addressing the people in company. Those readers who examine the letter of our Monticello correspondent will learn somewhat of the circumstances which attended the conclusion of this arrangement. Mr. Lincoln's letter is dated Springfield, but it was sent by the author from some place in Piatt county to Senator Douglas in Bement. We are not disposed to criticise too harshly the style of Mr. Lincoln's letter. It is now printed and speaks for itself its own praise or condemnation. But, the public will have their opinion of it, and it can be none other than that it is as badly conceived as bunglingly expressed. We hope, however, that we have seen the "conclusion" of the correspondence, and do not question that by the time Mr. Lincoln has "concluded" on Senator Douglas, once or twice, and permitted Senator Douglas to "conclude" on him an equal number of times, he will "conclude" that he better haul off and lay by for repairs. We need not describe the arrangement, as it is made fully to appear in the correspondence itself. [Illinois State Journal, July 31, 1858] MR. LINCOLN'S CHALLENGE TO MR. DOUGLAS.- We have already published the letter of Mr. Lincoln challenging Mr. Douglas to a joint canvass of the State, and also the letter of Mr. Douglas in reply, declining the invitation in the most pettifogging and cowardly manner. Today we publish a rejoinder of Mr. Lincoln, exposing the flimsy pretexts upon which Mr. Douglas places his declension and at the same time cordially responding to that part of the reply in which Mr. Douglas reluctantly consents to allow himself to be used up by Mr. Lincoln at seven different places. It is clear that Mr. Douglas is not fond of Mr. Lincoln's rough handling and is anxious to get out of an ugly scrape on any terms. In this matter Douglas goes on the principle that discretion is the better part of valor. We knew from the first that Douglas would not dare to make a general canvass of the state with Lincoln. He had to run away from that gentleman in 1854 and dared not stand his broadsides now. If. he dared not meet Lincoln in the first dawnings of his conspiracy to Africanize the whole American Continent, of course he would object still more to such a canvass in 1858, when the evidences of that conspiracy are so numerous and overwhelming that even his audacity shrinks from denying it. But we did expect that Mr. Douglas would at least put his refusal on some more plausible ground than a mere squibble. The idea that Mr. Douglas is unable to meet Mr. Lincoln in debate because forsooth a Democratic Central Committee had already made some half dozen appointments for him, is pitiful— just as though those appointments could not be changed, or so modified as also to embrace a discussion with Mr. Lincoln or leaving those appointments out of the question, just as though there was not yet remaining full two months in which to make the canvass with Mr. Lincoln! However it is viewed, Mr. Douglas' attempt to Skulk behind a Central Committee, is a cowardly showing of the white feather. [Chicago Daily Journal, August 2, 1858] The Times finds fault with Mr. Lincoln's letter to Mr. Douglas because it is "bunglingly expressed". Our neighbor should recollect that he has not the advantage of having the Douglas candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction to correct it for him! [Illinois State Register, Springfield, August 2, 1858] DISCUSSION BETWEEN MESSRS. DOUGLAS AND LINCOLN We were furnished on Saturday, by Mr. Lincoln, with the following correspondence, from which it will be seen that he agrees to meet Mr. Douglas in discussion at seven points in the state, which are named in the note of the letter. Mr. Lincoln cannot forego, even in this brief note, the expression of the idea uppermost with him, that he is "a victim," Douglas has one more "opening" than himself, which, if it were not so, Mr. Lincoln would have one more than Mr. Douglas. As we are told by Mr. Lincoln's organs that Douglas felt incapable of debating successfully with Mr. L., the latter should have forborne his lament, in a spirit of magnanimity. Now there is a bit of egotism in all this, pardonable, probably, in view of Mr. Lincoln's extremity. Why had he, any more than Wentworth, or Browning, or Gillespie, or Palmer, or Dougherty, or Judd, or any other republican or Danite notability, a right to expect a challenge for debate from Douglas. True, Lincoln had thrust himself before all the reception meetings gotten up in honor of Mr. Douglas, and had taken shape as a senatorial candidate; but as Mr. Douglas suggests, there are others with similar aspirations. He had in this manner of doubtful propriety, made himself a figure out of place, but we cannot see that the circumstances were such as to induce Mr. Douglas to single him out from the number of his opponents-black republican and Danite, and challenge him to a general canvass. Mr. Lincoln's political necessities may have needed this boosting of him into prominence, but he is scarcely justified in lamenting that Mr. Douglas did not contribute to it. Mr. Douglas, as a representative of his state in the senate, was a prominent actor in the exciting debates of the last session. His action, and his motives therefor, had been condemned and impugned, and he had concluded, on his return home, to go before his constituents to render an account of the course he had deemed proper to pursue, as well as to advocate the principles, policy and the election of the candidates of his party. Mr. Lincoln was as well qualified to know that Mr. Douglas came to this city to arrange with his party friends for this purpose, as was Mr. Douglas that Mr. Lincoln's party friends had arranged that he was to champion their cause; and as such, if it was his desire to have had a general canvass, single-handed, he could have made it known at the threshold-at Chicago. Why he did not do it, is simply because he had not "resolved" to do it and we think he did not resolve to do it because he thought he could cut a better figure by waiting until Mr. Douglas had made other arrangements, and then pompously send a challenge which he knew could not be accepted. Mr. Lincoln knew it was Mr. Douglas' intention to canvass the state long before Mr. D's return home. If it was his desire to canvass with him—if it was the desire of his party that he should do so, he should have met the "lion," with a watchful resistance, at the gate, and not have waited for his terms, and the mode and manner of being eaten up. This bit of pettifogging jugglery on the part of Mr. Lincoln and his backers can only be viewed as such by the people of the state. The twaddle of his organs about Douglas' dread of his prowess is unworthy of comment. Mr. Douglas' agreement to meet him as proposed in the correspondence above, which could not, under the circumstances, be declined by Mr. Lincoln, is, doubtless, more than they bargained for in their epistolary efforts to make a brave front on paper, as they will certainly learn before they are through with a small portion of the large job they profess to bid for.. Eastern newspapers at first failed to appreciate the importance of this challenge and acceptance, although the arrangement caused extensive comment in the Illinois press, as the above quotations would indicate. In the older section the breach between Douglas and Buchanan continued to be extensively treated by editorial writers. CHAPTER IV REPORTING THE DEBATES MR. HORACE WHITE Mr. White, the official reporter of the Debates for the Chicago Press and Tribune, was born in New Hampshire in 1834. When three years of age, he was taken with the family to Wisconsin Territory, where the city of Beloit now stands. In 1849, Horace entered Beloit College, was graduated in 1853, and became a reporter on the Chicago Evening Journal. In 1857 he spent a short time in Kansas, returning to Chicago to become an editorial writer on the Chicago Press and Tribune. While holding this position, he was designated as chief correspondent to accompany Abraham Lincoln in 1858 on his campaign against Stephen A. Douglas for the United States senatorship. The notable features of this campaign were given to the public chiefly through Mr. White's letters to the Chicago Tribune, and were subsequently condensed by him at the instance of William H. Herndon and published in the latter's Life of Lincoln (2d ed., D. Appleton & Co., New York). In 1861 Mr. White was sent to Washington as correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, and while there he filled successfully the places of clerk of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs and clerk in the War Department. In the latter capacity he was assigned to the special service of P. H. Watson, assistant secretary of war, and later of Edwin M. Stanton, secretary. In 1865 he became part owner and chief editor of the Chicago Tribune, which place he filled until September, 1874, when he resigned and was |