"He's fresh and Douglas is tired," said Reverdy. "He has the advantage
of not having committed himself much. Douglas has spoken freely on
everything. He's four years older than Douglas, but he's a younger man.
He's a temperance man they say; and while I like a drink, I don't like
to see a man drink as much as Douglas does. They say he's been pouring
it down during this campaign. But as for Douglas' stooping to debate
with Lincoln, it's no stoop. They make the fur fly when they talk. What
I fear is that there's going to be trouble in this country. I hate
slavery, but I hate this agitation too. I don't want to see the North
keep on making war on the South. It will breed trouble sure. And this
is where I stand with Douglas. He is for non-interference with slavery
and his election will be a quieter."

When we got back to Reverdy's house I plunged into the newspapers
containing the debates. I read until suppertime, and then late into the
night. I read them all. I went to bed and analyzed the arguments.

A house divided against itself cannot stand! This was Seward's
irrepressible conflict clothed in Biblical language. The religious
revival which had swept the country gave these words a compelling
acceptance. But as I read this it came over me that both Jesus and
Lincoln were sophists. For a house divided against itself can stand; and
irrepressible conflicts rage forever. They may change their ground, but
they do not cease. I had seen this in Europe and in Italy, where in the
January just past a certain Orsini had attempted the life of Louis
Napoleon because he had not acceded to the labors of Cavour and thus
hastened the liberty of Italy. And yet Italy was standing and France.
Houses are divided everywhere and they stand. Beelzebub is crafty enough
to cast out devils here and there in order to confound his kingdom with
the Kingdom of Heaven. Of course he does not cast all the devils out--if
he did he would lose his kingdom--only enough to make himself appear as
one of the divine wonder-workers. A house divided against itself can
stand, even as the world can stand with both good and evil in it, with
both God and Satan in divided authority over it; and even as man has
good and evil in his own nature and still lives and works without
becoming wholly good or wholly evil. So could this country stand divided
into free and slave states as it was formed at the beginning. There was
not the slightest chance that it would ever becom