plausible and overbearing Senator from Illinois. The day came, and, amidst an excitement that only those who witnessed this great conflict between the two intellectual giants of the West can fully understand, Douglas began his defence. He was the Democratic leader of the West, the acknowledged head of his party in the North, and this was to be his supreme effort. Douglas's statement that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was made in the interest of the whole people and not in the interest of slavery was ingenious, plausible, and as effective as it could have been in the hands of any living man. That the attempt was vain was owing to the immovable fact that the repeal did open to slavery Territories that had been closed against it.

On the next day Lincoln replied to Douglas. All accounts agree in saying that his was a wonderful and a memorable speech. With his customary fairness, he said that he did not wish to present anything but the truth, and that if Mr. Douglas, who was present, should detect him in making any error, he would be glad to be corrected on the spot. Douglas used this opportunity to interrupt Lincoln frequently and to ask him impertinent questions. Finally Lincoln lost patience, and said: "Gentlemen, I cannot afford to spend my time in quibbles. I take the responsibility of asserting the truth myself, relieving Judge Douglas from the necessity of his impertinent corrections."

At last the lion had been roused. Stung by the pretended contempt, as well as by the dishonest course of Douglas towards him, Lincoln rose to the occasion and spoke as he never spoke before.

"Lincoln quivered with feeling and emotion. The whole house was as still as death. He attacked the

bill with unusual warmth and energy. All felt that a man of strength was its enemy, and that he meant to blast it, if he could, by strong and manly efforts. He was most successful; and the house approved the glorious triumph of truth by loud and long-continued huzzas. Women waved their white handkerchiefs in token of woman's silent but heartfelt consent.

Mr. Lincoln exhibited Douglas in all the attitudes in which he could be placed in a friendly debate. He exhibited the bill in all its aspects to show its humbuggery and falsehoods, and when it was thus torn to rags, cut into slips, and held up to the gaze of the vast crowd, a kind of scorn was visible upon the face of the crowd, and upon the lips of the most eloquent speaker. At the conclusion of the speech, every man felt that it was unanswerable-that no human power could overthrow it or trample it under foot. The long and repeated applause evinced the feelings of the crowd, and gave token, too, of the universal assent to Lincoln's whole argument; and every mind present did homage to the man who took captive the heart, and broke like a sun over the understanding.'

It was in the course of this famous address that Lincoln uttered a pithy saying which has since been identified with his name. Douglas dwelt long and ingeniously on his favorite doctrine that the right to introduce human slavery into a Territory or community, by vote of the people, was acknowledgment of the right of popular sovereignty. He insisted that it was an insult to the emigrants to Kansas and Nebraska to intimate that they were not able to govern themselves, voting slavery in, or out, as they chose. Replying to this Lincoln said: I admit that the emiThe Springfield Journal of the following day.

grant to Kansas and Nebraska is competent to govern himself; but "—and here the speaker rose to his full and towering height-"I deny his right to govern any other person without that person's consent."

At the close of Lincoln's speech Douglas felt that he was crushed. Excited, angry, and with lowering brows, he took the platform and said that he had been abused. Then, as if seeing that the vast audience before him would detect the misstatement, for they had paid close attention to all that had been said, he added, "but in a perfectly courteous manner.” He then attempted to make some reply to Lincoln's masterly and unanswerable speech. He faltered, then plucked up enough bravado to say that he would continue his address in the evening. When evening came, Douglas was not there, and the remarks promised were never made.

Lincoln had agreed to speak in Peoria, Illinois, on Monday, October 16th. Thither Douglas followed him, as if determined to see his own annihilation. Douglas spoke for three hours in the afternoon, and Lincoln followed in the evening, speaking three hours also. The result was the same as at Springfield. Lincoln's speech was materially different, but it was, as subsequently written out by him, more skilful and elaborate in its treatment of the great question.

At the close of this speech, Douglas said to Lincoln : 'You understand this question of prohibiting slavery in the Territories better than all the opposition in the Senate of the United States. I cannot make anything by debating it with you. You, Lincoln, have, here and at Springfield, given me more trouble than all the opposition in the Senate combined." He then appealed to Lincoln's magnanimity to agree that there should

be no more joint discussions. To this Lincoln assented, and both withdrew for the time being.

The Legislature elected that year was to choose a successor to James Shields, then a Senator from Illinois, a Democratic colleague with Douglas. This was the same Shields who, some years before, had proposed to fight a duel with Lincoln. He was a candidate for re-election, but Lincoln's bout with Douglas, and the fierce excitement that swept the country, had endangered his chances. It is not certain, perhaps, whether the friendship of Douglas or the opposition of Lincoln was the more destructive of Shields's chances for a renewal of his term in the Senate. In the various elements in the Legislature, there was a clear majority of two against any man that had Douglas's advocacy. Lincoln led the opposition, and, by general consent, was selected as a candidate against Shields. When the Legislature came together, the anti-Douglas men were not united. Lyman Trumbull, an able lawyer and an accomplished debater, was one of the candidates of the opponents of Douglas men; Lincoln was the other. Repeated ballotings produced no result, until Joel A. Matteson, Democrat, had been substituted for Shields, whereupon Lincoln relinquished all his chances, and implored his friends, who were many and steadfast, to leave him and vote for Trumbull, rather than endanger the cause in which they were all so deeply concerned. This generous concession solidified the jarring elements of the new party and made its after-successes possible.

7

CHAPTER XI

THE KANSAS STRUGGLE

EANWHILE, immigrants from free States and

ΜΕ

slave States were pouring into Kansas. In spite of the incursions of the pro-slavery men, the hardy immigrants from Iowa, northern Illinois, and New England were clearly in the majority. The free-State men were, indeed, actual settlers. They took up land, planted crops, and built log cabins for their families, evidently intending to stay. The borderers, on the other hand, were rough-riders, sportsmen, gamblers. They spent their time in drinking, shooting, scouring the country for prey, and terrifying helpless women and children.

men.

Under the lead of the notorious "Dave" Atchison, of Missouri, a Senator of the United States, secret societies, known as "Blue Lodges," were formed for the purpose of ridding the country of the hated free-State Steamers bound up the Missouri River, laden with free-State immigrants and their movable property, were stopped by these ruffians, who swarmed on board, drove off the immigrants, put their cattle and goods ashore, and compelled the officers of the steamers, who were only too willing to be an unresisting party to this outrage, to go on and leave their passengers behind.

The border ruffians had on their side the influence of the United States officials, the Missouri State gov