Would you have gone out of the House--skulked the vote?
I expect not.

If you had skulked one vote you would have had to skulk many more before the end of the session.

Richardson's resolutions, introduced before I made any move or gave any vote upon the subject, make a direct question of the justice of the war; so no man can be silent if he would.

You are compelled to speak; and your only alternative is to tell the _truth_ or tell a _lie_.
I cannot doubt which you would do." Lincoln's position on the Mexican War has been generally approved by the moral sense of the country; but it gave his political enemies an opportunity, which they were not slow to improve, for trying to make political capital out of it and using it to create a prejudice against him.

Douglas in particular never missed an opportunity of referring to it.