such a way that he cannot be elected President in 1860. I am looking for the larger game.” Lincoln insisted upon asking the question, and his prediction proved true. Douglas answered “yes,” and tried to reconcile Squatter Sovereignty with the Dred Scott Decision, in what came to be known as the “Freeport Doctrine”; but Lincoln pointed out with great power that such a reconciliation was absolutely impossible. Though Douglas was reëlected to the Senate, as the Republican committee predicted he would be if the question were asked, the rift in the Democratic party soon made it apparent that its Northern and Southern sections could not unite on any one candidate for President. Lincoln had accomplished his object, though he had lost the senatorship. =431. Other Speeches of Lincoln and Douglas.=—In 1859, Douglas spoke and wrote much, in order to define his position on the relations of the Federal power and the power of the individual states. In all his utterances he often referred to the positions held by Lincoln, and, especially in the South, he tried to recover what he had lost in the discussion of what was known as the “Freeport Doctrine.” Lincoln delivered, at Columbus and Cincinnati, speeches which pointed out with merciless logic the impossibility of Douglas’s contention. These speeches tersely reproduced the arguments he had used in Illinois, and in print they had an enormous circulation. Lincoln’s prominence, moreover, was greatly increased by a masterly speech on February 27, 1860, at the Cooper Institute, in New York City. Taking as his subject, “The Crisis,” he analyzed the situation, and presented it with a logical force and clearness which placed the speech in the highest rank of argumentative orations. This speech, and those he immediately afterward made in New England, caused Lincoln to be better known throughout the East; he was already very popular in the West. JOHN BROWN AND PUBLIC OPINION. [Illustration: JOHN BROWN.]