then, should he be expelled, read out, denounced, because he, like those Senators, thought for himself on an Administration measure? The effect was electric, and was greatly indebted to the manner of the Senator. He grew in enthusiasm with the progress of his subject; and up to the last sentence, in which he gracefully prayed the indulgence of the Senate to overlook the style of his argument, as his recent illness prevented it being more perfect and satisfactory to himself-up to the last word-the mass of people who heard him were not only patient, but delighted. It really was a study to behold the Administration leaders.

The great contest with Abraham Lincoln, on which his seat in the Senate depended, next took place. In Illinois, in addition to the acknowledged ability of Mr. Lincoln, Douglas had the power of the Administration and the organization of Government officials, which vindictively followed him, to encounter and overwhelm. It was an intensely exciting, hard fought* and interesting canvass. It resulted in re-electing Douglas to the Senate and electing Lincoln to the Presidency; for the Republicans having made Lincoln their standard-bearer in a contest with the great Democratic leader, brought his name prominently before the whole country. To have met Douglas at such a time was in itself reputation, and the Illinois contest was but extended to the Republic, when his friends nominated the defeated Senatorial candidate for the higher office of President.

The hatred of the Administration to Douglas was used. most effectively by the conspirators, who beheld in the latter

In illustration of the arduous nature of the canvass, Judge Douglas himself told me that in four months he made one hundred and thirty speeches, all save three of which were in the open air. He spent most of the time in railroad cars and carriages, on an average going to bed but three times a week. Once during the canvass he was five days and nights without having his clothes off or going to bed. I have heard these details corroborated many times by persons who accompanied Douglas during the exciting period.

their most powerful enemy. The designs of both culminated in the disruption of the Charleston-Baltimore Convention, the secession of the chief Southern delegates from which but indicated the secession of the States from the Union a few months later. After a wonderful canvass, in which the whole question of Union vs. Disunion was elicited and discussed, Mr. Lincoln was elected President, and the action of South Carolina precipitated the Rebellion. Douglas, like many others, at first had hopes that legislative action might avert war, but threw overboard all party feeling when the Southern leaders fully developed their plans. That he fully grasped both the terrors and duties of the occasion is shown by a conversation held on the 1st January, 1861, with Gen. C. B. Stewart of New York, who made a note of it. In reply to a query as to the results of the efforts of Davis and his associates to divide the Union, Douglas said:

"The Cotton States are making an effort to draw in the Border States to their scheme of secession, and I am too fearful they will succeed. If they do succeed there will be the most remarkable civil war the world has ever seen, lasting for years. Virginia will become a charnel-house; but the end will be the triumph of the Union cause. One of their first efforts will be to take possession of the Capitol, to give prestige abroad; but they will never succeed in taking it; the North will rise en masse to defend it; but it will become a city of hospitals; the churches will be used for the sick and wounded, and even the Minnesota block (now the Douglas Hospital) may be devoted to that purpose before the end of the war."

His visitor asked, "What justification is there for all this?" Douglas replied:

"There is no justification, nor any pretense of any. If they will remain in the Union I will go as far as the Constitution will permit to maintain their just rights, and I do not doubt but a majority of Congress will do the same. But," said he, rising on his feet and extending his arm, "if the Southern States attempt to secede from the Union without further cause, I am in favor of their having just so many slaves and just so much slave territory as they can hold at the point of the bayonet, and no more."

