large crowds that went from Iowa to attend the debates at Freeport, Galesburg and Quincy, to hear Douglas at Galena and Rock Island and Lincoln at Augusta and Carthage, not a few going from towns 20 and 40 miles west of the river as Fairfield, Mt. Pleasant and Keosauqua, indicate a keen popular interest. Some of the Republican politicians speedily discerned the practical usefulness of the points scored in Illinois and pressed them home upon their opponents in their bouts on the hustings. Thus at Vinton, Aug. 9, the editor of The Eagle, Mr. Thomas Drummond, harried Judge W. E. Leffingwell, the Democratic candidate for Congress, with "a series of questions which had been first propounded to Judge Douglas at Bloomington to which Mr. Drummond added several of his own.' 991 The effect of the debates upon opinion regarding the Presidential succession, while ultimately very important, was but vaguely apparent during their progress and immediately following. General Cyrus Bussey, a Marylander by stock, was then a resident of Bloomfield in Davis county. He was an admirer and staunch supporter of Stephen A. Douglas and followed the debates in Illinois with lively interest. He informs me that generally throughout southeastern Iowa the Democrats, while they scoffed at Lincoln for his temerity in venturing to break lances with the "Little Giant," and tried to make themselves believe that he was some sort of a cross between a buffoon and a monster, "half-horse-and-half-alligator" who advocated Amalgamation and "Equality with the nigger" nevertheless felt "in their bones" that the Sangamon lawyer got the better of their doughty champion. They felt, too, that notwithstanding Douglas' nominal success his opponent emerged from the contest the larger man, both intellectually and morally and they were conscious of the fact that if Douglas was of Presidential size then Lincoln must be likewise and the later suggestion of Lincoln for the Presidency did not seem illogical or strange, although as a matter of 1 Dubuque Express and Herald, Aug. 17, 1858-Editorial Correspondence from Vinton. Mr, Drummond's interrogatories are set out at length in The Eagle, Aug. 7, 1858. political form they "hooted" at the Rail-Splitter as a fit man for the highest office in the land.1 Two of Iowa's leading lawyers heard the two champions in debate and were so much impressed by the intellectual prowess of Lincoln that they instinctively felt that he was a man of Presidential proportions and so expressed themselves at the time. Mr. Austin Adams of Dubuque, later Chief Justice of Iowa, attended the debate at Freeport and he is quoted as saying: "I have just heard the greatest man I ever listened to; he ought to be President."2 Mr. Henry Strong, then one of the rising young lawyers of Keokuk, heard the debaters in September. He wrote his college classmate, Manton Marble, then associate editor of The Boston Journal: "I have just heard the next President of the United Statesmark my prediction, Manton." He writes me that the substance of his letter was published by his friend.* 3 The discussion of Presidential possibilities came on apace in the latter months of 1858. The effect of the debates in Illinois and of the "mighty clap of thunder" resulting from Seward's speech at Rochester are manifest. As was the case two years before The New York Herald lead off; but a new name was on its pennant. Douglas' answers at Freeport produced an upset; on September 15 it averred that by them he had "proclaimed himself an advocate of the higher law doctrine." On the 23d it declared the nomination of Winfield Scott, "a necessity for the Opposition." A week later it appeals to the Opposition not to imitate the Democrats and "go off in petty squads under the lead of Seward, Crittenden, Banks and fifty others. . . Scott or annihilation is their only choice." Its insistence upon the hero of Lundy Lane was earnest indeed. Seward's Rochester speech, however, produced such a violent shock to the Herald's sensibilities. 1 Interview with the writer, October 8, 1907. 2 Gue, History of Iowa, Vol. IV, p. 2. Mr. Gue, or the author of the biographical sketch from which the above is taken, states that Mr. Adams heard Lincoln and Douglas at Galena; Freeport must have been intended. 3 Mr. Strong's law partner in those days was Mr. John W. Noble, afterward Secretary of the Interior in President Harrison's cabinet. 4 Letter (MSS.) to the writer, June 4, 1907. 5 N. Y. Herald, Oct. 11, 13, 15, 19, 1858. that it entirely forgot General Scott and thenceforth devoted itself to denunciation of what for nearly two years it branded as Seward's "brutal and bloody" programme.1 Meanwhile the Republican press of Iowa was exceedingly unconcerned. I have not discovered a single reference to the Herald's advocacy of Scott for the Presidency. Seward's speech is "eloquent and truthful," according to Mr. Mahin :2 in Mr. Aldrich's judgment "it is a great speech" and he reprints it in seven and a half solid columns. None of the Republicans view the sentiments of Seward with alarm. The doctrine he enunciated apparently did not seem revolution ary. 3 There are but few signs of direct interest in the prospective Presidential nomination. On Nov. 11th Mr. Mahin has a three line editorial note, stating, "The New York Courier and Enquirer proposes Mr. Seward for the Republican candidate for the Presidency of 1860." He makes no comment, however. A week later he notices the zealous contention of the New York Herald, that "so far as the results of the late election from having