In the midsummer of 1858, Senator Douglas, whose term approached its
close, came home to canvass for re-election. It was in the midst of the
Kansas struggle, and although he had broken with the administration of
Buchanan, because he resisted the admission of Kansas into the Union,
under the fraudulent Lecompton Constitution, and insisted that the
people of that State, should enjoy the right by a fair vote, of deciding
upon the character of their Constitution,[5] yet the people of Illinois
did not forget that he was chiefly responsible for the repeal of the
Missouri Compromise, and that he had indorsed the Dred Scott decision.
On the 17th of June, 1858, the Republican State Convention of Illinois
met and by acclamation nominated Mr. Lincoln for the Senate. He was
unquestionably more indebted to Douglas for his greatness than to any
other person.
[5] That they "should be perfectly free to form and regulate their
domestic institutions in their own way."
In 1856 Lincoln said, "Twenty 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 as he. With me the
race of ambition has proved a flat failure; with him it has been one of
splendid success. His name fills the nation, and it is not unknown 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."
Ten years had not gone by, before the modest Lincoln, then so humbly
expressing this noble sentiment, and to whom at that moment "The race of
ambition seemed a flat failure;" ten years had not passed, ere he had
reached an eminence on which his name filled, not a nation only, but the
world; and he had indeed so reached it, that the oppressed did share
with him in the elevation; and so far had he passed his then great
rival, that the name of Douglas will be carried down to posterity,
chiefly because of its association as a competitor with Lincoln.
But in many particulars Douglas was not an unworthy competitor. The
contest between these two champions was perhaps the most remarkable in
American history. They were the acknowledged leaders, each of his party.
Douglas had been a prominent candidate for the presidency, was well
known and personally popular, not only in the West, but throughout the
Union. Both were men of great and marked individuality of character. The
immediate prize was the Senatorship of the great State of Illinois, and,
in the future, the presidency. The result would largely influence the
struggle for freedom in Kansas, and the question of slavery throughout
the Union. The canvass attracted the attention of the people everywhere,
and the speeches were reported and published, not only in the leading
papers in the State, but reporters were sent from most of the large
cities, to report the incidents of the debates, and describe the
conflict.
Douglas was at this time unquestionably the leading debater in the
United States Senate. For years he had been accustomed to meet the
great leaders of the nation in Congress, and he had rarely been
discomfited. He had contended with Jefferson Davis, and Toombs, and
Hunter, and with Chase, and Sumner, and Seward; and his friends claimed
that he was the equal, if not the superior, of the ablest. He was
fertile in resources, severe in denunciation, familiar with political
history, and had participated so many years in Congressional debate,
that he handled with readiness and facility all the weapons of political
controversy. Of indomitable physical and moral courage, he was certainly
among the most formidable men in the nation on the stump. In Illinois,
where he had hosts of friends and enthusiastic followers, he possessed a
power over the masses unequaled by any other man, a most striking
exhibition of which was exhibited in this canvass, in which he held to
himself the whole Democratic party of the State. The administration of
Buchanan, with all its patronage wielded by the wily and unscrupulous
Slidell, and running a separate ticket, was able to detach only 5,000
out of 126,000 votes from him. There was something exciting, something
which stirred the blood, in the boldness with which he threw himself
into the conflict, and dealt his blows right and left against the
Republican party on one side, and the administration of Buchanan, which
sought his defeat, on the other.
Two men presenting more striking contrasts, physically, intellectually,
and morally, could not anywhere be found. Douglas was a short, sturdy,
resolute man, with large head and chest, and short legs; his ability had
gained for him the appellation of "The little giant of Illinois."
Lincoln was of the Kentucky type of men, very tall, long-limbed,
angular, awkward in gait and attitude, physically a real giant,
large-featured, his eyes deep-set under heavy eyebrows, his forehead
high and retreating, with heavy, dark hair.
Their style of speaking, like every thing about them, was in striking
contrast. Douglas, skilled by a thousand conflicts in all the strategy
of a face to face encounter, stepped upon the platform and faced the
thousands of friends and foes around him with an air of conscious power.
There was an air of indomitable pluck, sometimes something approaching
impudence in his manner, when he looked out on the immense throngs which
surged and struggled before him. Lincoln was modest, but always
self-possessed, with no self-consciousness, his whole mind evidently
absorbed in his great theme, always candid, truthful, cool, logical,
accurate; at times, inspired by his subject, rising to great dignity and
wonderful power. The impression made by Douglas, upon a stranger who saw
him for the first time on the platform, would be--"that is a bold,
audacious, ready debater, an ugly opponent." Of Lincoln--"There is a
candid, truthful, sincere man, who, whether right or wrong, believes he
is right." Lincoln argued the side of freedom, with the most thorough
conviction that on its triumph depended the fate of the Republic. An
idea of the impression made by Lincoln in these discussions may be
inferred from a remark made by a plain old Quaker, who, at the close of
the Ottawa debate, said: "Friend, doubtless God _Almighty might_ have
made an honester man than Abe Lincoln, but doubtless he never did." It
is curious that the cause of freedom was plead by a Kentuckian, and that
of slavery by a native of Vermont. Forgetful of the ancestral hatred of
slavery to which he had been born, Douglas had, by marriage, become a
slave-holder. Lincoln had one great advantage over his antagonist--he
was always good-humored; while Douglas sometimes lost his temper,
Lincoln never lost his.
The great champions in these debates, and their discussions, have passed
into history, and the world has ratified the popular verdict of the
day--that Lincoln was the victor. It should be remembered, in justice to
the intellectual power of Douglas, that Lincoln spoke for liberty, and
he was the organ of a new and vigorous party, with a full consciousness
of being in the right. Douglas was looking to the presidency as well as
the senatorship, and must keep one eye on the slave-holder and the other
on the citizens of Illinois.
The debates in the old Continental Congress, and those on the Missouri
question of 1820-1, those of Webster and Hayne, and Webster and Calhoun,
are all historical; but it may be doubted if either were more important
than these of Lincoln and Douglas.
Mr. Lincoln, although his party received a majority of the popular vote
was defeated for Senator, because certain Democratic Senators held over
from certain Republican districts.
On the 27th of February, 1860, Mr. Lincoln delivered his celebrated
Cooper Institute address. Many went to hear the prairie orator,
expecting to be entertained with noisy declamation, extravagant and
verbose, and with plenty of amusing stories. The speech was so
dignified, so exact in language and statement, so replete with
historical learning, it exhibited such strength and grasp of thought and
was so elevated in tone, that the intelligent audience were astonished
and delighted. The closing sentence is characteristic, and should never
be forgotten by those who advocate the right. "Let us have faith that
_right_ makes _might_, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do
our duty as we understand it."