THE TWO GIANTS.
If I were writing a complete and exhaustive biography of Mr. Lincoln, I
should be tempted to quote freely from the speeches made by both
contestants in the memorable campaign which made Douglas a Senator, and
his opponent the next President of the United States. But neither my
space, nor the scope of my book, allows this. I will, however, quote, as
likely to be of general interest, the personal description of Lincoln
given by his distinguished rival:
“In the remarks I have made on this platform,” said Judge Douglas, “and
the position of Mr. Lincoln upon it, I mean nothing personally
disrespectful or unkind to that gentleman. I have known him for nearly
twenty-five years. There were many points of sympathy between us when we
first got acquainted. We were both comparatively boys, and both
struggling with poverty in a strange land. I was a school-teacher in the
town of Winchester, and he a flourishing grocery-keeper in the town of
Salem. He was more successful in his occupation than I was in mine, and
hence more fortunate in this world’s goods. Lincoln is one of those
peculiar men who perform with admirable skill everything which they
undertake. I made as good a school-teacher as I could, and when a
cabinet-maker I made a good bedstead and tables, although my old boss
said I succeeded better with bureaus and secretaries than with anything
else; but I believe that Lincoln was always more successful in business
than I, for his business enabled him to get into the Legislature. I met
him there, however, and had a sympathy with him, because of the up-hill
struggle we both had in life.
“He was then just as good at telling an anecdote as now. He could beat
any of the boys in wrestling, or running a foot-race, in pitching
quoits, or tossing a copper; could ruin more liquor than all the boys of
the town together, and the dignity and impartiality with which he
presided at a horse-race or a fist-fight, excited the admiration and
won the praise of everybody that was present and participated. I
sympathized with him because he was struggling with difficulties and so
was I. Mr. Lincoln served with me in the Legislature in 1836, when we
both retired, and he subsided, or became submerged, and he was lost
sight of as a public man for some years. In 1846, when Wilmot introduced
the celebrated proviso, and the Abolition tornado swept over the
country, Lincoln again turned up as a Member of Congress from the
Sangamon district. I was then in the Senate of the United States, and
was glad to welcome my old friend and companion. While in Congress, he
distinguished himself by his opposition to the Mexican war, taking the
side of our common enemy against his own country; and when he returned
home he found that the indignation of the people followed him
everywhere, and he was again submerged, or obliged to retire into
private life, forgotten by his former friends.”
This sketch of Mr. Lincoln, though apparently friendly, was artfully
calculated to stir up prejudice against him, and the backwoods statesman
was not willing to leave it unanswered. Generally he was quite well
able to take care of himself, and did not fail in the present instance.
This is his reply:
“The Judge is wofully at fault about his early friend Lincoln being a
grocery-keeper. I don’t know as it would be a great sin if I had been;
but he is mistaken. Lincoln never kept a grocery anywhere in the world.
It is true that Lincoln did work the latter part of one winter in a
little still-house up at the head of a hollow. And so I think my friend,
the Judge, is equally at fault when he charges me at the time when I was
in Congress with having opposed our soldiers who were fighting in the
Mexican war. The Judge did not make his charge very distinctly, but I
can tell you what he can prove by referring to the record. You remember
I was an old Whig, and whenever the Democratic party tried to get me to
vote that the war had been righteously begun by the President, I would
not do it. But whenever they asked for any money, or land-warrants, or
anything to pay the soldiers there, during all that time I gave the same
vote that Judge Douglas did. You can think as you please as to whether
that was consistent. Such is the truth; and the Judge has a right to
make all he can out of it. But when he, by a general charge, conveys the
idea that I withheld supplies from the soldiers who were fighting in the
Mexican war, or did anything else to hinder the soldiers, he is, to say
the least, grossly and altogether mistaken, as a consultation of the
records will prove to him.”
Not content with defending himself, Mr. Lincoln essayed on his side to
contrast his opponent and himself, and, like him, he indulged in
personal reminiscences.
“Twenty-two years ago Judge Douglas and I first became acquainted; we
were both young then--he a trifle younger than I. Even then we were both
ambitious,--I perhaps quite as much so as he. With me the race of
ambition has been a failure,--a flat failure; with him it has been one
of splendid success. His name fills the nation, and is not unknown even
in foreign lands. I affect no contempt for the high eminence he has
reached,--so reached that the oppressed of my species might have shared
with me in the elevation. I would rather stand on that eminence than
wear the richest crown that ever pressed a monarch’s brow.”
In another connection Mr. Lincoln says: “Senator Douglas is of
world-wide renown. All the anxious politicians of his party, or who had
been of his party for years past, have been looking upon him as
certainly, at no distant day, to be the President of the United States.
They have seen in his round, jolly, fruitful face, post-offices,
land-offices, marshalships, and cabinet appointments, chargéships and
foreign missions, bursting and sprouting out in wonderful exuberance,
ready to be laid hold of by their greedy hands. And as they have been
gazing upon this attractive picture so long, they can not, in the little
distraction that has taken place in the party, bring themselves to give
up the charming hope; but, with greedier anxiety, they rush about him,
sustain him, and give him marches, triumphal entries, and receptions,
beyond what, even in the days of his highest prosperity, they could have
brought about in his favor. On the contrary, nobody has ever expected me
to be President. In _my_ poor, lean, lank face nobody has ever seen that
any cabbages were sprouting out. There are disadvantages, all taken
together, that the Republicans labor under. We have to fight this battle
upon principle, and upon principle alone.”
It may be said, in summing up, that Mr. Lincoln proved himself to be
fully a match for Judge Douglas in this memorable campaign. I may go
further and say that he overmatched him, for he adroitly propounded
questions which his opponent was compelled to answer, and did answer in
a way that killed him as a Presidential candidate. Though he ran in
1860, it was as an independent candidate. He had failed to retain the
full confidence of his party, and could not secure the regular
nomination. Indeed, he contributed indirectly to Lincoln’s election, by
dividing his own party, so that Mr. Lincoln became President, though
receiving considerably less than one-half of the popular vote. It is
obvious that Mr. Lincoln, who admits, as we have seen, that he was quite
as ambitious as Douglas, was looking farther than the Senatorship. Yet
he was personally disappointed when the majority in the Legislature
proved to be for Douglas, and secured the election of the latter. He
expressed this in his usual quaint way when some one asked him how he
felt. He said, “that he felt like the boy that stubbed his toe,--it hurt
too bad to laugh, and he was too big to cry.”
It is probable that Abraham Lincoln, though he says no one had ever
expected him to be President, was not without Presidential aspirations.
He thought no doubt that an election as Senator would help his chances,
and that the Senatorial position would prove a stepping-stone. Even the
shrewdest, however, are liable to make mistakes, and we are led to
believe that Mr. Lincoln was mistaken in this instance. If he had
triumphed over Douglas in 1858, it is more than likely that by some word
or act as Senator he would have aroused prejudices that would have made
him unavailable in 1860, and the nation would never have discovered the
leader who, under Providence, led it out of the wilderness, and
conducted it to peace and freedom. I do not want to moralize overmuch,
but can not help saying to my readers that in the lives of all there are
present disappointments that lead to ultimate success and prosperity. It
would not be hard to adduce convincing proofs. Washington and Garfield
both desired to go to sea when they were boys. Had their wishes been
gratified their after-careers might have been very different. Cromwell
had made all arrangements to sail for America when still obscure. He
was prevented, and remained in his own country to control its destiny,
and take a position at the head of affairs. Remember this when your
cherished plans are defeated. There is a higher wisdom than ours that
shapes and directs our lives.