1858

February 23rd. This [autograph album] is the first book for such a purpose I ever saw. (Writes on the first page.) To-day, February 23, 1858, the owner honored me with the privilege of writing the first name in this book.

Senatorial contest in Illinois for seat occupied by Douglas which will be vacant in 1859. Douglas hopes to succeed himself. Lincoln is his rival.

April 21st. I have believed I do believe now-that Greeley, for instance, would be rather pleased to see Douglas reelected over me or any other Republican; and yet I do not believe it is because of any secret arrangement with Douglas. It is because he thinks Douglas's superior position, reputation, experience, ability, if you please, would more than compensate for his lack of a pure Republican position, and therefore his reelection would do the general cause of Republicanism more good than would the election of any one of our better undistinguished pure Republicans.

Greeley writes to Lincoln to the effect that he ought not to renew his candidacy for the Senate but should contribute to win over Douglas.

May 7th. Lincoln wins his most famous criminal case, clearing Duff Armstrong of the charge of murder. He proves that evidence given was false because it misrepresented the state of the moon on the night when the murder was said to have taken place.

May 10th. Politically speaking, there is a curious state of things here. The impulse of almost every Democrat is to stick to Douglas; but it horrifies them to have to follow him out of the Democratic party. A good many are annoyed that he did not go for the English contrivance, and thus heal the breach. They begin to think there is a "negro in the fence," that Douglas really wants to have a fuss with the President;—that sticks in their throats.

15th. The "State Register" here is evidently laboring its old friends into what the doctors call the "comatose state"that is, a sort of drowsy, dreamy condition, in which they may not perceive or remember that there has ever been, or is, any difference between Douglas and the President. This could be done if the Buchanan men would allow it-which, however, the latter seem determined not to do.

I think our prospects gradually and steadily grow better, though we are not yet clear out of the woods by a great deal.

27th. Political matters just now bear a very mixed and incongruous aspect. For several days the signs have been that Douglas and the President have probably buried the hatchetDouglas's friends at Washington going over to the President's side, and his friends here and South of here talking as if there never had been any serious difficulty, while the President himself does nothing for his own peculiar friends here. But this morning my partner, Mr. Herndon, receives a letter from Mr. Medill of the Chicago Tribune, showing the writer to be in great alarm at the prospect North of Republicans going over to Douglas, on the idea that Douglas is going to assume steep Free-soil ground, and furiously assail the administration on the stump when he comes home. There certainly is a double game being played somehow. Possibly-even probablyDouglas is temporarily deceiving the President in order to crush out the 8th of June convention here. Unless he plays his double game more successfully than we have often seen

done, he can not carry many Republicans North, without at the same time losing a larger number of his old friends South.

In spite of Eastern opposition, the Illinois Republicans nominate Lincoln as their candidate for United States Senator.

June 16th. (To Convention which had just nominated him.) If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house divided against itself can not stand." I believe this government can not endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved-I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States-old as well as new, North as well as South.

Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion, is at least a caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don't care anything about it. His avowed mission is impressing the "public heart" to care nothing about it.

A leading Douglas Democratic newspaper thinks Douglas's superior talent will be needed to resist the revival of the African slave-trade. Does Douglas believe an effort to revive that trade is approaching? He has not said so. Does he really think so? But, if it is, how can he resist it? For years he has

labored to prove it a sacred right of white men to take negro slaves into the new Territories. Can he possibly show that it is less a sacred right to buy them where they can be bought cheapest? And unquestionably they can be bought cheaper in Africa than in Virginia.

He has done all in his power to reduce the whole question of slavery to one of a mere right of property; and as such, how can he oppose the foreign slave-trade-how can he refuse that trade in that "property" shall be "perfectly free,"—unless he does it as a protection to the home production? And, as the home producers will probably not ask the protection, he will be wholly without a ground of opposition.

Our cause, then, must be instructed to, and conducted by, its own undoubted friends-those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work, who do care for the result.

Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thousand strong. We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger; with every external circumstance against us. Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy. Did we brave all then to falter now?-now, when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered, and belligerent? The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail-if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate or mistakes delay it, but sooner or later, the victory is sure to come.

24th. (To Henry C. Whitney.) Your letter enclosing the attack of the Times upon me was received this morning.-Give yourself no concern about my voting against the supplies,* unless you are without faith that a lie can be successfully con

*He is always careful to make plain that in 1848 in Congress he voted against the mode of starting the war, not against its continuance, once begun. This was the recognized Whig position.

tradicted. There is not a word of truth in the charge, and I am just considering a little as to the best shape to put a contradiction in. Show this to whomever you please, but do not publish it in the papers.

25th. (To J. W. Somers.) It may well puzzle older heads than yours to understand how, as the Dred Scott decision holds, Congress can authorize a territorial legislature to do anything else, and can not authorize them to prohibit slavery. This is one of the things the court can decide, but can never give an intelligible reason for.

The campaign for the election of a State Legislature that should choose a new Senator opens at Chicago July 9th, with the speech of Douglas from a balcony of the Tremont House. Lincoln is present and the following night replies. In the political duel which follows, the issues, aside from challenging the records of the candidates, are the same as at the time of the Peoria speech (October 16, 1854) except for one thing. Since then the Dred Scott decision (March 7, 1857) has extended the principle of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill to all the Territories, which are thus declared to be open to slavery if their inhabitants so desire, and denies the right of Congress to close the Territories against slavery. The most burning ques\tion of the moment is, what attitude shall be taken toward this decision.

Attempts to patch up the quarrel between Douglas and Buchanan having failed, Douglas is very bitter against the President, and even accuses him of playing into the hands of the Republicans in Illinois.

July 10th. At Chicago.

My fellow-citizens: On yesterday evening, upon the occasion of the reception given to Senator Douglas, I was furnished with a seat very convenient for hearing him and was