Noted Speeches of Abraham Lincoln, Including the Lincoln-Douglas DebateLincoln, Abraham
History
Noted Speeches of Abraham Lincoln, Including the Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Lincoln, Abraham
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Oratory
had any knowledge, information, nor belief in the existence of such
a conspiracy. I am disposed to take his answer as being as broad as
though he had put it in these words. And now, I ask, even if he had
done so, have not I a right to _prove it on him_, and to offer the
evidence of more than two witnesses, by whom to prove it; and if the
evidence proves the existence of the conspiracy, does his broad answer
denying all knowledge, information, or belief, disturb the fact? It can
only show that he was _used_ by conspirators, and was not a _leader_ of
them.
Now, in regard to his reminding me of the moral rule that persons who
tell what they do not know to be true, falsify as much as those who
knowingly tell falsehoods. I remember the rule, and it must be borne in
mind that in what I have read to you, I do not say that I know such a
conspiracy to exist. To that I reply, I believe it. If the Judge says
that I do not believe it, then he says what he does not know, and falls
within his own rule that he who asserts a thing which he does not know
to be true, falsifies as much as he who knowingly tells a falsehood.
I want to call your attention to a little discussion on that branch
of the case, and the evidence which brought my mind to the conclusion
which I expressed as my belief. If, in arraying that evidence, I had
stated anything which was false or erroneous, it needed but that Judge
Douglas should point it out, and I would have taken it back with all
the kindness in the world. I do not deal in that way. If I have brought
forward anything not a fact, if he will point it out, it will not
even ruffle me to take it back. But if he will not point out anything
erroneous in the evidence, is it not rather for him to show by a
comparison of the evidence that I have reasoned falsely, than to call
the “kind, amiable, intelligent gentleman” a liar? If I have reasoned
to a false conclusion, it is the vocation of an able debater to show by
argument that I have wandered to an erroneous conclusion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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