| |
Selected American history
The Life of Abraham Lincoln
By Henry Ketcham
CHAPTER XV.
THE BATTLE OF THE GIANTS.
The admiring friends of Douglas had given him the nickname of "the
little giant." To this he was fairly entitled. Physically he was very
little. Intellectually he was a giant. He was in 1858 perhaps the most
prominent man in the United States. He was the unquestioned leader of
the dominant party. He had been so long in public life that he was
familiar with every public question, while upon the burning question of
slavery he was the leader.
Lincoln was a giant physically, and it soon became evident that he was
no less intellectually. These two men soon were to come together in a
series of joint debates. It was manifest that this would be a battle of
intellectual giants. No other such debates have ever occurred in the
history of the country.
Events led up to this rapidly and with the certainty of fate. In 1854
Lincoln had been candidate for the senate to succeed Shields, but his
party had been outwitted and he was compelled to substitute Trumbull.
In 1856 he was the logical candidate for governor, but he was of
opinion that the cause would be better served permanently by placing an
anti-slavery democrat in nomination. This was done and Bissell was
elected. Now in 1858 the senatorial term of Douglas was about to expire
and a successor would be chosen. Douglas was the candidate of his own
party. The republicans turned naturally and spontaneously to Lincoln,
for it would be no light task to defeat so strong an opponent.
The republican convention met in Springfield on the 16th of June.
Lincoln was by acclamation nominated "as the first and only choice" of
the republican party for United States senator. The above time-honored
phrase was used sincerely on that occasion. There was great enthusiasm,
absolute unanimity.
On the evening of the following day he addressed the convention in a
speech which has become historic. His opening words were:
"If we could first know where we are and whither we are tending, we
could better judge what to do and how to do it. We are now far into the
fifth year since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object and
confident promise of putting an end to the 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 shall have 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 further 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 advocates will push it
forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the states, old as
well as new, North as well as South."
This speech came quickly to be known as "the house-divided-against-
itself speech." By that name it is still known. Concluding he said:
"Our cause, then, must be entrusted to and conducted by its own
undoubted friends, those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the
work, who do care for the result.... 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." This was a strong speech, delivered before an audience
of men of unusual ability, delegates who represented all parts of the
state. It was in no wise a harangue. It was entirely thoughtful and
strictly logical. The effect of it was to intensify the enthusiasm, and
to spread it all through the state. It was a speech that Douglas could
not ignore, though he might misrepresent it. This he did by raising the
charge of sectionalism against his adversary.
About three weeks later, on the 9th of July, Douglas made an elaborate
speech in Chicago. Lincoln was in the audience. It was unofficially
arranged that he should reply. He did so the following evening. A week
later a similar thing occurred in Springfield. Douglas made a speech in
the afternoon to which Lincoln replied in the evening. Shortly after
this Lincoln wrote Douglas a letter proposing a series of joint
discussions, or challenging him to a series of joint debates. Douglas
replied in a patronizing and irritating tone, asked for a slight
advantage in his own favor, but he accepted the proposal. He did not do
it in a very gracious manner, but he did it. They arranged for seven
discussions in towns, the locations being scattered fairly over the
entire territory of the state.
If Illinois had before been "the cynosure of neighboring eyes," much
more was it so now. Lincoln was by no means the most prominent anti-
slavery man, but he was the only man in a position to beard his rival.
The proposed debates excited not only the interest of the state and the
neighboring states, but from the East and the South all minds were
turned to this tournament. It was not a local discussion; it was a
national and critical question that was at issue. The interest was no
less eager in New York, Washington, and Charleston than in
Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and St. Louis.
The two men had been neighbors for many years. They were together
members of the legislature, first in Vandalia and then in Springfield.
They had frequently met socially in Springfield. Both paid marked
attentions to the same young lady. Both had served in Washington City.
Douglas was for most of his life an officeholder, so that in one way or
another Lincoln would be brought into association with him. But though
they met so frequently it is not probable that, before this time,
either recognized in the other his supreme antagonist. After the repeal
of the Missouri Compromise Lincoln had, as already related, discussed
Douglas with great plainness of speech. This had been twice repeated in
this year. But these were, comparatively speaking, mere incidents. The
great contest was to be in the debates.
In the outset, Douglas had the advantage of prestige. Nothing succeeds
like success. Douglas had all his life had nothing but success. He
twice had missed the nomination for presidency, but he was still the
most formidable man in the senate. He was very popular in his own
state. He was everywhere greeted by large crowds, with bands of music
and other demonstrations. He always traveled in a special car and often
in a special train, which was freely placed at his disposal by the
Illinois Central Railway. Lincoln traveled by accommodation train,
freight train, or wagon, as best he could. As both the men were
everyday speaking independently between the debates, this question of
transportation was serious. The inconveniences of travel made a great
drain upon the nervous force and the health. One day when the freight
train bearing Lincoln was side-tracked to let his rival's special train
roll by, he good-humoredly remarked that Douglas "did not smell any
royalty in this car."
Another fact which gave Douglas the advantage was the friendship and
sympathy of Horace Greeley and others, who had much influence with the
party of Lincoln. Douglas had broken with Buchanan's administration on
a question relating to Kansas. The iniquity of the powers at Washington
went so far that even Douglas rebelled. This led Greeley and others to
think that Douglas had in him the making of a good republican if he was
only treated with sufficient consideration. Accordingly, all of that
influence was bitterly thrown in opposition to Lincoln.
