same reason against Douglas the year before that he (Douglas) was urging now. He went on:

"A little more, now, as to this matter of popular sovereignty and the Lecompton Constitution. The Lecompton Constitution, as the Judge tells us, was defeated. The defeat of it was a good thing, or it was not. He thinks the defeat of it was a good thing, and so do I, and we agree in that. Who defeated it?

"A voice-Judge Douglas.'

"Mr. Lincoln-Yes, he furnished himself, and, if you suppose he furnished the other democrats that went with him, he furnished three votes, while the republicans furnished twenty. That is what he did to defeat it. In the House of Representatives he and his friends furnished some twenty votes and the republicans ninety odd. Now who was it that did the work?

"A voice-Douglas.'

"Mr. Lincoln-Why, yes, Douglas did it. To be sure he did. Let us, however, put that proposition another way. The republicans could not have done it without Judge Douglas. Could he have done it without them? Which could have come the nearest to doing it without the other?"

The following point was so neatly made that it drew from the house three hearty cheers:

"We were often-more than once at least-in the course of Judge Douglas' speech last night, reminded that this government was made for white men-that he believed it was made for white men. Well, that is putting it into a shape in which no one wants to deny it; but the Judge then goes into his passion for drawing inferences that are not warranted. I protest, now and forever, against that counterfeit logic which presumes that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave, I do necessarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I need not have her for either, but, as God made us separate, we can leave one another alone, and do one another much good thereby. There are white men enough to marry all the white women, and enough black men to marry all the black women, and in God's name let them be so married. The Judge regales us with the terrible enormities that take place by the mixture of races; that the inferior race bears the superior down. Why, Judge, if we do not let them get together in the territories they won't mix there."

And thus was opened the grand senatorial campaign of 1858. Mr. Douglas had not been present at Mr. Lincoln's

speech, a fact which Mr. Lincoln regretted, and he soon took measures to secure his attendance. In the meantime, the campaign went on. Mr. Douglas spoke a week later at Bloomington, making much, as usual, of his doctrine of popular sovereignty, and of his rebellion against the administration on the Lecompton question. Mr. Lincoln's original Springfield speech came in for comment, particularly the two points which he criticised at Chicago. Mr. Lincoln was present on this occasion also, determined to find out the exact ground of his antagonist, that he might be able to meet him in the struggle which he had determined upon. On the day following his Bloomington speech, Mr. Douglas spoke at Springfield, as did also Mr. Lincoln, though not at the same meeting. Mr. Lincoln, in opening his speech, alluded to the disadvantages which the republicans of the state labored under in the unjust apportionment of the legislative districts, and particularly in the disparity that existed between the reputation and prospects of the senatorial candidates of the two parties. All the anxious politicians of the party of Mr. Douglas had been looking upon him as certain, at no distant day, to be the President of the United States. "They have seen," he said, "in his round, jolly, fruitful face, post-offices, land-offices, marshalships and cabinet appointments, chargeships and foreign missions, bursting and sprouting out, in wonderful luxuriance, ready to be laid hold of by their greedy hands. And as they have been gazing upon this attractive picture so long, they cannot, in the little distraction that has taken place in the party, bring themselves to give up the charming hope; but with greedier anxiety they rush about him, sustain him, and give him marches, triumphal entries and receptions, beyond what, even in the days of his highest prosperity, they could have brought about in his favor. On the contrary, nobody has ever expected me to be president. In my poor, lean, lank face nobody has ever seen that any cabbages were sprouting out." The main body of the speech was devoted to the questions at issue between him and Judge Douglas, and does not contain matter of special interest beyond

what he had previously uttered upon the same points. He closed by reiterating the charge made in his speech of June seventeenth that Mr. Douglas was a party to the conspiracy for deceiving the people with the idea that the settlers of a territory could exclude slavery from their limits if they should choose to do so, and, at the same time, rendering it impossible for them to do so through the standing veto of the Dred Scott decision. The charge was a grave one, but Mr. Douglas had ignored it. Since it was made, he had not alluded to it at all. "On his own tacit admission," said Mr.

Lincoln, "I renew the charge."

CHAPTER XIII.

MR. LINCOLN wanted closer work than Mr. Douglas had given him. He desired to address the same audiences with his antagonist, and to show to those whom he addressed the fallacy of his reasoning and the groundlessness of his charges. Accordingly, on the twenty-fourth of July, he dispatched the following note:

"HON. S. A. DOUGLAS-My Dear Sir: Will it be agreeable to you to make an arrangement for you and myself to divide time, and address the same audiences the present canvass? Mr. Judd, who will hand you this, is authorized to receive your answer; and, if agreeable to you, to enter into the terms of such arrangement.

To this Mr. Douglas replied, stating that recent events had interposed difficulties in the way of such an arrangement. In connection with the State Central Committee at Springfield, he had made a series of appointments extending over nearly the whole period that remained before the election, and the people of the various localities had been notified of the times and places of the meetings. The candidates for Congress, the legislature and other offices would desire to speak at these meetings, and thus all the time would be occupied. Then he proceeded to give, as a further reason for his refusal, that it was intended to bring out another candidate for United States senator, to divide the democratic vote for the benefit of Mr. Lincoln, and that he (the third candidate) would also claim a

chance in the joint debates, so that he (said third candidate) and Mr. Lincoln would have the opening and closing speech in every instance. While, therefore, he declined the general invitation, he declared himself ready to make an arrangement for seven joint debates in the congressional districts respectively where they had not already spoken, and at the following places, viz: Freeport, Ottawa, Galesburg, Quincy, Alton, Jonesboro and Charleston. This letter was published in the Chicago Times, and read there by Mr. Lincoln before he received the autograph by mail.

To this letter Mr. Lincoln responded, denying, of course, the foolish charge of intended unfairness in bringing in a third candidate to divide the time to the disadvantage of Mr. Douglas, and agreeing to speak in the seven places mentioned. There is other matter in these letters which thoroughly discovers the characteristics of the two writers, but it must be left behind.

Mr. Douglas replied to this second letter of Mr. Lincoln, designating the time and places of the debate as they follow:

Ottawa, LaSalle County, August 21st, 1858; Freeport, Stephenson County, August 27th: Jonesboro, Union County, September 15th; Charleston, Coles County, September 18th; Galesburg, Knox County, October 7th: Quincy, Adams County, October 13th; Alton, Madison County, October 15th.

The terms proposed in this letter and accepted in a subsequent note by Mr. Lincoln, were, that at Ottawa, Mr. Douglas should speak an hour, then Mr. Lincoln an hour and a half, Mr. Douglas having the closing speech of half an hour. At the next place, Mr. Lincoln should open and close in the same way, and so on, alternately, to the conclusion of the arrangement.

As about three weeks intervened between the date of this agreement for joint debates and the first appointment, both parties engaged zealously in their independent work. Mr.

*Political debates between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, (Follett, Foster & Co.,) pages 61 and 65.