Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/239

LINCOLN while upon this subject, that I have no purpose directly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I be- lieve I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. I have no pur- pose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgment, will probably for ever forbid their living together upon the footing of per- fect equality; and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position. I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that, notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence — the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many respects — certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual en- dowment. But in the right to eat the bread, without the leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man. Now I pass on to consider one or two more of these little follies. The judge is wofully at 229