The methods of the two men were as diverse as their bodily appearance.
Douglas was a master of what the ancient Greeks would have called
"making the worse appear the better reason." He was able to misstate
his antagonist's position so shrewdly as to deceive the very elect. And
with equal skill he could escape from the real meaning of his own
statements. Lincoln's characterization is apt: "Judge Douglas is
playing cuttlefish--a small species of fish that has no mode of
defending himself when pursued except by throwing out a black fluid
which makes the water so dark the enemy cannot see it, and thus it
escapes."
Lincoln's method was to hold the discussion down to the point at issue
with clear and forcible statement. He arraigned the iniquity of slavery
as an offense against God. He made the phrase "all men" of the
Declaration of Independence include the black as well as the white.
Said he: "There is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled
to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of
Independence--the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.... In the right to eat the bread, without the leave of
anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal, and the equal
of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man." He quoted
Jefferson's remark, "I tremble for my country when I remember that God
is just." Mercilessly he analyzed Douglas's speeches and exposed his
sophistry.
The forensic ability of the two men is suggestively indicated by the
remark of a lady who heard them speak, and afterward said: "I can
recall only one fact of the debates, that I felt so sorry for Lincoln
while Douglas was speaking, and then so sorry for Douglas while
Lincoln was speaking."
These debates occupied seven different evenings of three hours each.
The speeches were afterwards published in book form and had a wide
circulation. These speeches, numbering twenty-one in all, filled a
large volume. It is not the purpose of this chapter to give an outline
of the debates, it is only to give a general idea of their result. But
out of them came one prominent fact, which so influenced the careers of
the two men that it must be briefly recorded. This went by the name of
"the Freeport doctrine."
In the first debate Douglas had asked Lincoln a series of questions.
The villainy of these questions was in the innuendo. They began, "I
desire to know whether Lincoln stands to-day, as he did in 1854, in
favor of," etc. Douglas then quoted from the platform of a convention
which Lincoln had not attended, and with which he had nothing to do.
Lincoln denied these insinuations, and said that he had never favored
those doctrines; but the trick succeeded, and the impression was made
that Douglas had cornered him. The questions, to all intents and
purposes, were a forgery. This forgery was quickly exposed by a Chicago
paper, and the result was not helpful to Douglas. It was made manifest
that he was not conducting the debates in a fair and manly way.
Further than this, the fact that these questions had been asked gave
Lincoln, in turn, the right to ask questions of Douglas. This right he
used. For the next debate, which was to be at Freeport, he prepared,
among others, the following question: "Can the people of a United
States territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of
the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the
formation of a state constitution?" If this were answered "No," it
would alienate the citizens of Illinois. If it were answered "Yes," it
would alienate the democrats of the South.
On the way to Freeport he met a number of friends and took counsel of
them. When he read question number two, the one above quoted, his
friends earnestly and unanimously advised him not to put that question.
"If you do," said they, "you never can be senator." To which Lincoln
replied: "Gentlemen, I am killing larger game. If Douglas answers, he
can never be President, and the battle of 1860 is worth a hundred of
this."
It is not probable that Lincoln expected to be in 1860 the nominee of
the republican party. But he did see the danger of the election of
Douglas to the presidency. He was willing to surrender the senatorial
election to save the country from a Douglas administration. The
sacrifice was made. The prediction proved true. Lincoln lost the
senatorship, Douglas lost the presidency.
The popular verdict, as shown in the election, was in favor of Lincoln.
The republicans polled 125,430 votes; the Douglas democrats, 121,609,
and the Buchanan democrats, 5,071. But the apportionment of the
legislative districts was such that Douglas had a majority on the joint
ballot of the legislature. He received 54 votes to 46 for Lincoln. This
secured his reelection to the senate.
The popular verdict outside the state of Illinois was in favor of
Lincoln. The republican party circulated the volume containing the full
report of the speeches. It does not appear that the democrats did so.
This forces the conclusion that the intellectual and moral victory was
on the side of Lincoln.
There is a pathetic sequel to this. The campaign had been very arduous
on Lincoln. Douglas had made 130 speeches in 100 days, not counting
Sundays. Lincoln had made probably about the same number. These were
not brief addresses from a railway car, but fully elaborated speeches.
The labors commenced early in July and continued through the heat of
the summer. With Lincoln the inadequate means of travel added to the
draft upon his strength. At the end of all came the triumphant election
of his rival. Add to this the fact that the next day he received a
letter from the republican committee saying that their funds would not
meet the bills, and asking for an additional contribution. The rest is
best told in Lincoln's own words:
"Yours of the 15th is just received. I wrote you the same day. As to
the pecuniary matter, I am willing to pay according to my ability, but
I am the poorest hand living to get others to pay. I have been on
expense so long without earning anything that I am absolutely without
money now for even household purposes. Still, if you can put up $250
for me towards discharging the debt of the committee, I will allow it
when you and I settle the private matter between us. This, with what I
have already paid, and with an outstanding note of mine, will exceed my
subscription of $500. This, too, is exclusive of my ordinary expenses
during the campaign, all which, being added to my loss of time and
business, bears pretty heavily on one no better off in world's goods
than I; but as I had the post of honor, it is not for me to be over-
nice. You are feeling badly--'And this, too, shall pass away.' Never
fear."
|
|
