done more. His speeches will become landmarks in our political history, and we are sure that when the public mind is more fully aroused to the importance of the themes which he has so admirably discussed, the popular verdict will place him a long way in advance of the more fortunate champion by whom he has been overthrown. The Republicans owe him much for his truthfulness, his courage, his self-command, and his consistency; but the weight of their debt is chiefly in this, that under no temptation, no apprehension of defeat, in compliance with no solicitation has he let down our standard in the least. That God given and glorious principle which is the head and front of Republicanism, "all men are created equal, and are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," he steadily upheld, defended, illustrated, and applied in every speech which he has made. Men of his own faith may have differed with him when measures only were discussed, but the foundation of all-the principle which comprehends all-he has fought for with a zeal and courage that never flagged or quailed. In that was the pith and the marrow of the contest. Mr. Lincoln, at Springfield at peace with himself because he has been true to his convictions, enjoying the confidence and unfeigned respect of his peers, is more to be envied than Mr. Douglas in the Senate.

[Chicago Daily Democrat, November 11, 1858]

During the whole course of the late campaign, Mr. Lincoln has exhibited the qualities, not only of an able statesman, but of a conscientious man and a perfect gentleman. Amid all the heat of those memorable discussions with his opponent, and through all the strife that distinguished them, he never once so far forgot himself as to lower the standard of that very rare avis in terra, the conscientious political debater, or of the man religiously sincere in his principles and convictions. Mr. Douglas, at the outset of the campaign, spoke of Mr. Lincoln somewhat disparagingly as "a very amiable gentleman." He certainly has proved himself to be such and although Mr. Douglas may not fully appreciate a character of this description, yet we have no doubt the people of the state of Illinois will accord to Mr. Lincoln in his defeat such a measure of admiration for the man and his noble qualities of head and heart as to render that defeat almost equal to the triumph of his opponent. No man can deny to Abraham Lincoln the meed of honest and heartfelt admiration. Even his opponents profess to love

!

the man though they hate his principles and condescendingly speak of sympathy with him in his defeat. We have no doubt that Mr. Lincoln fully appreciates those professions. He values them for what they are worth, but he has the consolation-that he has done his duty, his whole duty, and nothing but his duty to his party and to his country, in upholding and defending the glorious principles of the one, which he knows and feels to be those upon which the prosperity and the perpetuity of the other are founded.

That Mr. Lincoln is sincere in his views with regard to the great political questions of the day, every one who knows the man, or has heard or read his speeches, must be persuaded. Besides being powerful specimens of logic (and they are so considered by the leading statesmen and journals of the country) these speeches are stamped with the impress of a sincerity and candor which appeals at once to the higher and nobler faculties of the mind, and wins over the better feelings and affections of our nature. They will be recognized for a long time to come as standard authorities upon those topics which overshadow all others in the political world of our day; and our children will read them and appreciate the great truths which they so forcibly inculcate with even a higher appreciation of their worth than their fathers possessed while listening to them. They, in fact, are in advance of the age in which they were delivered and thus contain those elements which give that vitality to all human productions which carries them beyond the present and makes them useful and beautiful in the future. No greater compliment can be paid to the speeches of Mr. Lincoln than to say that the leading ideas of them have been taken up and adopted by Senator Seward of New York in his speeches during the late campaign in that state, out of which the Republicans have just issued with flying colors, having achieved one of the proudest triumphs ever accorded to a party in these United States.

In this connection, we might also state that Mr. Lincoln's name has been used by newspapers and public meetings outside the state in connection with the Presidency and Vice Presidency, so that it is not only in his own state that Honest old Abe is respected and his talents and many good qualities appreciated. All through the North and in most of the border states he is looked upon as an able statesman and most worthy man, fully competent to fill any post within the gift of the people of this Union.

We, for our part, consider that it would be but a partial appreciation of his services to our noble cause that our next state Republican Convention should nominate him for Governor as unanimously and enthusiastically as it did for Senator. . . . . and this state should also present his name to the National Republican Convention, first for President, and next for Vice President. We should show to the United States at large that in our opinion, the Great Man of Illinois is Abraham Lincoln, and none other because of the services he has rendered to the glorious cause of liberty and humanity.

[Chicago Times, November 9, 1858]

PUBLIC OPINION UPON THE ILLINOIS ELECTION

[From the Buffalo Courier]

The canvass was continued with sole reference to the respective claims of Douglas and Lincoln to represent the people at Washington in that exalted position. Mr. Lincoln was the chosen standard-bearer of the opposition, in view of the possession of a combination of rare qualifications alike for the office and his achieving the success by which it was to be secured. He is a man of fine abilities, of pure character, and of vast popularity with men of all classes and politics. Although as a legislator and statesman Judge Douglas enjoys an advantage of a larger experience and greater familiarity with affairs, there is abundant evidence to prove that a choice of the people between these two competitors was decided solely in reference to the principles they respectively professed, and that the verdict was accorded to the superiority of national Democratic sentiments over sectional Republican views.

[Illinois State Register, December 1, 1858]

A SETTLER FOR SEWARD

....

If Illinois republican journals are to be taken as an index, Mr. Lincoln is to be made a presidential candidate upon the creed which he enunciated here in his June convention speech. . . . . Whether this extreme ground will be adopted by the republicans generally, in a party platform, is matter of doubt. The resistance to it by a large number of their leading journals, in their commentary upon Seward's speech, is indicative of a warm contest over it. It will be the "rugged issue" against a hypocritical conservatism-the open advocacy of a policy which is the groundwork of their common effort, or a time-serving evasion of true republican designs, for power and the spoils thereof. If this contest does not result in their party disintegration, it will, at least, plainly develop, in its controversies, to the people of the country, the "true intent and