Soon after the inauguration of President Buchanan, the Supreme Court of the United States delivered an opinion in that famous trial known as the Dred Scott case which created intense excitement. A slave of that name sued for his freedom on the ground that his master had taken him from Missouri to reside in the State of Illinois and the Territory of Wisconsin, where slavery was prohibited by law. Judge Taney and a majority of the Supreme bench, after hearing the case argued twice by eminent counsel, decided that a negro was not entitled to bring suit in a court. In addition, it indirectly announced its opinion that under the Constitution of the United States neither Congress nor a territorial Legislature had any power to prohibit slavery within Federal territory. The people of the North cried out in protest, the people of the South defended the decision as just and righteous altogether, and then began a series of discussion which ended only with the emancipation of the bondsmen.

Senator Douglas was left in a curious situation, for he had justified the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which prohibited the extension of slavery, on the ground of popular sovereignty, holding that under the Constitution each Territory was authorized to decide the question for itself, and in defence of that position he had made many speeches. It became necessary, therefore, for him to reconcile it with the decision of the Supreme Court, which he attempted to do by an able argument at Springfield shortly after. It was the first presentation of his ingenious and celebrated "Freeport Doctrine," which, briefly, was that while the Supreme Court was correct in its interpretation of the Constitution, a Territory cannot be divested of its right to adopt and enforce appropriate police regulations. As such regulations could only be made by Legislatures elected by a popular vote, he argued, the great principle of popular sovereignty and self-government was not only sustained,

but was even more firmly established by the Dred Scott decision.

This argument naturally excited the interest of Lincoln, who answered it in an elaborate speech two weeks later, and thus forced the issue into the campaign for the election of a Legislature which was to choose the successor of Mr. Douglas in the United States Senate. Douglas was in an unpleasant predicament. He was compelled to choose between the favor and support of the Buchanan administration and that of the people of Illinois. As the latter alternative was necessary to his public career, he adopted it, and when Congress met he attacked the administration with his usual force and ability. His course was approved by a large majority of the Democratic party in Illinois, but stimulated the hope of the Republicans of that State that they might defeat him and elect Abraham Lincoln, who was entitled to the honor because he had yielded his priority of claim to Lyman Trumbull in 1854 and was now recognized as the foremost champion of the new Republican party in Illinois. Therefore, when the Republican State Convention met in June, 1858, it adopted by acclamation a resolution declaring that he was the first and only choice of the Republican party for the United States Senate.

Mr. Herndon, Lincoln's law partner, says,

"He had been led all along to expect his nomination to the Senate, and with that in view had been earnestly and quietly at work preparing a speech in acknowledgment of the honor about to be conferred upon him. This speech he wrote on stray envelopes and scraps of paper, as ideas suggested themselves, putting them into that miscellaneous and convenient receptacle, his hat. As the Convention drew near he copied the whole on connected sheets, carefully revising every line and sentence, and fastened them together for reference during the delivery of the speech and for publication. A few weeks before the Convention, when he was at work on

the speech, I remember that Jesse K. Dubois, who was Auditor of the State, came into the office and, seeing Lincoln busily writing, inquired what he was doing or what he was writing. Lincoln answered gruffly, 'It's something you may see or hear some time, but I'll not let you see it now.' After the Convention Lincoln met him on the street and said, ' Dubois, I can tell you what I was doing the other day when you came into my office. I was writing that speech, and I knew if I read the passage about the house divided against itself' to you, you would ask me to change or modify it, and that I was determined not to do. I had willed it so, and was willing, if necessary, to perish with it.'

"Before delivering his speech he invited a dozen or so of his friends to the library of the State-House, where he read and submitted it to them. After the reading he asked each man for his opinion. Some condemned and no one endorsed it. Having patiently listened to these various criticisms from his friends, all of which, with a single exception, were adverse, he rose from his chair, and after alluding to the careful study and intense thought he had given the question, he answered all their objections substantially as follows: 'Friends, this thing has been retarded long enough. The time has come when those sentimenst should be uttered; and if it is decreed that I should go down because of this speech, then let me go down linked to the truth-let me die in the advocacy of what is just and right.'

After completing its routine work, the Convention adjourned to meet in the Hall of Representatives at Springfield that evening to hear Lincoln's speech, and it was anticipated with intense interest and anxiety because the gentlemen whom Lincoln had taken into his confidence had let it be known that he was to take a very radical position. It was the most carefully prepared speech he ever made, although he delivered it from memory, and after a few opening sentences he

uttered this bold and significant declaration which evoked an enthusiastic response from all of the free States of the Union:

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"A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved-I do not expect the house to fall-but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward until it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South."

Shortly after this event, Senator Douglas returned from Washington and took the stump, attracting immense crowds and exciting great enthusiasm. His speeches, however, were evasive and contained much special pleading as well as misstatement. Lincoln watched him closely, and, recognizing that Douglas was fighting unfairly, decided to bring him to terms. Hence he addressed him a challenge to joint debate. Judge Weldon, who was living in Illinois at the time, tells the story as follows:

66 We wrote Mr. Lincoln he had better come and hear Douglas speak at Clinton, which he did. There was an immense crowd for a country town, and on the way to the grove where the speaking took place, Mr. Lincoln said to me,

"Weldon, I have challenged Judge Douglas for a discussion. What do you think of it?'

"I replied, "I approve your judgment in whatever you do.'

"We went over a little to one side of the crowd and sat down on one of the boards laid on logs for seats. Douglas spoke over three hours to an immense audience,

and made one of the most forcible speeches I ever heard. As he went on he referred to Lincoln's Springfield speech, and became very personal, and I said to Mr. Lincoln,

"Do you suppose Douglas knows you are here?'

"Well,' he replied, 'I don't know whether he does or not; he has not looked in this direction. But I reckon some of the boys have told him I am here.'

"When Douglas finished there was a tremendous shout for Lincoln,' which kept on with no let up. Mr. Lincoln said,

"What shall I do? I can't speak here.'

"You will have to say something,' I replied. 'Suppose you get up and say that you will speak this evening at the court-house yard.'

"Mr. Lincoln mounted the board seat, and as the crowd got sight of his tall form the shouts and cheers were wild. As soon as he could make himself heard he said,

"This is Judge Douglas's meeting. I have no right, therefore, no disposition to interfere. But if you ladies and gentlemen desire to hear what I have to say on these questions, and will meet me this evening at the court-house yard, east side, I will try to answer this gentleman.'

"Lincoln made a speech that evening which in volume did not equal the speech of Douglas, but for sound and cogent argument was the superior. Douglas had charged Mr. Lincoln with being in favor of negro equality, which was then the bugbear of politics. In his speech that evening Mr. Lincoln said,—

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Judge Douglas charges me with being in favor of negro equality, and to the extent that he charges I am not guilty. I am guilty of hating servitude and loving freedom; and while I would not carry the equality of the races to the extent charged by my adversary, I am happy to confess before you that in some things the