that to lose his reelection to the Senate at this time would end
his political career. His fame as well as his quarrel with the
President served to draw immense crowds to his meetings when he
returned to Illinois and began speech-making, and his followers
so inspired these meetings with their enthusiasm that for a time
it seemed as though all real discussion would be swallowed up in
noise and shouting.

Mr. Lincoln, acting on the advice of his leading friends, sent
Douglas a challenge to joint debate. Douglas accepted, though not
very willingly; and it was agreed that they should address the
same meetings at seven towns in the State, on dates extending
through August, September, and October. The terms were that one
should speak an hour in opening, the other an hour and a half in
reply, and the first again have half an hour to close. Douglas
was to open the meeting at one place, Lincoln at the next.

It was indeed a memorable contest. Douglas, the most skilled and
plausible speaker in the Democratic party, was battling for his
political life. He used every art, every resource, at his
command. Opposed to him was a veritable giant in stature--a man
whose qualities of mind and of body were as different from those
of the "Little Giant" -as could well be imagined. Lincoln was
direct, forceful, logical, and filled with a purpose as lofty as
his sense of right and justice was strong. He cared much for the
senatorship, but he cared far more to right the wrong of slavery,
and to warn people of the peril that menaced the land. Already in
June he had made a speech that greatly impressed his hearers. "A
house divided against itself cannot stand," he told them. "I
believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and