From Lincoln's Speech, Sept. 18, 1858.

"While I was at the hotel to-day, an elderly gentleman called upon me to know whether I was really in favor of producing a perfect equality between the negroes and white people. While I had not proposed to myself on this occasion to say much on that subject, yet as the question was asked me I thought I would occupy perhaps five minutes in saying something in regard to it. I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the black and white races -- that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making VOTERS or jurors of negroes, NOR OF QUALIFYING THEM HOLD OFFICE, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any of her man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."

This was certainly a definite, distinct and unequivocal declaration of his sentiments on this point; and when Mr. DOUGLAS came to reply, all he said of it was this:

"I am glad that I have at last succeeded in getting an answer out of him upon this question of negro citizenship and eligibility to office, for I have been trying to bring him to the point ever since the canvass commenced."

Mr. DOUGLAS went on, however, -- not to quote anything Mr. LINCOLN had ever said like the sentence copied from the Atlas and Argus by the Tribune, -- but to argue that, inasmuch as Mr. L. had censured the decision of the Supreme Court that a negro could not be a citizen, he must therefore be in favor of negro citizenship. To this Mr. LINCOLN made the following reply:

"Judge DOUGLAS has said to you that he has not been able to get from me an answer to the question whether I am in favor of negro citizenship. So far as I know the Judge never asked me the question before. He shall have no occasion to ever ask it again, for I tell him very frankly that I AM NOT IN FAVOR OF NEGRO CITIZENSHIP. This furnishes me an occasion for saying a few words upon the subject. I mentioned in a certain speech of mine which has been printed, that the Supreme Court had decided that a negro could not possibly be made a citizen, and without saying what was my ground of complaint in regard to that, or whether I had any ground of complaint, Judge DOUGLAS has from that thing manufactured nearly every thing that he ever says about my disposition to produce an equality between the negroes and the white people. If any one will read my speech, he will find I mentioned that as one of the points decided in the course of the Supreme Court opinions, but I did not state what objection I had to it. But Judge DOUGLAS tells the people what my objection was when I did not tell them myself. Now my opinion is that the different States have the power to make a negro a citizen under the Constitution of the United States if they choose. The Dred Scott decision decides that they have not that power. If the State of Illinois had that power, I SHOULD BE OPPOSED TO THE EXERCISE OF IT. That is all I have to say about it."

This seems to us perfectly explicit and conclusive. And although made in the same month with the alleged speech quoted by the Atlas and Argus, it repudiates utterly the sentiments there attributed to him, -- denies that he ever held them, and challenges Mr. DOUGLAS or anybody else to produce anything he had ever said that would warrant the allegation. And subsequently, whenever Mr. DOUGLAS recurred to the subject, Mr. LINCOLN reiterated the same declarations, and defied contradiction. Is it conceivable that he could have done so, without being refuted and silenced on the spot, by Mr. DOUGLAS, if he had ever made such a speech as the one now attributed to him? These sentiments were not then declared for the first time. In the very first speech of their joint debate, -- made at Ottawa, Aug. 21, 1858, -- Mr. LINCOLN, after quoting some previous remarks, thus spoke of this very subject:

"Now, gentlemen, I don't want to read at any greater length, but this is the true complexion of all I have ever said in regard to the institution of Slavery and the black race. This is the whole of it; and anything that argues me into his idea of perfect social and political equality with the negro, is but a specious and fantastic arrangement of words, by which a man can prove a horse-chestnut to be a chestnut horse. I will say here, while upon this subject, that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of Slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the fooling of perfect 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."

And a year after this pretended speech, from which the Albany Atlas and the New-York Tribune profess to quote, -- in a speech made at Columbus, Ohio, in September, 1859, Mr. LINCOLN referred to a statement made by the Ohio Statesman, that he had "declared in favor of negro suffrage," -- pronounced it a misrepresentation, -- quoted the passages from his speeches which we have already cited, and then said:

"There, my friends, you have briefly what I have, upon former occasions, said upon the subject to which this newspaper, to the extent of its ability, has drawn the public attention. In it you not only perceive, as a probability, that in that contest I did not at any time say I was in favor of negro suffrage; but the ABSOLUTE PROOF that twice -- once substantially and once expressly -- I DECLARED AGAINST IT. Having shown you this, there remains but a word of comment upon that newspaper article. It is this: that I presume the editor of that paper is an honest and truth-loving man, and that he will be greatly obliged to me for furnishing him thus early an opportunity to correct the misrepresentation he has made, before it has run so long that malicious people can call him a liar."

The advice thus administered to the Ohio Statesman may not be inapplicable to the two journals nearer home which are committing the same offence.

On the strength of the evidence thus submitted, we have not the shadow of a doubt that the pretended extract of Mr. LINCOLN's speech is, so far as he is concerned, an absolute forgery. It is probably the speech of somebody else, -- to which some partisan opponent of Mr. LINCOLN has attached his name in order to create a prejudice against him. He can felicitate himself on having succeeded. The paragraph has been copied far and wide, throughout the country, and especially in the Southern States. It has stimulated and strengthened the belief there that Mr. LINCOLN, is an Abolitionist, -- that he is pledged to the extension of Slavery and to the elevation of the negro to a social and political equality with the white man. It is very easy to stigmatize such an impression on their part as ignorant and inexcusable. But how can we blame the people of the Southern States for believing this when the intelligent Editor of the Albany Atlas and Argus believes it, and when even a person so well-informed as the Editor of the New-York Tribune ought to be concerning Mr. LINCOLN's views, is willing at least to encourage the belief in its genuineness and authenticity.