The life and public services of Abraham Lincoln ... together with his state papers, including his speeches, addresses, messages, letters, and proclamations, and the closing scenes connected with his life and death. By Henry J. Raymond. To which are added anecdotes and personal reminiscences of President Lincoln, by Frank B. Carpenter.

STATE PAPERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

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here you threw up your hats and hurrahed for Democracy. More than
that; take all the arguments made in favor of the system you have proposed, and it carefully excludes the idea that there is any thing wrong in
the institution of slavery. The arguments to sustain that policy carefully
excluded it. Even here to-day you heard Judge Douglas quarrel with me
because I uttered a wish that it might sometime come to an end. Although Henry Clay could say he wished every slave in the United States
was in the country of his ancestors, I am denounced by those pretending
to respect Henry Clay for uttering a wish that it might sometime, in some
peaceful way, come to an end. The Democratic policy in regard to that
institution will not tolerate the merest breath, the slightest hint, of the
least degree of wrong about it.
Besides the speeches made in the course of these seven
joint debates, Mr. Lincoln delivered at least fifty other
addresses to the people, in all parts of the State, during
the canvass, everywhere expounding his views and declaring his sentiments with the same frankness and manliness. The chief interest of the contest, however, centred in their joint debates, and with every succeeding encounter tlhe feeling in the State, and throughout the country, became more intense. As the day
for final decision approached, Illinois fairly blazed
with the excitement. While Mr. Douglas fully sustained his previous reputation, and justified the estimate
his friends had placed upon his abilities, he labored under the comparative disadvantage of being much better
known to the country at large than was his antagonist.
During his long public career, people had become partially accustomed to his manner of presenting arguments
and enforcing them. The novelty and freshness of Mr.
Lincoln's addresses, on the other hand, the homeliness
and force of his illustrations, their wonderful pertinence,
his exhaustless humor, his confidence in his own resources, engendered by his firm belief in the justice of
the cause he so ably advocated, never once rising, however, to the point of arrogance or superciliousness, fastened upon him the eyes of the people everywhere, friends
and opponents alike. It was not strange that more than
once, during the course of the unparalleled excitement