I

authority? Who do you mean to say authorized the publication of these articles? He knows that the Washington Union is considered the organ of the administration. demand of Judge Douglas by whose authority he meant to say those articles were published, if not by the authority of the President of the United States and his cabinet? I defy him to show whom he referred to, if not to these high functionaries in the Federal Government. More than this, he says the articles in that paper and the provision of the Lecompton constitution are 'identical,' and being identical, he argues that the authors are co-operating and conspiring together. He does not use the word 'conspiring, but what other construction can you put upon it? He winds up with this:

"When I saw that article in the Union of the 17th of November, followed by the glorification of the Lecompton constitution on the 18th of November, and this clause in the constitution asserting the doctrine that a State has no right to prohibit slavery within its limits, I saw that there was a fatal blow being struck at the sovereignty of the States of this Union.'

"I ask him if all this fuss was made over the editor of this newspaper. It would be a terribly 'fatal blow' indeed, which a single man could strike, when no President, no Cabinet officer, no member of Congress, was giving strength and efficiency to the movement. Out of respect to Judge Douglas' good sense, I must believe he didn't manufacture his idea of the 'fatal' character of that blow out of such a miserable scapegrace as he represents that editor to be. But the Judge's eye is farther south now. Then, it was very peculiarly and decidedly north. His hope rested on the idea of visiting the great 'Black Republican' party, and making it the tail of his new kite. He knows he was then expecting from day to day to turn Republican and place himself at the head of our organization. He has found that these despised 'Black Republicans' estimate him by a standard which he has taught them none too well. Hence he is crawling back into his old camp, and you will find him eventually installed in full fellowship among those whom he was then battling, and with whom he now pretends to be at such fearful variance. (Loud applause and cries of 'Go on, go on.') I can not, gentlemen, my time has expired."

There had been a disposition on the part of Mr. Lincoln's political friends to see that he adopted such a line of policy

as would prevent Mr. Douglas from taking an undue advantage of him. They had an idea that they knew more about conducting the campaign than Mr. Lincoln could possibly know; and when he propounded to Douglas the four questions embraced in his opening speech on this occasion, they felt that he had done just what Douglas wanted him to do, and they said to him that he had already as good as elected Douglas to the Senate. The unerring foresight of Lincoln was incomprehensible. His reply was: "That may be, but it will defeat him for the Presidency." So it proved, for it was the answers which Douglas gave to those questions which lost him the support of the South in the campaign of 1860, and this division of the Democratic party gave the Presidency to the Republicans.

In the eyes of the Nation, these men were regarded as intellectual giants; but while they were giants, there was as much difference between them on the issue they discussed, as there is between day and night. Douglas was ambitious for the Presidency, and really believed in the right of the people to hold colored men as slaves; and while in fact he was opposed to the further extension of slavery, yet he was in favor of allowing the people who framed the constitutions of the new States the right to settle the question for themselves. Lincoln, on the other hand, recognized slavery as a great moral wrong, but he also recognized the right of the owners of slaves to their property under existing laws, and was unwilling to disturb them in that right; yet he was unalterably opposed to the further extension of slavery. He was not an Abolitionist in the sense that Sumner, Giddings or Hale were held. There was no prejudice in his mind against the Southern people. There was nothing denunciatory in the language of his speeches. He held to the principle of equity in regard to the rights of the owners of slaves, which was

not possessed by any other leading man in the anti-slavery party. He sought justice for all men, and all sections, and it was these principles which finally won for him the leadership of the party which had fought the existence or extension of slavery in so many forms, and gave to him such a proud position in the statesmanship of the civilized world.

CHAPTER VII.

STATE GOVERNMENT-1859.

Governor-William H. Bissell.
Lieutenant-Governor-John Wood.
Secretary of State-O. M. Hatch.

Auditor of Public Accounts-Jesse K. Dubois.
Treasurer-William Butler.

Superintendent of Public Instruction-Newton Bateman.

TWENTY-FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

The Twenty-first General Assembly convened January 3, and consisted of the following members:

SENATE.

Norman B. Judd, Cook.
Henry W. Blodgett, Lake.
Zenas Applington, Ogle.
J. H. Addams, Stephenson.
Richard F. Adams, Lee.
G. D. A. Parks, Will.
B. C. Cook, LaSalle.
Geo. C. Bestor, Peoria.
T. J. Henderson, Stark.
Wm. C. Goudy, Fulton.
J. P. Richmond, Schuyler.
Austin Brooks, Adams.
C. L. Higbee, Pike.

A. L. Knapp, Jersey.
C. W. Vanderen, Sangamon.
Joel S. Post, Macon.
Sam'l W. Fuller, Tazewell.
T. A. Marshall, Coles.
Mortimer O'Kean, Jasper.
Silas L. Bryan, Marion.
S. A. Buckmaster, Madison.
Wm. H. Underwood, St. Clair.
Sam'l H. Martin, White.
E. C. Coffey, Washington.
A. J. Kuykendall, Johnson.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Lieutenant-Governor John Wood presided over the Senate, and Finney D. Preston, of Richland, was elected Secretary, over J. W. Schaffer, of Stephenson, by a vote of 14 to 11.

W. R. Morrison, of Monroe, was elected Speaker of the House, over Vital Jarrot, of St. Clair, by vive voce vote, and David E. Head, of Hancock, was elected Clerk, over Christopher C. Brown, of Sangamon, by a vote of 40 to 34.

Among the new members of this assembly who were able and active, were: Blodgett, Brooks, Higbee, Knapp, Marshall, Buckmaster, Hacker, Green, Thomas S. Hick, Swett, Mack, Plato, Bryant, Hurlbut, Peck.

The message of Governor Bissell was laid before the two houses on the 5th. He congratulated the General Assembly on the happy and prosperous condition of the State in these words:

"Each recurring session of our Legislature brings with it increasing cause of gladness at the rapid and marvelous advances which we, as the people of a sovereign State, are making in all the elements of National greatness. Our physical, intellectual and moral condition is advancing with a rapidity probably never equalled in any age, nor among any people on the globe. Our almost limitless prairies are being converted, as if by magic, into fertile and teeming fields, the produce of which, finding cheap and speedy transit over our magnificent rivers and railroads to the best markets in the world, is enriching our farmers, and creating and sustaining a healthful business in all the useful departments of life; while the steady and rapid multiplication of school houses, for the common as well as higher schools, throughout the State, give evidence, alike conclusive and gratifying, that the important matter of educating the rising generation is beginning to receive from our citizens that degree of attention which its real importance demands."

He showed that the State debt and the arrears of interest had been reduced during the years 1857-58, $1,166,876.74, leaving a balance of principal and arrears of interest of $11,138,453.93. He advised less legislation on private or trivial matters, and recommended that the laws enacted should be few and general. He recommended legislation in the interest of agriculture, the charitable institutions,