Mr. Lincoln had the finished art of the politician; he had also a
magnanimous heart, ready to sacrifice all personal gain to the party.
He proposed withdrawing, and throwing all his supporters' votes over to
Mattheson--anything to beat Douglas! His friends resisted; he had
distinguished himself sufficiently as a "retiring man" in letting Baker
get the seat over his head. But he was terribly bent on this stroke of
victory. He gave up the reins and, in his great self-sacrifice,
passionately exclaimed:
"It _must_ be done!"
He was said to be, then, a fatalist, and so vented this command as if
he believed "What must be, must be!" unlike the doubter who said: "No!
what must be, won't be!" The Douglasites could not meet this change of
base, and Trumbull became senator by the Lincolnites' coalition.
Lincoln publicly disavowed any such formal compact.
* * * * *