as brought about by a transfer
of votes from one candidate to another in which the prompt and cunning
wire-puller had sometimes a magnificent opportunity for his skill. In
this particular contest there were many ballots, and Lincoln at first
led. His supporters were full of eager hope. Lincoln, looking on,
discerned before any of them the setting in of an under-current likely
to result in the election of a supporter of Douglas. He discerned,
too, that the surest way to prevent this was for the whole of his
friends immediately to go over to the Democrat, Lyman Trumbull, who was
a sound opponent of slavery. He sacrificed his own chance instantly by
persuading his supporters to do this. They were very reluctant, but he
overbore them; one, a very old friend, records that he never saw him
more earnest and decided. The same friend records, what is necessary
to the appreciation of Lincoln's conduct, that his personal
disappointment and mortification at his failure were great. Lincoln,
it will be remembered, had acted just in this way when he sought
election to the House of Representatives; he was to repeat this line of
conduct in a manner at least as striking in the following year. Minute
criticism of his action in many matters becomes pointless when we
observe that his managing shrewdness was never more signally displayed
than it was three times over in the sacrifice of his own personal
chances.

For four years, it is to be remembered, the activity and influence of
which we are speaking were of little importance beyond the boundaries
of Illinois. It is true that at the Republican Convention in 1856
which chose Fremont as its candidate for the Presidency, Lincoln was
exposed for a moment to the risk (for so it was to be regarded) of
being nominated for the Vice-Presidency; but even his greatest speech
was not noticed outside Illinois, and in the greater part of the
Northern States his name was known to comparatively few and to them
only as a local notability of the West. But in the course of 1858 he
challenged the attention of the whole country. There was again a
vacancy for a Senator for Illinois. Douglas was the sole and obvious
candidate of the Democrats. Lincoln came forward as his opponent. The
elections then pending of the State Legislature, which in its turn
would elect a Senator, became a contest between Lincoln and Douglas.
In the autumn of that year these rival champions held seven joint
debates befor