s for 1860, and a defeat of Douglas in his
own State would be a political event of the first magnitude. And there
was much promise of success. Had they not elected Lyman Trumbull in 1855
in spite of all the "great man" could do? Moreover, the Administration
had withdrawn all patronage from Douglas, and postmasters' heads were
falling fast in Illinois. Indeed, Buchanan was just then putting up
anti-Douglas tickets in many of the counties, in the expectation of
electing a legislature hostile to Douglas if not friendly to the
Washington authorities. Was there ever a better chance for the new group
of leaders? Contrary to Eastern advice they nominated Lincoln as the
opponent of Douglas, and that shrewd man and able logician challenged
the Senator to a joint debate, and the most important political
discussion in our history followed.

Lincoln had declared in a recent speech that "a house divided against
itself could not stand," and the United States he likened to the divided
house. Douglas seized upon this to show the country what a radical
abolitionist Lincoln was, for was it not a disruption of the Union of
which he spoke so cogently, and which the abolitionists were just now
urging? Nothing was more unpopular in the Northwest than disunion. All
the papers of the country now printed what Lincoln had said, and with
Douglas's disparaging comment. The business interests of the East
shuddered at the Lincoln parable.

But Lincoln took occasion at Freeport to make Douglas even more
unpopular in the South than he already was, by asking him if he did not
support the Dred Scott decision; also if he still adhered to the popular
sovereignty doctrine as a means of settling the slavery problem in the
Territories. Douglas answered in the affirmative to both queries.
Whereupon Lincoln showed that if the Dred Scott decision held, Congress
must protect slavery in all the Territories and if the popular
sovereignty idea prevailed, the squatters of any Territory might by
popular vote prohibit slavery in any Territory. Hence, according to
Douglas, slavery could be lawfully maintained and lawfully abolished at
the same time and place. Douglas recognized his predicament; but he
replied that, in spite of the court's decision, the settlers of a new
Territory might by "unfriendly" local legislation make slavery
impossible. When the papers of the country published this lame reply,
Southern men everywhere denounced in unmeasured terms "the demagogue