“Certainly,” said Mr. Douglas.
“Suppose, Jedge, there was a new town or colony just started in some Western territory; and suppose there were precisely 100 householders—voters—there; and suppose, Jedge, that ninety-nine did not want slavery and one did. What would be done about it?”
Judge Douglas beat about the bush, but failed to give a direct answer.
“No, no, Jedge, that won’t do. Tell us plainly what will be done about it?”
Again Douglas tried to evade, but Lincoln would not be put off, and he insisted that a direct answer should be given. At last Douglas admitted that the majority would have their way by some means or other.
Mr. Lincoln said no more. He had secured what he wanted. Douglas had answered the question as Illinois people would have answered it, and he got the Senatorship. But that answer was not satisfactory to the people of the south. In 1860 the Charleston convention split in two factions and “it lost him the Presidency,” and it made Abraham Lincoln President.
LINCOLN’S FAIRNESS IN DEBATE.
The first time I met Mr. Lincoln was during his contest with Douglas. I was a young clergyman in a small Illinois country town. I was almost a stranger there when Lincoln was announced to make a speech. I went to the hall, got a seat well forward and asked a neighbor to point out Mr. Lincoln when he came in. “You won’t have no trouble knowin’ him when he comes,” said my friend, and I didn’t. Soon a tall, gaunt man came down the aisle and was greeted with hearty applause.
I was specially impressed with the fairness and honesty of the man. He began by stating Douglas’ points as fully and fairly as Douglas could have done. It struck me that he even overdid it in his anxiety to put his opponent’s argument in the most attractive form. But then he went at those arguments and answered them so convincingly that there was nothing more to be said.