and solid and terrible reality, looking us right in the face, with its thumb on its nose. We, throughout the State, have this question before us: "What shall we do? Shall we tamely submit to the Irish, or shall we rise and cut their throats?" If blood is shed in Illinois to maintain the purity of the ballot-box, and the rights of the popular will, do not be at all surprised. We are roused and fired to fury. My feelings are ideas to some extent and therefore cool I try to persuade both parties to keep calm and cool, if possible; but let me say to you, that there is great and imminent danger of a general and terrible row, and if it commences woe be to the Irish poor fellows!

You know my position now, and let me state to you that I am amidst the knowing ones, clubs, county committees, State committees, leaders, sagacious men, etc., and from all places and persons comes up this intelligence, "All is well." I, myself, fear and am scolded because I cannot feel as I should as others do. My intuition - brute forecast, if you will my bones, tell he that all is not safe; yet I hope for the best. How are you-are you up and walking about? Quit reading and writing, if you can, and go off on a spree. W. H. HERNDON.

Your friend,

Happily the election passed off quietly, barring a few fist fights, and with a full vote in spite of the downpour of rain. Lincoln carried the State but was defeated for the Senate. The popular vote stood, Republicans, 125,430; Douglas Democrats, 121,609; Buchanan Democrats, 5,191. The total vote cast exceeded that cast in 1856 by many thousands, especially the Democratic vote, which showed an increase not accounted for by the growth of population.1 The Republican State ticket was elected by a good majority. One who would know the relative strength of Lincoln and Douglas must examine the vote cast for the members of the lower house of the Legislature. Avowed Douglas men polled over 174,000, while the Lincoln men received over 190,000, and the Buchanan "crew" less than 2,000; yet the Republicans, with so huge a majority, won only thirty-five seats, while the Democratic minority secured forty. Of the fifteen contested Senatorial seats, the Democrats won eight with a total vote of 44,826, as compared with the Republicans 1 Stephen A. Douglas, by Allen Johnson, pp. 391-2 (1909).

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who cast 53,784 votes and won only seven. That is to say, 754 votes cast in Egypt "offset 1,000 polled in "offset 1,000 polled in "Canaan," as the two ends of the State were named. Here was proof absolute that the State was gerrymandered, as Lincoln had said, in favor of the Democrats. Writing to Mr. Parker, Herndon reported the causes of defeat:

Friend Parker.

Springfield, Ill., Nov. 8, 1858.

Dear Sir: We are beaten in Illinois, as you are aware; but you may want to know the causes of our defeat. Firstly, then, I have more than once said our State presents three distinct phases of human development: the extreme north, the middle, and the extreme south. The first is intelligence, the second timidity, and the third ignorance on the special issue, but goodness and bravery. If a man spoke to suit the north-for freedom, justice-this killed him in the center, and in the south. So in the center, it killed him north and south. So in the south, it surely killed him north. Lincoln tried to stand high and elevated, so he fell deep.

Secondly, Greeley never gave us one single, solitary, manly lift. On the contrary, his silence was his opposition. This our people felt. We never got a smile or a word of encouragement outside of Illinois from any quarter during all this great canvass. The East was for Douglas by silence. This silence was terrible to us. Seward was against us too. Thirdly, Crittenden wrote letters to Illinois urging the Americans and Old Line Whigs to go for Douglas, and so they went "helter-skelter." Thousands of Whigs dropped us just on the eve of the election, through the influence of Crittenden.

Fourthly, all the pro-slavery men, north as well as south, went to a man for Douglas. They threw into this State money and men, and speakers. These forces and powers. we were wholly denied by our Northern and Eastern friends. This cowed us somewhat, but let it go. Do you know what Byron says about revenge? He goes off in this wise: "There never was yet human power,' etc. I shall make no hasty pledges, notwithstanding. I am bent on acting practically, so that I can help choke down slavery, and so I shall say nothing-not a word.

Fifthly, thousands of roving, robbing, bloated, pockmarked Catholic Irish were imported upon us from Phila

delphia, New York, St. Louis, and other cities.1 I myself know of such, by their own confession. Some have been arrested, and are now in jail awaiting trial.

I want distinctly to say to you that no one of all these causes defeated Lincoln; but I do want to say that it was the combination, with the power and influence of each, that "cleaned us out." Do you not now see that there is a conspiracy afloat which threatens the disorganization of the Republican party? Do you not see that Seward, Greeley, and Crittenden, etc., are at this moment in a joint common understanding to lower our platform?

