The Democrats were using the whole business about "race mixing"as political polemics. There was plenty of "race mixing" going on, but very little of it was in free states. It was quite common in the slave states, usually in the form of white masters forcing themselves on female slaves, although it was not unknown for white mistresses to impose their desires on their male property, either. So, Lincoln concluded this opening section of his speech as follows:
... I have never had the least apprehension that I or my friends would marry negroes if there was no law to keep them from it, [laughter] but as Judge Douglas and his friends seem to be in great apprehension that they might, if there were no law to keep them from it, [roars of laughter] I give him the most solemn pledge that I will to the very last stand by the alw of this State, which forbids the marrying of white people with negroes. [Continued laughter and applause.] I will add one further word, which is this, that I do not understand there is any place where an alteration of the social and political relations of the negro and the white man can be made except in the State Legislature - not in the Congress of the United States - and as I do not really apprehend the approach of any such thing myself, and as Judge Douglas seems to be in constant horror that some such danger is rapidly approaching, I propose as the best means to prevent it that the Judge be kept at home and placed in the State Legislature to fight the measure. [Uproarious laughter and applause.] I do not propose dwelling longer at this time on this subject.
(I took these quotes from the Library of America edition, Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1832-1858 (1989). The text can also be found at various places online, include Bartleby.com: Fourth Joint Debate at Charleston: Mr. Lincoln's Speech.)
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