"Yes," said Mr. Lincoln. "And I have won the place he was playing for."
Douglas was the regular Democratic candidate for President against Lincoln in 1860, but was opposed by the Southern faction. At Lincoln's inauguration he appeared with his usual dignity, and stood beside his rival upon the platform. As a member of the Senate he criticised Lincoln's policy until hostilities actually broke out, when his patriotism overcame his partisanship and he became an earnest supporter of the government. On the evening of April 14, the day of the fall of Sumter, he called at the White House by appointment and spent two hours alone with the President. Neither ever revealed what occurred at the interview, but it was not necessary. From that hour until his death on June 3 following he stood by Lincoln's side in defence of the Union. His last public utterance was a patriotic speech before the Legislature on April 25, urging the people of Illinois to stand by the flag. His last interview with Lincoln occurred a few days previous.
"Douglas came rushing in," said the President afterwards, "and said he had just got a telegraph message from some friends in Illinois urging him to come out and help set things right in Egypt, and that he would go or stay in Washington, just where I thought he could do the most good. I told him to do as he chose, but that he would probably do best in Illinois. Upon that he shook hands with me and hurried away to catch the next train. I never saw him again."
The country at large had watched the debate between Lincoln and Douglas with profound interest, and thinking men of both parties realized that a new leader as well as a great orator and statesman had appeared upon the horizon. Lincoln was overwhelmed with congratulations and invitations came from every direction to make speeches and deliver lectures, but most of them were declined. He spoke twice in Ohio, at Columbus and at Cincinnati, where he excited great enthusiasm and left so deep an impression that the State Committee published his speeches and the debate with Douglas as a campaign document. In December he went to Kansas and delivered five lectures, and in the spring of 1860 he received an invitation from a young men's association in Brooklyn to deliver a lecture in Plymouth Church, of which Henry Ward Beecher was then pastor. They offered a fee of two hundred dollars which was very acceptable because his practice had been sadly neglected and he was feeling very poor. At the same time his natural diffidence made him reluctant to appear before an Eastern audience, and when he arrived in New York and discovered that he was to speak in Cooper Institute instead of in Brooklyn, he was fearful that he had made a mistake. Henry C. Bowen invited him to be his guest in Brooklyn, but he declined, saying that he was afraid his lecture would not be a success and he must give his whole time to revising it. He was afraid his audience would be disappointed and the young men who had kindly invited him would suffer financially.
Copyright, 1896, by S. S. McClure Co.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN 1861
Copied from the original in the possession of Frank A. Brown, Esq., Minneapolis, Minnesota
This was perhaps the first time Lincoln ever misjudged his situation. His intuitions as well as his reasoning powers were usually very accurate, but in this case they were far out of the way, for when he arrived at Cooper Institute he was amazed to find the immense hall crowded with the representatives of the culture, commerce, finance, and industry of the metropolis. It was a notable audience in many respects. He was escorted to the platform by Horace Greeley and David Dudley Field, and introduced by William Cullen Bryant. Every man of importance in New York City was present, many of them, no doubt, attracted by curiosity to see and hear the homely lawyer from the prairies of whom they had read in the newspapers. But he captivated his audience from the start. Every hearer was impressed not only with his convincing arguments, but with his dignity and eloquence.
Lincoln began his address in a low monotone, and was evidently embarrassed, but the respectful attention with which he was heard gave him confidence, his tones rose in strength and gained in clearness, and his awkward manner disappeared, as it always did when his consciousness was lost in the earnest presentation of his thoughts. His style was so simple, his language so unstudied and terse, his illustration so quaint and apt, his reasoning so concise and compact that his critics asked themselves and one another, as Henry M. Field says, "What manner of man is this lawyer from the West who has set forth these truths as we have never heard them before?" Lincoln made no effort at display. He estimated the intelligence of his hearers accurately, and introduced neither anecdote nor witticism, nor is there a figure of speech or a poetic fancy in the first half of his oration. There was no more sentiment than he would have introduced in a legal argument before the Supreme Court, but he nevertheless arrested and held the attention of his hearers, and they gave abundant testimony that they recognized him as a master. No man ever made a more profound impression upon an American audience. His speech was published in full in four of the morning papers and extracts were copied widely throughout the country.