In 1854, the Missouri Compromise Bill of 1820, made to shut out the
free States from the invasion of slavery, was repealed. The author of
this yielding on a vital question to the pro-slavery party was Stephen
A. Douglas, leader of the Democrats. He had been Lincoln's early
friend, and they were rivals for the hand of the Miss Todd who wedded
Lincoln, with spoken confidence, and woman's astonishing art of reading
men and the future, that he would attain a loftier station in the
national Walhalla than his brilliant and more bewitching adversary.
Indignant at this revoke in the great game of immunity which should
have been played aboveboard, the lawyer sprang forth from his family
peace and studious retirement to fall or fulfil his mission in the
irrepressible conflict.
Lincoln delivered a speech at Springfield when the town was crammed by
the spectators attending the State Fair. It was rated the greatest
oratorical effort of his career, and demolished Douglas' political
stand. The State, previously Democratic, slid upon and crushed out
Douglas' Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and a Whig legislature was chosen.
Having "the senatorship in his eye," or even a dearer if not a nearer
object, Lincoln resigned the seat he won in this revolutionary house.
On the other hand, a vacancy in the State senatorship at Washington
falling pat, he was set up as Whig candidate. Douglas had selected
General James Shields, who had married Miss Todd's sister, but was as
antagonistic to his brother-in-law as Douglas himself. The fight was
made triangular, by the Anti-Kansas-Nebraska Bill party advancing Lyman
Trumbull. Although Shields was not strong enough, a substitute in
Governor Mattheson, "a dark horse," uncommitted to either side, came
within an ace of election in the ballotage.
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