1

(Colonel) Bissell who stood for the honor of our State alike on the plains and amidst the chaparral of Mexico and on the floor of Congress, while he defied the Southern Hotspur; and that will have a greater moral effect than all the border ruffians can accomplish in all their raids on Kansas. There is both a power and a magic in popular opinion. To that let us now appeal; and while, in all probability, no resort to force will be needed, our moderation and forbearance will stand us in good stead when, if ever, WE MUST MAKE AN APPEAL TO BATTLE AND TO THE GOD OF HOSTS!! [Immense applause and a rush for the orator.]

LINCOLN'S DEFINITION OF DEMOCRACY

[August 1?], 1858

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.

A. LINCOLN

1 Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, who challenged Bissell to a duel when both men were members of the House of Representatives. "In accepting the challenge Mr. Bissell chose as the weapons muskets, at thirty paces, whereupon the friends of Mr. Davis interfered."

THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES

From Lincoln's reëntrance into politics in 1854 he and Douglas were antagonists. Such speeches as he made from 1854 to 1857 were made in opposition to measures which Douglas had initiated or supported, the Peoria speech of 1854, the Springfield speech of the same year, the Bloomington speech, the speeches at Springfield in 1857, and in 1856 and 1857 many others which have not been preserved, delivered throughout the state.

When the Senatorial campaign began in 1858, Lincoln and Douglas were rival candidates. At Springfield, June 17, the day of his nomination, Lincoln made a remarkable address beginning with the statement, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." His argument was that the Union must become either all slave or all free, and that, when taken together, the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, with its repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the decision in the Dred Scott case, and the affair of the Lecompton Constitution, pointed to a conspiracy to legislate slavery into all the United States. This speech gave the keynote for the campaign. In later speeches which Lincoln made at Chicago and Springfield, and in speeches made by Douglas at Chicago, Bloomington, and Springfield, the two men were attacking each other vigorously. Finally, at the end of July, Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of joint debates. Douglas accepted. The debates were held in different counties throughout the states as follows: (1) at Ottawa, August 21; (2) at Freeport, August 27; (3) at Jonesboro, September 15; (4) at Charleston, September 18; (5) at Galesburgh, October 7; (6) at Quincy, October 13; and (7) at Alton, October 15. The arrangement was that one candidate should speak for an hour, the second for an hour and a half, and the first again for a half hour, Douglas seeing to it that he should have the advantage of opening and closing in four of the seven debates.

A graphic picture of the typical scene at these debates is given in Miss Tarbell's Life of Lincoln, II, 106:

"On arrival at the towns where the joint debates were held, Douglas was always met by a brass band and a salute of thirtytwo guns (the Union was composed of thirty-two States in 1858), and was escorted to the hotel in the finest equipage to be had.

Lincoln's supporters took delight in showing their contempt of Douglas's elegance by affecting a Republican simplicity, often carrying their candidate through the streets on a high and unadorned hay-rack drawn by farm horses. The scenes in the towns on the occasion of the debates were perhaps never equalled at any of the hustings of this country. No distance seemed too great for the people to go; no vehicle too slow or fatiguing. At Charleston there was a great delegation of men, women, and children present which had come in a long procession from Indiana by farm wagons, afoot, on horseback, and in carriages. The crowds at three or four of the debates were for that day immense. There were estimated to be from eight thousand to fourteen thousand people at Quincy, some six thousand at Alton, from ten thousand to fifteen thousand at Charleston, some twenty thousand at Ottawa.

"When the crowd was massed at the place of debate, the scene was one of the greatest hubbub and confusion. On the corners of the squares, and scattered around the outskirts of the crowd, were fakirs of every description, selling pain-killers and ague cures, watermelons and lemonade; jugglers and beggars plied their trades, and the brass bands of all the four corners within twenty-five miles tooted and pounded at ‘Hail Columbia, Happy Land,' or 'Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean.''

The subject matter of these debates was roughly as follows:

I. Arguments of political principle

A. Is slavery right or wrong?

B. Should the negroes have social and political equality with the whites?

C. Are slavery and union incompatible?

II. Arguments upon the history of slavery

A. What was the intention of the fathers in regard to slavery?

B. What were the nature and purpose of "popular sovereignty," and what would be its effect?

III. An argument concerning present and future policy in regard to slavery

A. Did current legislation indicate a conspiracy to extend slavery into the whole United States?