“Well, Doctor,” replied Mr. Lincoln, “if I had to draw a pen across, and erase my whole life from existence, and had one poor gift or choice left as to what I should save from the wreck, I should choose that speech, and leave it to the world unerased.”

More than a year afterwards he was dining with a party of friends at Bloomington when that speech became the theme of discussion, and every person present declared it was “a great mistake.”

“Gentlemen,” replied Mr. Lincoln, “you may think that speech was a mistake; but I never have believed it was, and you will see the day when you will consider it the wisest thing I ever said.”

His prophecy was completely fulfilled. The fact was Mr. Lincoln was led “in a way that he knew not.” A higher intelligence than mere human sagacity guided him in the right. That speech was one of the most marvellous productions in American annals, and it not only gave the keynote to his great senatorial contest with Mr. Douglas, but it settled the character and issue of the next presidential election, and finally sealed the doom of slavery in this country.

After the delivery of this speech Mr. Lincoln challenged Mr. Douglas to joint debates throughout the canvass. The latter accepted the challenge so far as to arrange for debates with the former in seven important places of the State. Mr. Douglas conducted his part of the affair with great pomp and noise, proceeding to his appointments on a chartered train accompanied with a band of music, and artillery to fire salutes, at a cost of fifty thousand dollars. On the other hand, Mr. Lincoln pursued his usual quiet, unostentatious, and honest way; yet he won the victory every time. “To say that he was the victor, morally and intellectually, is simply to record the judgment of the world.” “In this canvass he earned a reputation as a popular debater second to that of no man in America—certainly not second to that of his famous antagonist.” At the close of one of his debates with Mr. Douglas, even after the latter had occupied thirty minutes in closing the discussion, the assembly was so thoroughly “enthused” by Mr. Lincoln’s victorious effort, that they seized him, in their exuberance of joy, and bore him out of the hall to the hotel upon their shoulders, amidst cheers and shouts that made the welkin ring. In the popular vote he received a majority of four thousand and eighty-five over Mr. Douglas; but owing to the unfair apportionment of the legislative districts, Mr. Douglas was returned to the United States Senate.

In one of these debates he paid one of the most eloquent tributes to the “Declaration of Independence” (after having enunciated its principles) that ever fell from human lips; and he closed with these memorable words:

“You may do anything with me you choose, if you will but heed these sacred principles. You may not only defeat me for the senate, but you may take me and put me to death. While pretending no indifference to earthly honours, I do claim to be actuated in this contest by something higher than an anxiety for office. I charge you to drop every paltry and insignificant thought for any man’s success. It is nothing; I am nothing; Judge Douglas is nothing. But do not destroy that immortal emblem of Humanity—the Declaration of American Independence.”