Douglas was, perhaps, one of the most effective public speakers of the time, yet it is generally conceded that Lincoln, though he failed to obtain the Senatorship, was fully equal to his distin. guished and no doubt more polished opponent. The rare versatility and comprehensiveness of Mr. Lincoln's mind found full illustration in this exciting contest.

During the next eighteen months, Mr. Lincoln visited various parts of the country, delivering speeches of marked ability and power; and when, in May, 1860, the Republican National Convention met at Chicago, he was, on the third ballot, chosen as its candidate for the Presidency. In consequence of a division in the Democratic party, he was elected, receiving one hundred and eighty out of three hundred and three electoral votes. In the popular vote the result was as follows. Lincoln, 1,887,610; Douglas, 1,291,574; Breckenridge, Pro-slavery Democrat, 885,082; Bell, Con stitutional-Union party, 646,124: thus leaving Lincoln in the minority of the popular vote by nearly a million.

The election of Lincoln was at once made a pretext for dissolving the Union. Though he had repeatedly declared his intention not to interfere with the existing institutions of the South, and to hold inviolate his official oath to maintain the Constitution, all was of no avail to dissuade that section from its predetermined purpose. A

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month before he was inaugurated six Southern States, having solemnly withdrawn from the Union, met in convention and framed the Constitution of a new and independent Confederacy.

The President-elect left his home in Springfield on the 11th of February, 1861, and proceeded by a somewhat circuitous route to Washington, delivering short, pithy addresses in the larger towns and cities through which he passed. He also visited the Legislatures of several Northern States, everywhere reiterating his purpose, while not disturbing the domestic relations of the South, to maintain the Union intact at all hazards. Though informed at Philadelphia that a plot had been formed for his assassination in Baltimore, he reached Washington on February 23d without molestation, and on the 4th of March was duly inaugurated in the presence of an immense assemblage from all parts of the country.

In his inaugural address the new President, as suring the people of the South that he had taken the oath to support the Constitution unreservedly, and that there were no grounds for any fear that "their property," peace, or persons were to be endangered, declared it to be his firm intention to execute the laws, collect duties and imposts, and to hold the public properties in all the States with no bloodshed, however, unless it should be forced upon the national authority.

On entering upon the duties of his office, Мг. Lincoln found the condition of affairs far from encouraging. Seven States had already withdrawn from the Union, and others were preparing to follow their example. The credit of the Gov. ernment was low; the army and navy not only small and inefficient, but scattered all through our wide domain; and the greater part of the public arms, through the treachery of certain officials, were in the possession of the seceded States. Still, he was hopeful and buoyant, and believed that the pending difficulties would soon be adjusted. Even when, on the 14th of April, 1861, the bombardment and capture of Fort Sumter by a Confederate Army roused the North to intense action, though he immediately issued a call for 75,000 volunteers, it was seemingly with but a faint idea that they would be needed. The fact that they were summoned for only three monthsa period far from long enough for the organization of so large a body of men-is of itself sufficient evidence of the delusion under which he was laboring.

The battle of Bull Run, on the 21st of July, 1861, which resulted in the total route of the Government forces, in a great measure dispelled this delusion. The real magnitude of the contest now began to show itself to Mr. Lincoln. Yet his courage never faltered, nor was he less hopeful of the final triumph of the Union. Cheerfully