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,

Normal University, public instruction, banking and other general subjects, such as a school for idiots, criminal code and the militia. On questions political he said:

"I took occasion in my first annual message to refer to disturbing questions which then agitated and continue to agitate the country. It is to be deplored that any question exists so important and yet so complex as to disturb the perfect amity which should prevail in a government constituted like ours.

"Instead of a decrease of causes of complaint, new subjects of a disturbing character are presented, until it would seem that a fixed determination prevails to deprave public sentiment, and accustom it to aggressions, until either through exhaustion or indifference ali opposition to nationalizing slavery shall subside or become inert.

"The decision of the highest judicial tribunal known to our country, apparently designed to encourage the belief that slavery may and does of right lawfully exist in all the Territories, if not in all the States of the Union, was a backward step in the march of civilization, which has excited the surprise and regret of a very large portion of all the people of the Union.

"While the belief is inculcated that the hand of Providence has marked out a chosen boundary within which no other institutions than such as are sustained by human slavery can be prosperous or produce the results desirable for the promotion of human welfare, and while negroes are openly imported and landed on our coasts, in defiance of law, without any apparent probability of punishment for the outrage, or of preventing its recurrence, it may be vain to hope that any harmony will be very soon established in reference to this disturbing question.

"The public mind does not find in such action any immediate prospect of repose. The anomalous condition of things in this regard is an admonition to us that vigilance in the protection of human freedom and human rights should be quickened, or the permanent elevation and happiness of the white race will be endangered.

"To avoid the perils that surround our institutions, and to perpetuate freedom and extend the blessings of liberty designed and left us as an inheritance by our forefathers, it is important that we should not shrink from such a declaration of our opinions, and from such positive action as will effectually arrest further aggressions upon the laws of the Nation and the spirit of the Constitution.