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him well, were timorous of the future, doubtful of the result. They loved and trusted Lincoln, but they were afraid of Douglas-Douglas, the powerful and influential Senator, who had never yet been defeated, and who bore down all opposition. Just before the first meeting of the two disputants, a friend of Lincoln's met him at a great political gathering in Springfield, and expressed to him, as delicately as possible, the fears of those who loved him so well, for Lincoln was ever a dearly beloved man to those who knew him. Greeting this man, and hearing from him that his old acquaintances were looking forward with some anxiety to the approaching discussion, a shade of sadness flitted over Lincoln's careworn face; then a light flashed from his eyes, and his lips quivered. In the half-jocular, halfserious manner that was so peculiar to him, he said, with lips compressed:

“My friend, sit down here a minute and I will tell you a story. You and I have travelled the circuit together, attending court, and have often seen two men about to fight. One of them, the big or the little giant, as the case may be, is noisy and boastful; he jumps high in the air and strikes his feet together, smites his fists together, brags about what he is going to do, and tries hard to skeer the other man. The other says not a word. His arms are at his side, his fists are clenched, his teeth set, his head settled firmly on his shoulders; he saves his breath and strength for the struggle. This man will whip, just as sure as the fight comes off. remember what I say."

Good-bye, and

From that time the man who sat with Lincoln in

the hotel doorway and heard the prophecy from his unboastful friend never doubted that the victory would be with the speaker.

Nevertheless, Douglas was elected United States Senator. In the State Legislature were several senators holding over from a previous year. They were Democrats, although the districts from which they had been elected were now Republican. The dividing of the State into districts was also unfair to the party that supported Lincoln, so that Democratic votes counted for more in the Legislature than the same number of Republican votes. When the returns were all in, it was found that 126,048 had voted for Lincoln and 121,940 for Douglas. So, although Douglas was subsequently chosen Senator by the Legislature, Lincoln won the moral victory. All over the Republic it was felt that he had come off conqueror in the field of debate, had worsted the hitherto unconquerable Douglas, the "Little Giant," and had made for himself a name that should endure so long as men love liberty and regard justice. In one of the later speeches of this wonderful debate Lincoln said:

"I say to you, that in this mighty issue it is nothing to the mass of the people of the nation whether Judge Douglas or myself are or shall ever be heard of after this night. It may be a trifle to us, but, in connection with this mighty issue upon which, perhaps, hang the destinies of the nation, the United States senatorship is absolutely nothing."

During this debate, many points made by Lincoln were suggestive of his early training: his figures

of speech were almost always drawn from his personal experience in the backwoods, on the farm, or from his more recent studies in American history. To one who has followed the history of the man, an examination of these remarkable traces of Lincoln's mental habits and earlier pursuits is exceedingly interesting. For example, after he had been admitted to the bar, noticing the frequent use of the word "demonstrate," and feeling that a mathematical proposition, as demonstrated, was a good illustration of the power of truth, he manfully went at the study of Euclid, and, to use his own expression, "collared it" before he left it. In the debates with Douglas he was irritated with Douglas's constant iteration of the charge that he, Lincoln, had indorsed certain statements of Senator Trumbull's, that were, as Douglas said, untrue. Finally, Lincoln said:

"Why, sir, there is not a single statement in Trumbull's speech that depends on Trumbull's veracity. Why does not Judge Douglas answer the facts? If you

have studied geometry, you remember that by a course of reasoning Euclid proves that all the angles in a triangle are equal to two right angles. Euclid has shown how to work it out. Now, if you undertook to disprove that proposition, to prove that it was erroneous, would you do it by calling Euclid a liar? That is the way Judge Douglas answers Trumbull.”

CHAPTER XIV.

AFTER A GREAT STRUGGLE.

Condition of the Two Contestants-The Crocodile and the NegroDouglas in the South-Lincoln Nominated by Illinois Republicans-The Rail-Splitting Candidate-Some Pithy Sayings-Lincoln Speaks in New York-The Man from Illinois.

THE

'HE election was over, and the two champions were left in a condition that varied with each. It had been a long and exhaustive struggle, but it was observed of Lincoln that, though weary, he appeared more like an athlete just entering a struggle, not just coming out of one. His sinewy form was as erect and elastic as ever, his eye was bright, and his face, though naturally sallow, was lighted with animation. Here his early training and abstemious habits stood him in good stead. He had "never applied hot and rebellious liquors to his blood," and in this time of sore trial he came out unscathed. The hundred days of a tense and exciting canvass left no mark on him. Douglas, on the other hand, was badly shattered; his voice was almost gone, and he scarcely spoke above a whisper. He showed great fatigue, and he sought rest and repose as soon as he could get away from his friends. But Douglas, too, had an iron constitution, and he soon rallied his physical forces, and was himself again after a few days of rest. Later on, he went through several of

the Southern States, descending towards the Gulf of Mexico by the Mississippi River. At various points down the stream he was received with acclaim, and his speeches manifested his desire to recover with the slave-owning people of the South whatever he might have lost in the debate on the free soil of Illinois. He said at Memphis, Tenn., for example, that wherever the climate and soil of a State or Territory made it for the interest of the people to encourage slave labor, there they would have a slave code. At that time, the Buchanan administration cherished, among other darling plans for the acquisition of more slave territory, one for the purchase of Cuba. Douglas said that this was necessary. In New Orleans, he said that wherever a race showed itself incapable of self-government, the stronger race must govern it; and that the negro was of such a race. Indeed, his speeches were all designed to strengthen himself with men who believed that slavery was right, just, and needful to the white race.

It was during this brief tour that Douglas made use of the famous "crocodile figure of speech, Douglas said: "As

afterwards taken up by Lincoln.

between the crocodile and the negro, I take the side of the negro; but, as between the negro and the white man, I would go for the white man, every time." Lincoln, at home, noted that; and afterwards, when he had occasion to refer to the remark, he said:

"I believe that this is a sort of proposition in proportion, which may be stated thus: 'As the negro is to the white man, so is the crocodile to the negro; and as the negro

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