Turning his face, lighted with the fire of his own inspiration, to the speaker behind him, Lincoln calmly said: "I will. I will quit. I believe my time is up." -"Yes," said one on the platform, " Douglas has had enough. It is time you let him up.”

These debates attracted great and earnest attention all over the country. They were made the occasion of vast outpourings of the people of the State and of the neighboring region. The two men were always promptly on the field to fulfil their engagements; and they invariably found a tremendous concourse of people waiting to hear them. People rode long distances in farm-wagons; and companies of men from a distance camped for the night under the trees, patiently enduring fatigue and privation to hear the mighty truths discussed that so intimately concerned the national well-being. Never before in the history of the Republic had so good an opportunity come for teaching the common people the principles that underlie our free government.

The echo of the controversy penetrated every nook and corner of the Republic, until weary slaves on distant plantations heard the whisper of their coming freedom; for this was but a preparation of the larger struggle that was to come.

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. In the half-jocular, half-serious 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. Good-bye, and remember what I say."

Nevertheless, Douglas was elected United States Senator. On the other hand, all over the Republic it was felt that Lincoln had come off conqueror in the field of debate, had worsted the hitherto unconquerable Douglas, and had made for himself a name that should endure. 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."

In the debates with Douglas, Lincoln was irritated with Douglas's constant iteration of the charge that he, Lincoln, had endorsed 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."

THE

CHAPTER XIII

AFTER A GREAT STRUGGLE

HE election was over, and the two champions were left in a condition that varied with each. The hundred days of a tense and exciting canvass left no mark on Lincoln. 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.

It was during this brief tour that Douglas made use of the famous "crocodile" figure of speech, afterwards taken up by Lincoln. Douglas said: As 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 may rightfully treat the crocodile as a beast or reptile, so the white man may rightfully treat the negro as a beast or reptile.' Now, my brother Kentuckians, who believe in this, you ought to thank Judge Douglas for having put that in a much more taking way than any of yourselves have done."

Lincoln now resumed his practice of law, and to all appearances had given up thoughts of political preferment; but he did not conceal his regret at the failure of his party to carry the Legislature and secure his own election to the United States Senate. When asked by a friend how he felt when his defeat was assured by the returns of the election, he said, in his usual good-natured and jocose way, that he felt "like the boy who stubbed his toe, too badly to laugh, and too big to cry."

Lincoln's affability, perfect simplicity, good-nature, and homelike freedom of manner had by this time made him, as it were, an inmate of every household in the West. Everybody among those plain people recognized him as one of us," a man to be loved and admired, and not at a distance either. The LincolnDouglas debate, however, gave him a wider fame. The speeches had been so extensively read, and the joint canvass was in itself so unique an affair to Eastern people, that they all thought they knew now the two men who had figured on this national stage. Invitations came pouring upon Lincoln from all over the Northern States, seeking to secure his services in the battle being fought in each State. But during the winter of 1858-59, he devoted himself to his own private affairs.