Abraham Lincoln, speech in reply to Senator Stephen Douglas, Peoria, Illinois (October 16, 1854); in Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (1953), vol. 2, p. 273. "This speech, together with one delivered twelve days before at Springfield, made Lincoln a power in national politics. He had had little to do with politics since the expiration of his term in Congress, but the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused him to instant action…. When closely studied the Peoria speechhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Right_and_wrong