His first words in the
campaign had made a stir, but the rest of his speeches in these long
debates could not be much noticed at a distance. Douglas had won, and
the presumption was that he had proved himself the better man. Lincoln
had performed what, apart from results, was a work of intellectual
merit beyond the compass of any American statesman since Hamilton;
moreover, as can now be seen, there had been great results; for, first,
the young Republican party had not capitulated and collapsed, and,
then, the great Democratic party, established in power, in
indifference, and in complicity with wrong, was split clean in two.
But these were not results that could be read yet awhile in election
figures. Meanwhile the exhausted Lincoln reconciled himself for the
moment to failure. As a private man he was thoroughly content that he
could soon work off his debt for his election expenses, could earn
about 500 pounds a year, and be secure in the possession of the little
house and the 2,000 pounds capital which was "as much as any man ought
to have." As a public man he was sadly proud that he had at least
"said some words which may bear fruit after I am forgotten."
Persistent melancholy and incurable elasticity can go together, and
they make a very strong combination. The tone of resignation had not
passed away from his comparatively intimate letters when he was writing
little notes to one political acquaintance and another inciting them to
look forward to the fun of the next fight.

4. _John Brown_.

For the next few months the excitements of the great political world
concern this biography little. There was strife between Davis and
Douglas in the Senate. At a meeting strong against slavery, Seward
regained courage from the occasion and roused the North with grave and
earnest words about the "irrepressible conflict." The "underground
railway," or chain of friendly houses by which fugitive slaves were
stealthily passed on to Canada, became famous. Methodist professors
riotously attempted to rescue an arrested fugitive at Oberlin. A
Southern grand jury threw out the bill of indictment against a
slave-trading crew caught red-handed. In California Democrats
belonging to what was nicknamed "the chivalry" forced upon Senator
Broderick, a literally democratic Irishman and the bravest of the
Democrats who stood out for fair treatment to Kansas, a duel in which
he might fairly be said to have been murdered. The one eve