viction, that he often quivered with emotion in its utterance. Others addressed the people that day, but to Mr. Lincoln was awarded the honor of having pierced the armor of his antagonist, and of having won the right to carry the standard of freedom into the battle that could not be averted.

The Abolitionists of the state now sought to commit him fully to their programme. They felt that in his Anti-Nebraska utterances he was with them and ought to declare himself fully, but he avoided them. The time for him had not yet come. In the fullness of time he could be more useful to the cause of union and freedom by a conservative record than if he had been open to the charge of being a fanatical abolitionist. On the question of the Anti-Nebraska Bill he could take strong ground, and he followed Mr. Douglas to Peoria to repeat the same triumph in debate as at Springfield.

In 1854, in spite of his unwillingness, he was elected to the Illinois Legislature. A senator was to be elected at that session in place of General Shields, and Lincoln now aspired to that position. There was an Anti-Nebraska majority of two on joint ballot, but some of them were pronounced Abolitionists, for whom Mr. Lincoln's position was not sufficiently advanced, and five were Democrats, who preferred to vote for a senator with antecedents like their own. To the Abolitionists, Mr. Lincoln easily pledged himself to vote for the exclusion of slavery in all territories of the United States. Matteson, the Democratic candidate, was almost elected. The Anti-Nebraska Democrats would probably vote for him on the

next ballot in preference to a Whig like Lincoln. In this emergency Mr. Lincoln magnanimously said to the Whigs, "You ought to drop me and go for Trumbull. That is the only way you can defeat Matteson. The cause in this case is to be preferred to men."

Mr. Lincoln was reserved for the conspicuous campaign of 1858, when he should contest for senatorial honors with Mr. Douglas and discuss the great issues of slavery extension in the hearing of the nation. Meanwhile, the bloody conflicts between the freedom loving settlers of Kansas, and the border ruffians, took place, and the North became aroused over the plan of the pro-slavery men to foist pro-slavery constitutions upon the territories that should seek admission to the union. For these events, Mr. Lincoln held Mr.Douglas responsible,and he likewise held fast to the conservative position that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was an act of bad faith, and that slavery should not be extended into territories heretofore free.

The first national convention of the Republican party met in February, 1856, and made its platform on the lines of Mr. Lincoln's contention on the subject of slavery. His prominence in the eye of the party was evinced by the fact that from that convention he received 110 votes for the vice-presidency. His voice was heard during the campaign, discussing the great issues of the time. 1858, a Democratic state convention met in Illinois, which besides nominating a state ticket, indorsed the name of Stephen A. Douglas as his own successor in the senate. That crafty politician had begun to have doubts

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as to whether the Lecompton constitution was the act and deed of the people of Kansas, and sought to recall the support of the people of his state, who were estranged from him by the violence that had been introduced in Kansas. In the effort to restrain the friends of freedom from freely voting upon the issues that were really before them, it was even suggested that Mr. Douglas was on his way to the Republican fold.

Mr. Lincoln was not deceived by Mr. Douglas's change of attitude. There was an election of senator in the next year in the state of Illinois, and the two candidates were the author of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and his most conspicuous opponent. If this prize should not slip from Mr. Douglas's grasp, he must disavow some of the fruits of his labor on behalf of slavery, and thus retain enough of his former supporters for his election. It was upon his record as a tool of slavery to open the territories to that institution, and upon the ground of his inconsistency in presenting the doctrine of popular sovereignty, that Mr. Lincoln assailed him in his candidacy for the United States Senate.

In April, 1858, a Democratic state convention met in Illinois and indorsed Mr. Douglas. He had so befogged many leading men of Illinois that they begged the Republicans to trust him, and put no one in nomination against him. Already Mr. Lincoln perceived that Mr. Douglas had been crowded into a position that would ultimately destroy his chances of leading a united Democratic party in a national election, for in failing to uphold the Lecompton convention, and in representing in Illinois

that popular sovereignity would demonstrate the ability of the territories to protect themselves from slavery, he created genuine alarm in the South. Mr. Lincoln's battle was nearly won. It did not matter if Mr. Douglas should defeat him by his insincere scheming in 1858. A greater day of reckoning was coming in 1860.

On the 16th of June the Republican convention of Illinois passed a resolution unanimously declaring that “Abraham Lincoln is our first and only choice for United States Senator to fill the vacancy about to be created by the expiration of Mr. Douglas's term of office." On the evening of that day he locked his office door and produced the manuscript of a speech and read the opening paragraph to his partner, Mr. Herndon. When he had finished he looked into the astonished face of Mr. Herndon and asked him, "How do you like that?"

It was the speech that was to be delivered before the Republican convention, avowing his candidacy for the Senate. The paragraph was as follows:

"Gentlemen of the Convention: If we could first know where we are and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far on into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased but has constantly augmented. In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis has been reached and passed. '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 farther spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its adversaries will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new; North as well as South."

Then followed a masterly review of the aggressive steps by which pro-slavery legislators had sought to extend the institution, and the part that Mr. Douglas had played in it, and his present inconsistent attitude toward his party and his insincere overture to the Republican party. Then with the clarion peal of an acknowledged, trusted, and confident leader, he concluded:

"Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mustered, over thirteen hundred thousand strong. We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance against us. Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought the battle through under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud and pampered enemy. Did we brave all that to fall now? Now, when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered and belligerent? The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail: If we stand firm we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate or mistakes delay it, but sooner or later the victory is sure to come."

Mr. Herndon said, "Is it politic to speak it as it is