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.

77

at that time, the Democrats had secured an advantage, by
means of an unfair districting of the State, which it was
impossible to overcome. Notwithstanding the immense
gains made by the Republicans, their opponents had, in
the upper branch of this body, fourteen members to their
eleven, while in the lower House these two parties stood
forty Democrats to thirty-five Republicans. This state
of affairs secured Mr. Douglas a re-election, although the
fact that he was fairly beaten on the popular vote, robbed
his triumph of much of its lustre. An overruling Providence, the workings of which can now be clearly traced,
but which were then inscrutable, by securing this result,
ultimately gave the nation for its chief magistrate the
man best fitted to carry it safely through the most trying
period of its history.