Where was I to stand amid all this confusion and contradiction?
Naturally with Douglas. But I wanted to see what he had to say.

It was not long before he came to Chicago and our interesting
association was renewed. He had had something of a quarrel with Mr.
Polk, but it had been patched up. Before now he had proposed that the
line of the Missouri Compromise be extended to the Pacific Ocean. Was
he, too, becoming uncertain of mind? Sometimes I thought he was
overworked, that his energies were concerned with too many subjects. He
was making speeches; he was talking railroads; he had his own political
fortunes to watch. The Whigs were gaining ground. He scoffed at them. He
derided their hypocrisy. He laughed at their piebald character. Yet he
saw a cunning plot in this presentation to the electorate of men who
appealed so diversely: Taylor of the South, and of slavery; Fillmore of
the North, and of free soil, backed by the powerful mercantilism of the
North, like the bank and the tariff. Both were using Jefferson to win
the mob, and Hamilton to satisfy the strong.

It was in the fall just before the election that Reverdy and Sarah came
to visit us, bringing Amos, now about fourteen, and Reverdy Junior,
about twelve, and Nancy, who was ten.

The Douglases came to dine with us, and after the dinner Reverdy,
Douglas, and I retired to the library. Again we had the bottle between
us, but Reverdy was an abstainer. He was satisfied with Douglas'
personal attitude toward slavery; Douglas' evident wish that the
institution was not among us; his refusal to have anything to do with
Mrs. Douglas' slaves. Reverdy was a man of peace and believed that
Douglas' non-interference policy would ensure peace. He approved of
leaving the matter of slavery to the people of the territories. He
feared a war, and he opposed the agitation that might bring it. At the
same time, he preferred a free soil and a free people. Reverdy was
typical of many men in America. And indeed, my heart went with Reverdy
in these things, even while my thinking went with Douglas.

Douglas was now the master of his party in Illinois, and it seemed to me
that no one could dispute his leadership in the nation. He had perfected
the party organization in the state from the small beginnings of which I
have told. He was proud of his work and the strength and discipline of
his party. He looked forward to victory this fall over the
hermaphroditic ticket of Taylor and Fillmor