Page images
PDF
EPUB

uneasiness; as in addition to the immediate annoyance, Dickey had been one of his chosen social and political friends but had, only a short time before, publicly abandoned Lincoln in a published letter; his unsavory recollections of Dickey served to handicap his efforts: then Lincoln was not in his accustomed sphere; he was not in the habit of addressing city audiences and I have no doubt felt considerably chilled on that account. At all events I have oftentimes heard Lincoln, and never to greater disadvantage than then. This, however, was the prelude to the great joint discussion. The first of these noted contests took place at Ottawa, on August 21st.

I went from Chicago via the morning train, which reached Ottawa at noon. Lincoln got on board at Morris. The humblest commercial traveler did not travel so unostentatiously; he was entirely alone, and carried his little baggage in his hand. He did not have a director's car, with a great retinue of flunkeys and parasites and a platform car with a cannon on it, as his distinguished competitor did. He sat with me throughout the journey; and I am thus enabled to know for myself that this remarkable man exhibited not the slightest trace of excitement or nervousness at the threshold of one of the fiercest political contests in this or in any other country. We talked about matters other than the impending debate. I merely alluded to that as we approached the goal for the contest to which he calmly and indifferently replied, that he was fully prepared. At Ottawa, the afterward lamented Wallace, who fell at Shiloh, met him as an escort or committee to convey him to the house of Joseph O. Glover, the Mayor, whose guest he was to be.

I recollect Lincoln's countenance at a point in the debate where Douglas called him a liar right out; his habit of self-command was put to a strain then to prevent a breach of decorum. Ordinarily, Abraham Lincoln was not the man to whom that epithet could be applied with success.

The third joint debate came off at Jonesboro' on Sep

tember 15th. I knew he would be short of friends down there (in Egypt, as it was called) so I went down and when we went to the platform I sat with Lincoln, and was thereby enabled to note an air of deep resolve and quiet determination which would have brought forth fruits mete for repentance to the Little Giant, had he pressed his line of insult, inaugurated at Ottawa: one item of which was the anomalous threat to "bring him to his milk" when he had "trotted him down to Egypt."

I did not fail to note that Douglas was more discreet in his style than at Ottawa: Lincoln was not the kind of sleeping lion to be woke up—a fact not unknown to Douglas.

The state fair was then in session at Central City, and Lincoln and I had intended to meet Jesse K. Dubois there on the 16th, to make some political arrangements together; but he was so jaded that he sent me up, designing to rest over one day at the house of D. L. Phillips, at Anna, and join us on the succeeding day. This plan was carried out, and I met Lincoln at the train at Centralia, he emerging alone with his carpet-bag and umbrella, while the director's car was attached, having Douglas and his wife and a retinue of friends; and a cannon, on a platform attached to the rear end, woke the echoes of enthusiasm for the destroyer of the time-honored Missouri Compromise.

Lincoln, Dubois and myself passed the day on the fair ground; no greater attention was bestowed on Lincoln than on any average visitor at the fair; for our dinner, I remember, we were indebted to some of my friends from Champaign who were picnicking there. Dubois and I chaffed Lincoln through the afternoon at the trotting match; and our victim, though pensive, entered into the spirit of our sport but rather wearily. A colored jockey drove one of the horses: we named him Lincoln, and Dubois and I got up small mock bets on his success.

Lincoln spoke of him as "my friend." "There," said

he, "my friend is gaining," etc. But Lincoln was in no frolicsome mood on that day.

Dubois went up on the main line to Decatur, and Lincoln and I waited for the Cairo train, which was to carry us to Mattoon en route to Charleston, where he was to debate again with Douglas on the 18th. Here was exhibited, in a characteristic manner, the different qualities of treatment accorded to Lincoln and to Douglas, by the officials and employes of the Illinois Central Railroad Company. George B. McClellan (afterward the General) was Vice-President of the company and took especial charge of Douglas-furnished him with the directors' car-and a platform car for his cannon and frequently went with him: I need scarcely add that the commissary department of the car was provided with several huge demijohns.