Even in minute details the indications here made were prophetic. After the fall of Fort Sumter, when Washington city was profoundly agitated, and the action of the Government looked to with feelings which cannot be described, the position of Douglas naturally created the widest anxiety and much discussion. At the solicitation of the Hon. George Ashmun, he visited President Lincoln at this gloomy hour of our national life, and cheered him with the characteristic intelligence and patriotism of his brave nature. Mr. Ashmun sketches the occasion with suggestive brevity: "It was almost dark when we started for the President's House. We fortunately found Mr. Lincoln alone, and upon my stating the errand on which we had come, he was most cordial in his welcome, and immediately prepared the way for the conversation which followed, by taking from his drawer and reading to us the draft of the proclamation which he had decided to issue, and which was given to the country the next morning.* As soon as the reading ended, Mr. Douglas rose from his chair and said: 'Mr. President, I cordially concur in every word of that document, except that instead of a call for seventy-five thousand men I would make it two hundred thousand. You do not know the dishonest purposes of those men (the rebels) as well as I do.' And he then asked us to look with him at the map which hung at one end of the President's room, where, in much detail, he pointed out the principal strategic points which should be at once strengthened for the coming contest. Among the most prominent were Fortress Monroe, Washington, Harper's Ferry, and Cairo. He enlarged at length upon the firm, warlike footing which ought to be pursued, and found in Mr. Lincoln an earnest and gratified listener. It would be impossible to give in detail all the points presented by him, and discussed with the President; but I venture to say that no two men in the United States parted that night with a

*The first proclamation, dated 15th April, 1861.

more cordial feeling of a united, friendly, and patriotic purpose than Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas."

The last letter written by Douglas* impressed on his friends their duty to the country, irrespective of the Administration that might be in power. The support of the Government was not a party question, but one of country or no country. He was not the apologist of the errors of the Lincoln Administration, but said he, and the words ought to be inscribed on his monument, "I trust the time will never come when I shall not be willing to make any needful sacrifice of personal feeling and party policy for the honor and integrity of my country." Douglas died when the whole loyal people had learned to love and to deeply rely upon him.

Douglas and Crittenden, great, independent and courageous statesmen, passed away after having proved that their influence for good expanded in potency the more violent the ordeal through which their patriotism was compelled. Fortunately the third of the trio of loyal Senators, pre-eminently distinguished by experience and ability, survived, and still survives to give his country the benefit of both. Before William H. Seward entered the Senate of the United States he had a career sufficient to sustain an enduring reputation. From his youth he had been conspicuous for independence of thought in action. As early as 1820, during the discussion which arose on the "Missouri question," and while yet under age, Mr. Seward began to discover, as he thought, an undue subserviency in the dominant party to Slavery, its interests and power. All the resources which great knowledge and continuous research have placed at his disposal since, but confirmed and extended those views, until his effect on public opinion is read in the results which surround us to-day in a regenerated Republic. As a lawyer, Mr. Seward eminently distinguished himself, his industry strengthening a peculiarly bold and original mind. Few *To Virgil Hickox, Chairman Illinois State Committee.

lawyers could risk the declaration which Seward solemnly made in the famous Freeman case in 1846, "that before God and man, there was no single word which he had ever uttered in any court of justice which he would wish recalled." As Governor of New York, his administration was fraught with importance, and many leading minds regard it as having been more influential in shaping the political issues which have since grown up in the country than any event of the last thirty years. When he assumed office, at the age of thirty-seven-having defeated the veteran Marcy by more than ten thousand majority-a great monetary pressure, immense undertakings just assumed by the State in the enlargement and extension of the public works, crowds of applicants for office, always disagreeably numerous, but largely increased by the revulsion of trade, met him, and were sufficient to task a much older statesman. Brains, however, are equal to experience, and energy is the true test of usefulness whether in old or young. Governor Seward succeeded. Education, internal improvements, agriculture, the establishment and improvement of asylums, reforms in the courts, in the banking-laws and the militia system, the entire extinguishment of laws for imprisonment for debt, the settlement of the Anti-Rent troubles, the extension of political franchises to all classes of people, the encouragement of foreign emigration, and the repeal of several lingering statutes favoring slavery, as well as the enactment of new ones in opposition to it, were all subjects of attention.

During his Administration an important controversy arose between Governor Seward and the Governors of Virginia and Georgia. From both of these States it was alleged that slaves had been abducted by colored seamen belonging to New York, and carried to free States and set at liberty. The sailors charged with this offense against the laws of Virginia and Georgia were demanded of Governor Seward on requisitions issued by the Executives of those States.