THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN.
Mr. Lincoln had served a term in the House of Representatives with
credit to himself and profit to the country. He was regarded as a rising
man, and every year made him more prominent. It is not strange that his
ambition should have coveted a seat in the Senate. In 1855 he was a
candidate before the Legislature to succeed General Shields, but,
failing to get the required number of votes, he counselled his friends
to vote for Judge Trumbull, who was elected. It was a personal
disappointment, for he wished to be Senator, but in the end it proved to
his advantage. A seat in the Senate would have stood in the way of his
later triumph, and some one else in all probability would have been
nominated and elected President of the United States in 1860.
I have already spoken of Mr. Lincoln’s opposition to slavery. He was
not an extreme man, and he was never classed with the Abolitionists--that
intrepid band who worked early and late, and for years almost without
hope, against the colossal system of wrong whose life seemed so entwined
with the life of the republic that it looked as if both must fall
together. Abraham Lincoln moved slowly. He was not an impulsive man, but
took time to form a determination. Even in the war there were many who
blamed him for what appeared to be his slowness, but after a while they
were led to see that if slow he was sure, and struck only when the time
had come.
The ten years before the war were years of political commotion. The
“irrepressible conflict” between slavery and the spirit of freedom had
commenced, and Abraham Lincoln arrayed himself among the champions of
freedom. There was a desperate struggle to introduce slavery into the
Territories, so that in course of time more slave States might be added
to the Union, and thus the slave system might be strengthened and
continue to retain the political ascendency it had possessed for years.
The rapid growth of the free Northwest alarmed the slave power, and a
counterpoise was required. Northern statesmen who cherished an ambition
to be President had notice served upon them that they must help the
slave power or forfeit its support. Among those who weakly yielded to
this arrogant demand was Stephen A. Douglas. He favored the principle of
“squatter sovereignty,” permitting the inhabitants of any Territory to
establish slavery within its limits if so disposed. In the year 1854,
Mr. Lincoln, in a public debate with Mr. Douglas held at Springfield at
the State fair, used this significant language:
“My distinguished friend says it is an insult to the emigrants to Kansas
and Nebraska to suppose they are not able to govern themselves. We must
not slur over an argument of this kind because it tickles the ear. It
must be met and answered. I admit that the emigrant to Kansas and
Nebraska is able to govern _himself_, but,” the speaker rising to his
full height, “_I deny his right to govern any other person_ WITHOUT THAT
PERSON’S CONSENT.”
This was but a preliminary skirmish. Four years later came the memorable
series of debates between Lincoln and Douglas, each being the nominee
of his party for the United States Senate. The platform on which Lincoln
stood contained two significant planks, and these furnished the key-note
for the speeches called forth by the campaign. I quote them both, and I
hope that my young friends will not skip them.
“3. The present administration has proved recreant to the trusts
committed to its hands, and by its extraordinary, corrupt, unjust, and
undignified exertions, to give effect to the original intention and
purpose of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, by forcing upon the people of
Kansas against their will, and in defiance of their known and
earnestly-expressed wishes, a constitution recognizing slavery as one of
their domestic institutions, it has forfeited all claim to the support
of the friends of free men, free labor, and free rights.”
“5. While we deprecate all interference on the part of political
organizations with the action of the Judiciary, if such action is
limited to its appropriate sphere, yet we can not refrain from
expressing our condemnation of the principles and tendencies of the
extra judicial opinions of a majority of the Judges of the Supreme Court
of the United States in the matter of Dred Scott, wherein the political
heresy is put forth that the Federal Constitution extends slavery into
all the Territories of the republic, and so maintains it that neither
Congress nor people, through their territorial legislature, can by law
abolish it. We hold that Congress possesses sovereign power over the
Territories while they remain in a territorial condition, and that it is
the duty of the General Government to protect the Territories from the
curse of slavery, and to preserve the public domain for the occupation
of free men and free labor. And we declare that no power on earth can
carry and maintain slavery in the States against the will of the people
and the provisions of their constitutions and laws; and we fully endorse
the recent decision of the Supreme Court of our own State which declares
‘that property in persons is repugnant to the Constitution and laws of
Illinois, and that all persons within its jurisdiction are supposed to
be free; and that slavery, where it exists, is a municipal regulation
without any extra territorial operation.’”
With the other points of difference we are not concerned. Whether
slavery should or should not be allowed to extend its blight over the
virgin soil of the new Territories, and thus make its final extinction
well-nigh impossible: that was the all-important issue, and not Illinois
alone, but the country at large, was profoundly interested in the
arguments of the two contestants.
Which was likely to win?
It might have been supposed at the outset that Lincoln would find
himself overmatched. He was hardly known outside his own State, though
he had served two years in Congress. Douglas was a statesman of national
reputation. For fifteen years he had been in the thick of the conflict.
He was a recognized leader of his party, and already he was looked upon
as a probable President at no distant period. In scholastic training he
was far ahead of Mr. Lincoln. He was a forcible speaker, an adroit and
experienced politician, and his recognized position lent a certain
weight to his words which his opponent could not claim.
But, admitting all this, Mr. Douglas found himself confronted by no
inferior antagonist. Abraham Lincoln had a strong logical mind, quick to
detect sophistry and bold to expose it. He had a fine command of
language, a clear and pleasant voice, and a power of sarcasm which he
used with powerful execution at times. This is the way in which an
intelligent correspondent speaks of his speech at Galesburg:
“For about forty minutes he spoke with a power which we have seldom
heard equalled. There was a grandeur in his thoughts, a
comprehensiveness in his arguments, and a binding force in his
conclusions, which were perfectly irresistible. The vast throng was
silent as death, every eye was fixed upon the speaker, and all gave him
serious attention. He was the tall man eloquent; his countenance glowed
with animation, and his eye glistened with an intelligence that made it
lustrous. He was no longer awkward and ungainly; but graceful, bold, and
commanding.
“Mr. Douglas had been quietly smoking up to this time, but here he
forgot his cigar and listened with anxious attention. When he rose to
reply he appeared excited, disturbed, and his second effort seemed to us
vastly inferior to his first. Mr. Lincoln had given him a great task,
and Mr. Douglas had not time to answer him, even if he had the ability.”
Yet there were many points of resemblance between the two contestants.
Both had been cradled in poverty, and had fought their way upward from
obscurity to distinction. Douglas had climbed the higher, but the
topmost round of the ladder on which he had for some time fixed longing
eyes, he was destined never to mount. He had sacrificed much to reach
the crowning distinction, but it was not for him. His awkward,
ungraceful opponent, obscure in comparison with him, was destined to
stride past him and sit in the coveted seat of power. But the smaller
prize--the Senatorship--was won by Douglas, though Lincoln carried the
popular vote.