It will be seen that the bill leaves the people perfectly free. [Groans and some cheers.] It is perfectly natural for those who have misrepresented and slandered me, to be unwilling to hear me. I am here in my own home. [Tremendous groans-a voice, that is in North Carolina-in Alabama, &c.,-go there and talk, &c.-]

I am in my own home, and have lived in Illinois long before you thought of the State. I know my rights, and, though personal violence has been threatened me, I am determined to maintain them. ["Much noise and confusion."] The principle of the Nebraska bill grants to the people of the territories the right to govern themselves. Who dares deny that right [a voice, It grants the right to take slavery there that's all]. What is the Missouri Compromise line? It was simply a line, recognizing slavery on one side of it and forbidding it on the other. Now would any of you permit the establishment of slavery on either side of any line? [No! No!!]

Mr. Douglas said he would show that all of his audience were in 1848 in favor of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and he alone [Three cheers were given for the Compromise.]

was opposed to it.

The compromise measures of 1850 were endorsed by our own City Council. They were also endorsed by our legislature almost unanimously. The resolution passed by our Legislature in 1851, approved of the principles of non-intervention-[it was published in the Press, with comments a few days since], in the most direct and strongest terms. All the Representatives except four whigs voted for the resolution. Every representative from Cook county voted for them.

These were the instructions under which he acted. Till then he was the fast friend of the Compromise. [A voice-then why did you. repeal it?] Simply because another principle had been adopted and I acted upon that principle. [Some one asked that if he lived in Kansas whether he would vote for its being a free State.-But the Senator could not find it convenient to answer it, though repeated several times.]

The questions now became more frequent and the people more noisy. Judge Douglas became excited, and said many things not very creditable to his position and character. The people as a consequence refused to hear him further, and although he kept the stand for a considerable time he was obliged at last to give way and retire to his lod

gings at the Tremont House. The people then separated quietly and all except the office-holders, in the greatest of good humor.

A large number and we certainly were among them, felt deeply mortified that Mr. Douglas had not been permitted to say what he pleased. We must say, however, that the matter terminated much more peacefully than most of our citizens feared, and all have reason, considering the excited state of public mind, to be thankful that matters

are no worse.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN OF ILLINOIS

Among those who opposed the action of Douglas was his long-time friend and rival, Abraham Lincoln, who had served several terms in the Illinois State Legislature and one term in Congress (1847-49) and then retired from public life to look after his law practice. After six years of retirement, he confessed himself drawn again into the arena of politics by the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska act. In the dissatisfaction with Douglas and the Democratic dissension likely to follow, Lincoln saw an opportunity for the Whigs of Illinois and an opening for his long-suppressed political ambitions. During the autumn of 1854, after Douglas had been refused a hearing in Chicago, Lincoln wrote to an influential friend, "It has come around that a Whig may by possibility be elected to the United States. Senate, and I want the chance of being that man.”1

At this time, Lincoln was among the most prominent of the old line Whigs of Illinois; but the dissensions in the Democratic party which promised him a hearing also brought an obstacle in the many prominent Democrats who were deserting the pro-slavery Douglas and who might properly be called new line Whigs, although known as anti-Nebraska men. The Whigs, never able to carry the state, welcomed an alliance with these seceders on the common basis of opposition to slavery extension; naturally

Nicolay and Hay, Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, I, 209.

a greater public interest would attach to them than to a regular Whig like Lincoln; and the latter was in danger of being relegated to second place during the important Springfield Fair week of 1854.

[Alton, Illinois, Courier, October 27, 1854]

Heretofore the Democracy of Central and Southern Illinois, who disagree with Judge Douglas on the Nebraskan measure, have been almost entirely silent in regard to it, and Judge Douglas and his supporters in the matter have had matters entirely their own way. This state of things, as every one must have foreseen, could not last long. The democracy have been aroused and Judge Douglas is to be met at Springfield by several of the first minds of the State, men who would honor any State or nation and no less giants than himself. We are informed that Judge Trumbull, Judge Breese, Col. McClernand, Judge Palmer, Col. E. D. Taylor, and others will be there and reply to Judge Douglas. He will find as foemen tried Democrats, lovers of the Baltimore platform and opposed to all slavery agitation-giants in intellect, worthy of his steel.

