or himself marked out a path
of duty, and he walked in it fearlessly. His mental processes were
slower but more profound than those of Douglas. He did not seek
to say merely the thing which was best for that day's debate, but
the thing which would stand the test of time and square itself with
eternal justice. He wished nothing to appear white unless it was
white. His logic was severe and faultless. He did not resort to
fallacy, and could detect it in his opponent, and expose it with
merciless directness. He had an abounding sense of humor, and
always employed it in illustration of his argument,--never for the
mere sake of provoking merriment. In this respect he had the
wonderful aptness of Franklin. He often taught a great truth with
the felicitous brevity of an AEsop fable. His words did not flow
in an impetuous torrent as did those of Douglas, but they were
always well chosen, deliberate, and conclusive.

Thus fitted for the contest, these men proceeded to a discussion
which at the time was so interesting so as to enchain the attention
of the nation,--in its immediate effect so striking as to affect
the organization of parties, in its subsequent effect so powerful
as to change the fate of millions. Mr. Lincoln had opened his own
canvass by a carefully prepared speech in which, after quoting the
maxim that a house divided against itself cannot stand, he uttered
these weighty words: "I believe this government cannot endure
permanently half slave, half free. I do not expect the Union to
be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect
it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all
the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the farther
spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the
belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its
advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful
in all the States, old as well as new, north as well as south."

Mr. Lincoln had been warned by intimate friends to whom he had
communicated the contents of his speech, in advance of its delivery,
that he was treading on dangerous ground, that he would be
misrepresented as a disunionist, and that he might fatally damage
the Republican party by making its existence synonymous with a
destruction of the government. But he was persistent. It was
borne into his mind that he was announcing a great truth, and that
he would be wronging his own