In conclusion let me say that as Douglas has got all classes to "boil his pot," with antagonistic materials and forces, that there is bound, by the laws of nature, to be an explosion - namely, somebody will be fooled. Look out! Greeley is a natural fool, I think, in this matter- his hearty Douglas position. So with Seward, Crittenden, with South and North. Douglas cannot hold all these places and men. Mark that! I am busy at Court and have no time to cut down or amplify - hope you can understand.

Your friend,

W H. HERNDON.

Of course Lincoln was disappointed, but he could still joke. He felt, he said, "like the boy that stumped his toe it hurt too bad to laugh, and he was too big to cry." His feelings 1 One feature of the campaign, not mentioned by Mr. Herndon, was the activity of the Illinois Central Railroad. Its managers and employees were for Douglas, almost to a man. Indeed, the railroad interest of the State was chiefly responsible for the importation of voters, because it had favors to ask of the Legislature. The Illinois Central could afford to be industrious, if by so doing it could obtain release from the payment into the State treasury of 7 per cent of its gross earnings. — Quincy Whig, Nov. 6, 1858; The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, by Sparks, p. 536 (1909).

2 Two days following the election, at a meeting in Manchester, Ohio, reported in the Sandusky, Ohio, Commercial Register, Lincoln was mentioned for the Presidency. This occasioned wide comment and elicited tributes to Lincoln in the Illinois press, but no Illinois paper seems to have named him for that highest office until May 4, 1859, when the Central Illinois Gazette, of Champaign, edited by J. W. Scroggs, took it up. The article was written by W. O. Stoddard. - Life of Lincoln, by W. C. Whitney, pp. 262-5 (1892). Lamon says that he saw in Lincoln's possession, shortly before his death, a letter written by J. G. Blaine during the campaign of 1858, in which it was predicted that

had been so deeply engaged, he had worked so hard, and the result, especially towards the last, had been so uncertain, that defeat was trying. That he felt it keenly is shown by his remark to Whitney the day after the election: "I can't help it, and I expect everybody to leave us; "' and in his letter to Governor Crittenden, in which he said: "The emotions of defeat in which I felt more than a merely selfish interest and to which defeat the use of your name contributed largely, are fresh upon me." Yet he was glad that he made the race, for it gave him a hearing on the great and durable question of the age which I would have had in no other way; and although I now sink out of view and shall be forgotten, I believe I have made some marks which will tell for the cause of civil liberty long after I am gone." But, instead of sinking out of sight, he rose from the dust of defeat a National figure no longer merely a leader of his party in his State, but the leader of a great people.

Douglas would beat Lincoln for the Senatorship but would be beaten by Lincoln for the Presidency in 1860. — Life of Lincoln, by Norman Hapgood, pp. 141-142 (1901).

CHAPTER VIII

Lincoln's Herndon

Added to the chagrin of defeat, Lincoln had to endure a lightness of purse that was actually painful. "The fight must go on," he wrote to Henry Asbury a few days after the election; "the cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the end of one or even one hundred defeats;" but while the good wishes showered upon him from all parts of the North put him in good heart, they did not relieve his finances. His law practice had been neglected; the canvass had cost him time and money; and he had to cast about him for funds. To cap it all, he was asked by Norman Judd, chairman of the State Committee, to help make up a deficit in the campaign purse! He replied:

I am willing to pay according to my ability, but I am the poorest hand living to get others to pay. I have been on expense so long, without earning anything, that I am absolutely without money now for even household expenses. Still, if you can put in $250 for me towards discharging the debt of the committee, I will allow it when you and I settle the private matter between us. This, with what I have already paid, . . . will exceed my subscription of $500. This, too, is exclusive of my ordinary expenses during the campaign, all of which, being added to my loss of time and business, bears pretty heavily upon one no better off than I am. But as I had the post of honor, it is not for me to be overnice. You are feeling badly; "and this, too, shall pass away;" never fear.

Many invitations came to him to make speeches; and in order to respond he prepared a lecture on Discoveries, Inventions, and Improvements, hoping thereby to recoup his losses. He began with Adam and Eve, and the invention of the "fig-leaf apron," of which he gave a humorous description, passing