THE DEBATES OF 1854

The Illinois State Agricultural Fair held annually at Springfield was the culminating political event of the year-a characteristic which it bears to the present day. This gathering, devoted primarily to the interests of the farmer, became a rendezvous for state politicians, where plans were laid, candidates brought out, and the issues of the day discussed by the ablest speakers in each party. Douglas well knew that he must defend himself against the Whigs and also against many former supporters in his own party, as indicated in the quotation above. Leaving Chicago after failing to secure a hearing, Douglas went to Indianapolis and then returned to Illinois, addressing enthusiastic meetings at Ottawa, Joliet, Rock Island, and other places before the first week in October, which was the date of the State Fair. Springfield at this time contained about fifteen thousand

inhabitants and the visitors to the fair increased the population at least ten thousand. It was the day of stump speaking. The farmers held sessions daily during the week at which they discussed topics pertaining to agriculture and its allied interests; each evening a woman was lecturing in the court room on "Woman's Influence in the Great Progressive Movements of the Day;" and the politicians occupied the senate chamber from noon to midnight with a short intermission for supper. In a card given out through the press, the members of the Agricultural Society protested against the political speakers taking advantage of their "Annual Jubilee and School of Life" to occupy the time and distract the attention of the people by a public discussion of questions foreign to the objects of the society. "The politicians as well as the farmers are out in force," wrote a reporter.

On Wednesday of Fair week, Douglas spoke in the Hall of Representatives in the State House, making a masterly defense of himself and his theory of popular sovereignty. He was to be answered at the same place the following afternoon by Judge Trumbull, of Alton, the most prominent anti-Nebraska Democrat in the southern part of the state. Trumbull failed to arrive at the proper time and Abraham Lincoln, a Whig, arose to reply to Douglas. Lincoln was the recognized speaker for the Whigs in Springfield: a month before, he had replied to Calhoun, a pro-Nebraska Democrat.

[Chicago Democratic Press, October 6, 1854]

POLITICAL SPEAKING

Today we listened to a 3 hour's speech from the Hon. Abram Lincoln, in reply to that of Judge Douglas of yesterday. He made a full and convincing reply and showed up squatter sovereignty in all its unblushing pretensions. We came away as Judge Douglas commenced to reply to Mr. Lincoln.

LINCOLN AT THE STATE FAIR

My acquaintance with Mr. Lincoln began in October, 1854. I was then in the employ of the Chicago Evening Journal. I had been sent to Springfield to report the political doings of State Fair week for that newspaper. Thus it came about that I occupied a front seat in the Representatives' Hall, in the old State House when Mr. Lincoln delivered a speech already described in this volume. The impression made upon me by the orator was quite overpowering. I had not heard much political speaking up to that time. I have heard a great deal since. I have never heard anything since, either by Mr. Lincoln, or by anybody, that I would put on a higher plane of oratory. All the strings that play upon the human heart and understanding were touched with masterly skill and force, while beyond and above all skill was the overwhelming conviction pressed upon the audience that the speaker himself was charged with an irresistible and inspiring duty to his fellow

men. . .

Although I heard him many times afterward, I shall longest remember him as I then saw the tall, angular form with the long, angular arms, at times bent nearly double with excitement, like a large flail animating two smaller ones, the mobile face wet with perspiration which he discharged in drops as he threw his head this way and that like a projectile-not a graceful figure and yet not an ungraceful one.

Lincoln spoke until half-past five; Douglas replied for an hour and then announced that he would leave off to enable the listeners to have their suppers and would resume at early candle light. But when that time arrived, Douglas for some reason failed to resume, other speakers took the platform, and Douglas' "unfinished speech" was the cause of endless raillery on the part of the Whigs who claimed that he found Lincoln's arguments unanswerable. The style of argument of each was known to the other because they had debated public questions in Springfield as early as seventeen years before. Trumbull arrived in time to speak on Thursday evening and his speech was widely copied in the press of the state as representative anti-Ne

Mr. Horace White in Herndon's Life of Lincoln, by permission of D. Appleton & Co.