Part 7 (1/2)

The first of these was delivered at the state Fair at Springfield

Douglas had spoken October 3d, 1854 Lincoln was present, and it was las, and was by all understood, that he would reply the following day, October 4th Douglas was, up to that time, not only the shrewdest politician in the country, but he was acknowledged to be the ablest debater He was particularly well prepared upon this subject, for to it he had given almost his entire tiress and out, and knew thoroughly the current objections The occasion was unusual, and this was to be, and doubtless it was, his greatest effort

The following day came Lincoln's reply As a matter of fairness, he said at the outset that he did not want to present anything but the truth If he said anything that was not true, he would be glad to have Douglas correct hie of this offer byfrequent interruptions, so as to break the effect of the logic and destroy the flow of thought Finally Lincoln's patience was exhausted, and he paused in his argument to say: ”Gentlemen, I cannot afford to spendthe truth las from the necessity of his impertinent corrections” This silenced his opponent, and he spoke without further interruption to the end, his speech being three hours and ten

The effect of the speech onderful The scene, as described next day in the Springfield _Journal_, is worth quoting:

”Lincoln quivered with feeling and emotion The whole house was as still as death He attacked the bill with unusual warth was its ene and manly efforts He was lorious triu-continued huzzas Mr Lincoln exhibited Douglas in all the attitudes he could be placed in a friendly debate He exhibited the bill in all its aspects to show its hus, cut into slips, 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 tra and repeated applause evinced the feelings of the crowd, and gave token, too, of the universal assent to Lincoln's whole argue to the man who took captive the heart and broke like a sun over the understanding”

The speech itself, and the las to a tempest of wrath It was a far e, as he had been in Chicago

He was handled as he had never been handled in his life He took the platforrily claimed that he had been abused, and started to reply But he did not get far He had no case He became confused, lost his self-control, hesitated, finally said that he would reply in the evening, and left the stage That was the end of the incident so far as Douglas was concerned When the evening came he had disappeared, and there was no reply

Twelve days later, on October 16, Lincoln had prolas followed, or preceded hilas made his speech in the afternoon, and Lincoln followed in the evening It was the saument as in the other speech Lincoln later consented to write it out for publication We thus have the Springfield and Peoria speech, _low of extemporaneous address, the inspiration of the orator These are important factors which not even the man himself could reproduce But we have his own report, which is therefore authentic The las's plausible representation that the people of any locality were coovern therant to Kansas and Nebraska is coovern any other person without that other person's consent” This is the kernel of the entire question of human slavery

The result of this speech at Peoria was less drafield, but it was no less instructive Douglas secured froain speak during that can It was quite evident that he had learned to fear his antagonist and did not wish again to risk reeo, he stopped off to make another speech

These speeches were made in 1854 It is noorth while to skip over two years to record another epoch-s here For it shows to what intensity Lincoln was aroused on this vast and ever-encroaching subject of slavery This was at the convention which was held in Bloo the Republican party The date of the convention was May 29, 1856 The center of interest was Lincoln's speech The reporters were there in sufficient force, and ould surely have had a verbati The reporters did not report Let Joseph Medill, of the Chicago _Tribune_, tell why:

”It was ate to the convention, to -hand' report of the speeches delivered for the Chicago _Tribune_ I did ht or ten netic oratory, that I forgot myself and ceased to take notes, and joined with the convention in cheering and sta to the end of his speech

I well remember that after Lincoln had sat down and calm had succeeded the tempest, I waked out of a sort of hypnotic trance, and then thought ofwritten but an abbreviated introduction

It was some sort of satisfaction to find that I had not been 'scooped,'

as all the newspaper men present had been equally carried away by the excitement caused by the wonderful oration, and had made no report or sketch of the speech”

Mr Herndon, as Lincoln's law partner, and who knew hiht be trusted to keep his coolness during the enthusias notes for him, because he was his partner, said: ”I attempted for about fifteen minutes, as was usual with me then, to take notes, but at the end of that time I threw pen and paper away and lived only in the inspiration of the hour”

There is no doubt that the audience was generally, if not unanimously, affected in the same way The hearers went home and told about this wonderful speech Journalists wrote fla editorials about it The fame of it went everywhere, but there was no report of it It therefore came to be known as ”Lincoln's lost speech”

Precisely forty years afterwards one H C Whitney published in one of the azines an account of it He says that he made notes of the speech, went home and wrote them out Why he withheld this report froeneral demand for it, does not precisely appear The report, however, is interesting

But after the lapse of nearly half a century, it is a matter of minor importance whether Mr Whitney's report be accurate or not To us the value of the three speeches ely in the iether show that Lincoln had waked to a new life The lion in hihly roused, he was clothed with a tremendous pohich up to this point had not been suspected by antagonists nor dreahty power he held and wielded until his life's end Thenceforth he was an important factor in national history

CHAPTER XIII

TWO THINGS THAT LINCOLN MISSED

Lincoln's intimate friends have noted that he seemed to be under the impression that he was a man of destiny This phrase was a favorite with Napoleon, who often used it of himself But the two men were so widely different in character and career, that it is with reluctance that one joins their names even for the er to sacrifice the whole of Europe to satisfy the claims of his personal ambition; Lincoln was always ready to stand aside and sacrifice himself for the country The one was selfishness incarnate; the other was a noble example of a man who never hesitated to subordinate his oelfare to the general good, and whose career came to its climax in his martyrdom Whether the presidency was or was not, Lincoln's destiny, it was certainly his destination Had anything occurred to thrust him one side in this career, it would have prevented his complete development, and would have been an irreparable calamity to his country and to the world

Twice in his life he earnestly desired certain offices and failed to get them Had he succeeded in either case, it is not at all probable that he would ever have becoe that he ress he was, in a measure, out of employment

Political life is like to destroy one's taste for the legitimate practise of the law, as well as to scatter one's clients Lincoln was not a candidate for reelection Upon the election of General Taylor it was generally understood that the democrats would be turned out of office and their places supplied by whigs The office of Land Coo to Illinois At the solicitation of friends he applied for it, but so fearful was he that he ht stand in the way of others, or ie his application until too late The President offered hion, which he declined Had he been successful in his application, it would have kept him permanently out of the study and practise of the law It would have kept his residence in Washi+ngton so that it would not have been possible for hihbors So far as concerned his illustrious career, it would have side-tracked hilad that he had failed in this, his first and only application for a governain missed an office to which he aspired