Lincoln traveled on an attorney's pass the same as I did, but he got no further courtesies. Knowing the division superintendent very well, I tried to secure for Lincoln, who was jaded, some little easy favor, but I was, not very graciously, repulsed. The entire management of the road, emulating McClellan's example, was in deadly hostility to Lincoln. Finally, by the favor of Mr. Bell, Lincoln and I got an apartment to ourselves, in what was called an apartment car, where we were entirely secluded; and notwithstanding Lincoln's weariness, he outlined to me, his designed mode of attack on Douglas, on the succeeding day, viz.: by renewing Trumbull's charge on him of complicity with the slave power in foreing slavery on Kansas, through the Toombs' bill-a complete inconsistency with his position on the Lecompton Constitution.

A reference to that joint debate will show the consternation with which Douglas was paralyzed at this unexpected attack.

Lincoln had become aroused and had taken the aggressive very decidedly; and Douglas, who was no stranger to

Lincoln's characteristics, was well aware of it. I may add, that the trenchant, domineering and patronizing style of Douglas, as evinced by him at Chicago and Ottawa, had vanished entirely.

One of the most eminent men in the Northwest recently wrote me a sprightly letter about his several meetings with Lincoln, from which I extract the following, which speaks for itself. "I saw him at Charleston in his joint debate with Douglas. I was a Democrat then of the strictest sect and expected of course to hear Douglas pulverize the Abolitionist. "I left in the evening, the most astonished squatter sovereign you ever saw. Who the was Lincoln ?

in thunder was the matter with Douglas?

"I was sick-very sick."

What

This was the candid judgment of a very able and astute observer; and one prejudiced against Lincoln, as he, himself, says.

On the fifth day of January, 1859, the General Assembly of Illinois met in joint convention to elect an United States senator to succeed to Douglas' term, then expiring: Douglas had a majority of eight on joint ballot in the legislature, although he was in a popular minority of 4,144; and he was, of course, re-elected and an adjournment was at once had; after which the unterrified Democracy proceeded to paint the town very red. We Republicans were very depressed: the Secretary of State's office was appropriated as our headquarters; and the gathering there was about as tame and spiritless as a lot of wet fowls, on a damp and chilly day.

Leonard Swett, Augustus M. Herrington and myself, found ourselves in a chamber of the St. Nicholas Hotel, where Herrington was trying to make us believe that the true policy of Illinoisans, regardless of party, was to unite on Douglas for President in 1860. Swett said he could not support a man who had so cruelly abused the partisans of his faith; and I said with warmth, that I should adhere to Lincoln as

long as he lived: Swett rejoined that he was opposed to sticking to a man that was always getting defeated. This remark so incensed me, that I, at once, left them, and started for Lincoln's office, where I expected to find Herndon, so that we might condole with each other, but instead of finding Herndon, I found Lincoln entirely alone-entirely idle-gloomy as midnight, and, evidently, brooding over his ill-fortune.

Being in a decided ill-humor, I commenced upbraiding him for adhering to Lovejoy, and the Abolitionists; and thus courting defeat. I shall never forget the sad and spiritless way in which he defended himself: he showed me the figures by which Lovejoy was elected in 1856, and the increased vote by which he was elected in 1858. "It is the people, and not me, who want Lovejoy," he said. "The people have not consulted me on the subject," he said, sadly: "If I had opposed Lovejoy, I doubtless should have repelled votes from among our own friends, and gained none from Douglas' friends." We sat together in the cheerless, dismal office till after dark, when he went with me to my hotel, and in fact he remained with me till a late hour. I remember of his saying several times, with bitterness, "I expect everybody to desert me."

The next evening a few of the Republican leaders held an informal meeting in the inner office of the Secretary of State, to take counsel of our adversities and determine what to do in future. All that I now recollect as being present were Lincoln, Palmer, Dubois, Jack Grimshaw and Gillespie; the last named was in favor of going to Douglas, while Grimshaw, with whom we all were in sympathy, was inflexibly opposed to harboring Douglas at all. "Well, but would you make war on him now?" timidly suggested Gillespie. "Yes, siree," said Grimshaw; "fight him now and all the time." As this was evidently the sentiment of the crowd, the colloquy ended with Grimshaw as the victor. We then got in some little order and Palmer made the first speech. He said: "We have met, in order to determine whether it is worth while

« PreviousContinue »