He had written to a
friend who chanced to show me the letter: "It gave me a hearing on the
great and durable questions of the age, which I could have had in no
other way; and though 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."
The cause of civil liberty! Had not Douglas stood for this too? He had
won against the terrific opposition of the Buchanan administration. He
had fought the slave constitution of Kansas and he had beaten down in
this campaign the enmity which had risen up around him because he had
fought that constitution. The Republicans were exceedingly glad that
Douglas' contest had divided the support of his own party. They had no
thanks for him for what he had done for civil liberty in that regard.
They were glad of his election over Lincoln for the sinister reason that
Douglas' triumph, since Douglas was almost at one with Lincoln as to the
matter of slavery, meant a decline and a division of the Democratic
party as a whole. At the same time there was talk now of Lincoln for the
Presidency. But Lincoln did not think he was worthy of the honor.
Lincoln was writing and saying: "What is the use of talking of me whilst
we have such men as Seward and Chase, and everybody knows them, and
scarcely anybody outside of Illinois knows me; besides, as a matter of
justice, is it not due to them? I admit I am ambitious and would like to
be President.
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