Life of Abraham Lincoln | Page 9

a speech that delighted
his friends and convinced them that in him they had a champion afire with enthusiasm for
the cause of freedom.
Somewhat against his will he was nominated and elected to the legislature in the fall of
1854, but when he saw the dissatisfaction in the Democratic party he was encouraged to
resign from the legislature and become a candidate for the United States Senate. The
Democrats, though not in perfect harmony, had a majority, and he could not be elected,
but helped to turn the tide for the revolting faction of the Democrats. Though
disappointed he knew that the struggle was only begun.
The nation was aroused over the question of slavery. While many good people desired
peace rather than agitation concerning such an irritating problem, the question of slavery
in the territories had to be decided and the whole question of slavery would not down. In
1856 the Republican party was organized for the state of Illinois in a big convention at
Bloomington at which Lincoln made a strong speech; and in the Republican National
Convention held in Philadelphia a few weeks later he was given 110 votes for
Vice-President. He was committed to the new Republican party and campaigned
vigorously for Fremont, their candidate for President.
Lincoln's enthusiastic friends said he was already on the track for the Presidency. As the
contest of 1858 for the Senate approached, it again appeared that the Democrats would be
divided and Lincoln had some confidence of success. Out in Kansas the proslavery men,
by an unfair vote, had adopted the Lecompton Constitution favoring slavery; President
Buchanan urged Congress to admit Kansas with that fraudulent constitution; Douglas
opposed that constitution and voted against the admission of Kansas as a slave state; thus
angering the President and the South and delighting the Republicans of the North.
Now the time was approaching when, in the 1859 session of the Illinois legislature,
Douglas would have to stand for re-election to the United States Senate. The legislators
would be chosen in the campaign of 1858 largely on that issue. Douglas had become the

foremost man in the Democratic party, and any man who could beat him would have
national recognition. The Republicans of Illinois nominated Lincoln, who challenged
Douglas to a series of joint debates.
The famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates are full of interest and repay a full and careful
study, but they will be treated very briefly in this volume.
Lincoln entered upon these debates in a lofty spirit and to the end pursued a high course,
fraught with kindness, fairness, magnanimity and most commendable dignity. He said,
"While pretending no indifference to earthly honors, I do claim, in this contest, to be
actuated by something higher than anxiety for office," and apparently he was.
Lincoln looked into the future and foresaw the coming campaign of 1860 for the
Presidency. He foresaw that Douglas would be the leader of the Democrats in that
campaign and conducted the debate accordingly.
Lincoln thought not alone of momentary issues, but also of eternal verities. Some things
which his friends wished him not to say, for fear it would lose him votes, he said, because
they were things that were true and ought to be said: for example, "This nation cannot
endure half slave and half free.... A house divided against itself cannot stand.... I do not
expect the house to fall.... I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do expect it to
cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of
slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where in the public mind it is in the
course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it until it will become alike
lawful in all the states, old as well as new, North as well as South." While such utterances
probably did cost him votes at the time, later his people could see that his prophetic
vision had been right and their confidence in him, always strong, was accordingly
increased.
Lincoln, with the training of the lawyer, the wily cross-examiner, the profound jurist, the
farsighted statesman, forced Douglas into a dilemma between the northern Democrats of
Illinois and the southern Democrats of the slave states. Lincoln was warned by his friends
that Douglas would probably choose to please the Democrats of Illinois and be elected
United States Senator; but Lincoln replied to his friends: "I am after larger game: the
battle of 1860 is worth a hundred of this." Time proved that Lincoln was right. While
Lincoln's friends guessed wisely as to the prediction that Douglas would choose to secure
the Senatorship by pleasing the Democrats of Illinois, many of whom were opposed to
slavery, Lincoln was wise in his