improved the chances of either Seward or Douglas for the Presidency, that the great Agitator and the 'Little Giant' have thus been farther removed from the goal of their ambition than ever they were before." The design of the editor in such notes and comments, if other than recording items of passing interest, is not manifest. Both desire and opinion respecting the Presidency among the Republicans of Iowa at the close of 1858, it is clear, were incoherent, indefinite, vague. The consideration of candidates was not deemed urgent or wise because premature. The situation had become more definite, however. A figure was looming large in the political horizon. The entire country was becoming conscious of his remarkable strength and proportions and commanding influence. The political leaders for some time had had to reckon with Abraham Lincoln. The papers of the east no less than those of the west had ex 1 Ib. Oct. 30. 2 The Muscatine Journal, Nov. 4, 1858. tensively reported his speeches and quoted his pithy sayings. The votes he had received in 1856 for the nomination for the Vice-Presidency signified a much wider and more decided political acquaintance with Lincoln than most of our chroniclers have realized. Speaking at Litchfield, Maine, Mr. James G. Blaine, on June 28, 1856, referred to Lincoln's "reputation beyond the lines of his own state" gained by his acute discussions of Douglas' course in securing the repeal of the Missouri Compromise.1 Before the celebrated debates were arranged for Greeley said of the Springfield speech, which he printed entire in the Tribune (June 24); "We need not ask attention to this concise and admirable statement. Mr. Lincoln never fails to make a good speech if he makes any and this is one of his best efforts." Such language is not used of "an unknown." In July that year the Chicago editors were surprised to find the eastern press discussing and quoting his speeches. One finds that the editors of Iowa were likewise alive to the marked attention paid to Lincoln in the press of the eastern States. The Gate City (Aug. 30) cites the Louisville Journal, "the leading American paper of the country" which expresses admiration of Lincoln's "superior talents and noble nature" and bespeaks for him success; and also the St. Louis Evening News, "the leading American organ of Missouri" that endorses the sentiments of the Journal. The Hawk-eye (Oct. 8) reprints a letter written from Illinois to the Rochester (N. Y.) Democrat, recounting the striking differences in the speeches of Lincoln and Douglas to the advantage of the former. After the result of the election in Illinois was known and it was realized that by reason of an unfair apportionment Lincoln fell short of official success but won popular success one encounters frequent laudatory references to Douglas' opponent. Thus The Gate City quotes (Nov. 22) the Rochester Democrat: "Mr. Lincoln has won a reputation as a statesman and orator which eclipses that of Douglas as the sun does the twinklers of the sky. The speeches made during the Illinois campaign have 1 Blaine, Political Discussions, p. 4. 2 Nicolay & Hay-Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II, p. 176. been read with great interest throughout the country. On Nov. 30 Mr. Howell gives his readers the great Greeley's opinion of Lincoln's speeches: " they were of a very high order they were pungent without bitterness, powerful without harshness. The address at Springfield in which he opened the canvass is a model of compactness, lucidity and logic. As a condensed statement of the issues which divide the Republicans from the Democrats of our day, it has rarely, or never been exceeded." This high praise, it must be remembered, came from no willing witness-Greeley had strongly opposed the Republican opposition to Douglas. In the south meantime expressions much more significant were being made. The southern press and leaders were outspoken in their sentiments hostile to Douglas whose position at Freeport had shown the fatal weakness of their much prized doctrine of Popular Sovereignty. The intellectual acumen of his antagonist who had so succesfully forced its doughty champion to make his fatal admission was of necessity felt if not always formally recognized. Such recognition was constantly manifested by their joint condemnation, and the Iowa press was not unmindful of its significance. Thus Mr. Howell quotes (Nov. 27) from Jefferson Davis' speech to his constituents in Mississippi, when he said that he "considered Mr. Douglas' opinions as objectionable as those of his adversary, Mr. Lincoln."" Douglas himself continued to force the public to recognize the pre-eminent abilities of his great antagonist. He started upon his southern tour which he planned with a view to placating the hostile friends of the Administration in the south. His speeches at Memphis and New Orleans were little less than earnest pleas in mitigation of the Freeport answers and Lincoln was referred to directly by 1 See The Gate City, Nov. 29, 1858-Editorial on Senator Douglas in the South The Muscatine Journal on June 4 quoted the following from the Montgomery (Ala.) Mail of May 21 relative to the reception of Douglas in that city: "The Squatter Giant-S. A. Douglas, the great advocate of Squatter Sovereignty, arrived here yesterday, in the eastern train, and went down in the steamer in the afternoon. A few persons hunted him up to take a look at him as they would a grizzly bear, but there was no welcome. Why should there be, of the great assassin of the South?" |