 'You will have to say something,' I replied. 'Suppose you get up and say that you will speak this evening at the court-house yard.'
"Mr. Lincoln mounted the board seat, and as the crowd got sight of his tall form the shouts and cheers were wild. As soon as he could make himself heard he said,—
"'This is Judge Douglas's meeting. I have no right, therefore, no disposition to interfere. But if you ladies and gentlemen desire to hear what I have to say on these questions, and will meet me this evening at the court-house yard, east side, I will try to
"Lincoln made a speech that evening which in volume did not equal the speech of Douglas, but for sound and cogent argument was the superior. Douglas had charged Mr. Lincoln with being in favor of negro equality, which was then the bugbear of politics. In his speech that evening Mr. Lincoln said,—
"'Judge Douglas charges me with being in favor of negro equality, and to the extent that he charges I am not guilty. I am guilty of hating servitude and loving freedom; and while I would not carry the equality of the races to the extent charged by my adversary, I am happy to confess before you that in some things the112 black man is the equal of the white man. In the right to eat the bread his own hands have earned he is the equal of Judge Douglas or any other living man.'
"When Lincoln spoke the last sentence he had lifted himself to his full height, and as he reached his hands towards the stars of that still night, then and there fell from his lips one of the most sublime expressions of American statesmanship. The effect was grand, the cheers tremendous."
Senator Douglas accepted the challenge, and the famous debate was arranged which for public interest and forensic ability has never been surpassed or equalled in any country. Seven dates and towns were selected, and the debaters were placed on an equal footing by an arrangement that alternately one should speak an hour in opening and the other an hour and a half in reply, the first to have half an hour in closing.
In addition to his seven meetings with Douglas, Lincoln made thirty-one other set speeches arranged by the State Central Committee during the campaign, besides many brief addresses not previously advertised. Sometimes he spoke several times a day, and was exposed to a great deal of discomfort and fatigue which none but a man of his physical strength could have endured. He paid his own expenses, travelled by ordinary cars and freight trains, and often was obliged to drive in wagons or to ride horseback to keep his engagements. Mr. Douglas enjoyed a great advantage. He had been in the Senate several years and had influential friends holding government offices all over the State, who had time and money to arrange receptions and entertainments and lost no opportunity to lionize him. Every Federal official, for weeks before the joint meetings, gave his attention to the arrangements and was held responsible by Mr. Douglas for securing a large and enthusiastic Democratic audience. He was accompanied by his wife, a beautiful and brilliant woman, and by a committee of113 the most distinguished Democratic politicians in the State. He travelled in a special train furnished by the Illinois Central Railroad, and in charge of Captain George B. McClellan, who was then its general manager. Every employee of that road was a partisan of Douglas, voluntary or involuntary, and several times Lincoln was compelled to suffer unnecessary delay and inconvenience because of their partisanship. Many a time when he was trying to get a little sleep in a wayside station, while waiting for a connection, or lay in a bunk in the caboose of a freight train, the special car of his opponent, decorated with flags and lithographs, would go sweeping by.
A gentleman who accompanied him during the canvass relates this: "Lincoln and I were at the Centralia Agricultural Fair the day after the debate at Jonesboro. Night came on and we were tired, having been on the fair grounds all day. We were to go north on the Illinois Central Railroad. The train was due at midnight, and the depot was full of people. I managed to get a chair for Lincoln in the office of the superintendent of the railroad, but small politicians would intrude so that he could scarcely get a moment's sleep. The train came and was filled instantly. I got a seat near the door for Lincoln and myself. He was worn out, and had to meet Douglas the next day at Charleston. An empty car, called a saloon car, was hitched on to the rear of the train and locked up. I asked the conductor, who knew Lincoln and myself well,—we were both attorneys of the road,—if Lincoln could not ride in that car; that he was exhausted and needed rest; but the conductor refused. I afterwards got him in by stratagem."
The meetings were attended by enormous crowds. People came twenty and thirty miles in carriages and wagons, devoting two or three days to the excursion, and the local excitement was intense. The two parties endeavored to excel each other in processions, music, fireworks, and novel features. At each town salutes114 would be fired and an address of welcome delivered by some prominent citizen. Sometimes committees of ladies would present the speakers bouquets of flowers, and on one occasion they wound garlands around the lank and awkward form of the future President, much to his embarrassment and dismay. After a debate at Ottawa, the enthusiasm was so great that a party of his admirers carried him on their shoulders from the meeting to the house where he was being entertained.
Lincoln did not underrate the ability or the advantages of his opponent. He realized fully the serious character and importance of the contest in which he was engaged. He was aware that the entire country was watching him with anxious eyes, and that he was addressing not only the multitudes that gathered around the platforms, but the entire population of the United States. He knew also that whatever he might say would have a permanent effect upon the fortunes of the Republican party, then only two years old, not to speak of his own personal destiny.
He knew Douglas as well and perhaps better than Douglas knew himself. They had been acquainted from boyhood, and their lives had run in parallels in a most remarkable manner. They had met at the threshold of their political careers. They had served together in the Legislature twenty-three years before. They were admitted to practice at the bar of the Supreme Court together. They had been rivals for the hand of the same lady, as related in a previous chapter. They served together in Congress. They had met repeatedly, and had measured strength in the Legislature, in the courts, and on the platform. They had always been upon outwardly friendly terms, but each knew that the other disliked him intensely. It is probable that his inquisitive nature and analytical habits gave Lincoln a better knowledge of the strong and weak points of his antagonist. He was very thorough in whatever he undertook, while115 Douglas was more confident and careless in his preparation. Lincoln knew that in the whole field of American politics there was no man so adroit or aggressive or gifted in the tricks and strategy of debate, and in this contest Douglas showed his fullest power. Lincoln's talents and habits were entirely different. He indulged in no tricks and made no effort to dazzle audiences. His fairness of statement and generosity were well known and understood by Mr. Douglas, who took advantage of them. His high standard of political morals and his devotion to constitutional principles were equally well understood, and Douglas took advantage of those also.
Douglas electrified the crowds with his eloquence and charmed them by his grace and dexterity. He was forcible in statement, aggressive in assertion, and treated Lincoln in a patronizing and contemptuous manner; but Lincoln's simplicity of statement, his homely illustrations, quaint originality, and convincing logic were often more forcible than the lofty flights of eloquence in which his opponent indulged. He was more careful and accurate in his statement of facts, and his knowledge of the details of history and the legislation of Congress was a great advantage, for he convicted Douglas of misrepresentation again and again, although it seemed to have had no effect whatever upon the confidence of the latter's supporters. As usual, Mr. Lincoln kept close to the subject and spoke to convince and not to amuse or entertain. When one of his friends suggested that his reputation for story-telling was being destroyed by the seriousness of his speeches, Lincoln replied that this was no time for jokes.
One of the gentlemen who accompanied Mr. Lincoln has given us the following description of his appearance and manner of speaking: "When standing erect he was six feet four inches high. |
