meaning" of republicanism, and incur for it that odium which it justly deserves. The Democracy have only to unite their forces upon their old platform of principle, maintain the rights of the states under the constitution, and the presidential result will be "a settler to Seward," Lincoln and all their fellow aspirants for presidential honors upon a sectional, unconstitutional platform. CHAPTER XX EDITIONS OF THE DEBATES The Campaign in Illinois. Last Joint Debate. Douglas and Lincoln at Alton, Illinois. (From the Chicago Times, October 17, 1858.) Washington: Lemuel Towers, 1858. The Introduction to this pamphlet contains uncomplimentary references to Lincoln and the value of his arguments. It may be the "document" referred to in the following, although there is a discrepancy in the dates: [Galesburg (Ill.) Democrat, October 13, 1858] Douglas has put out a lying document composed of extracts from the speeches of Lincoln & Douglas at the joint debates. The extracts from Lincoln's speeches are all emasculated and perverted just as his speech here was. They have been secretly scattered by the thousands in Fulton & Tazewell co's as we know, and they are probably distributed throughout the State, excepting in such places as Chicago, where the fraud would recoil upon their heads too quickly. What language can portray the depravity of the man who will resort to means so base for the accomplishment of his end. Lincoln's speeches in the Debates made him the spokesman of Republican principles in the West and the rival of Seward in that position among the Eastern states. They formulated the arguments used in the gubernatorial election in Ohio in 1859; and, immediately after the election, Governor-elect Dennison and various Republican officials of the state wrote to Lincoln for official copies of the Debates in order to publish them as a hand-book for the approaching presidential election. In response to this request, Lincoln forwarded copies of the Chicago Press and Tribune, from which his speeches could be set up, and the Chicago Times, from which the speeches of Douglas could be taken. In an |