te his Republican opponent;
indeed, he seems to have had a keener perception of the great qualities
which were hidden under Lincoln's rough and awkward exterior than anyone
else at that time exhibited. When he heard of his candidature he looked
grave. "He is the strongest man of his party," he said, "and thoroughly
honest. It will take us all our time to beat him."

It did. Douglas was victorious, but only narrowly and after a
hard-fought contest. The most striking feature of that contest was the
series of Lincoln-Douglas debates in which, by an interesting innovation
in electioneering, the two candidates for the Senatorship contended face
to face in the principal political centres of the State. In reading
these debates one is impressed not only with the ability of both
combatants, but with their remarkable candour, good temper and even
magnanimity. It is very seldom, if ever, that either displays malice or
fails in dignity and courtesy to his opponent. When one remembers the
white heat of political and sectional rivalry at that time--when one
recalls some of Sumner's speeches in the Senate, not to mention the
public beating which they brought on him--it must be confessed that the
fairness with which the two great Illinois champions fought each other
was highly to the honour of both.

Where the controversy turned on practical or legal matters the
combatants were not ill-matched, and both scored many telling points.
When the general philosophy of government came into the question
Lincoln's great superiority in seriousness and clarity of thought was at
once apparent. A good example of this will be found in their dispute as
to the true meaning of the Declaration of Independence. Douglas denied
that the expression "all men" could be meant to include Negroes. It only
referred to "British subjects in this continent being equal to British
subjects born and residing in Great Britain." Lincoln instantly knocked
out his adversary by reading the amended version of the Declaration: "We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all British subjects who were
on this Continent eighty-one years ago were created equal to all British
subjects born and then residing in Great Britain." This was more than a
clever debating point. It was a really crushing exposure of intellectual
error. The mere use of the words "truths" and "self-evident" and their
patently ridiculous effect in the Douglas version proves conclusively
which interpreter was