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Lincoln and Douglas 
 
 In Charleston 
 
 By WILLIAM E. BARTON 
 
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Lincoln and Douglas 
 
 In Charleston 
 
 An Address by 
 WILLIAM E. BARTON 
 
 Delivered at the Sixty-Fourth 
 
 Anniversary Celebration 
 
 CHARLESTON, ILLINOIS 
 
 September 18, 1922 
 
 CHARLESTON, ILLINOIS 
 
 The Charleston Daily Courier 
 
 1922 
 
 c 
 
 ^2. 
 
Lincoln and Douglas ^^ 
 
 In Charleston 
 
 C'liaiiestou does well to celebrate thus largely and 
 Avorthily the sixty-fourth anniversary of the most notable 
 e\'ent in her history. .The seven debates between Abraham 
 Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas have given to seven Illi- 
 nois cities an enduring name in literature. Wherever the 
 stoi-y of Lincoln is told, the name of this city must be men- 
 tioned. Modern Charleston has shoAvn becoming pride in 
 her heritage, and has manifested that pride anew in the 
 solemnities and festivities of this day. Tliis notable pro- 
 cession, reproducing- so many of the features of the proces- 
 sion of sixty-four years ago ; the assembling of these thou- 
 sands of people in the open air on this central space adja- 
 cent to your court house: the music and the addresses 
 already delivered from this platform, make this a day to 
 live anew in memory, and give the children of the present 
 generation one more reason to- remember wliat made this 
 day illustrious in the experience of their fathers. Nature 
 has been kind to us: the beauty of this autunm sunshine 
 lends itself Avell to the spirit of this occasion. AVe shall 
 long remember this day. 
 
 Let us remind ourselves ancAV of the events of that 
 gathering of sixty-fonr years ago, and recall some of the 
 scenes that on that occasion Avere enacted. Let us also 
 consider the signilicance of that event, that we may the 
 better understand the full meaning of this one. 
 
 It is unfortunate that so many historians and biogra- 
 phers of Lincoln have felt the necessity of making the 
 strongest possible contrast between Abraham Lincoln and 
 all the men with whom he was intimately associated. There 
 is no reason why we should belittle other men to make Lin- 
 coln seem great. He Avas great enough to find his own ele- 
 vation above his contemporaries, even Avhen they are meas- 
 ui-ed at their full stature. He Avho reads sixty-four years 
 after the event the speeches of Lincoln and Douglas is 
 
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impressed with the fact that Lincoln liad in Douglas a 
 foenian distinctly worthy of his steel. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln was the greatest man of his genera- 
 tion, but Stephen A. Douglas is not a man to be held in 
 contempt. 
 
 Of the seven debates between these two great men the 
 one at Ohaileston has, like each of the others, some points 
 of special interest. AVhile this was not the largest of the 
 gatherings, it Avas one of the larger ones, and it had some 
 uni<iue features of picturesqueness. 
 
 Lincoln and Douglas both spent the preceding night, 
 Friday, September 17, in Mattoon and drove over on the 
 morning of the debate. Each one headed a great proces- 
 sion. In some respects the Charleston processions, start- 
 ing as they did from the same point, and arriving almost 
 sinudtaneously, were more picturescpie than in any other 
 place where a debate was held. In each one there were 
 thirty-two maidens representing the thirty-two states of 
 the Union, though in Lincoln's procession Kansas rode 
 alone, behind the others, and wore the legend "I Will Be 
 Free." The Lincoln procession had a wagon drawn by 
 oxen, reproducing that in which Lincoln himself had 
 driven across Coles county from Indiana in the spring of 
 1830. There was a banner on which a diminutive Lincoln 
 was smiting a mighty Douglas T\ith a club, and "the Little 
 Giant'' was being put out of commission by "Abe, the 
 Giant Killer." Women had their part in politics in that 
 day. A wagon load of maidens who were for Lincoln bore 
 
 the inscription : 
 
 "Westward the star of empire takes its way; 
 
 The girls link-on to Lincoln, 
 Their mothers were for Clay." 
 It was in Charleston that Lincoln led off with a strong 
 reply to the question whether his political views concerning 
 the negro involved a belief in negro equality. He said : 
 
 "I do not understand that because I do not want a 
 negro woman for a slave, I musti necessarily want her for 
 a wife.'' 
 
 The Charleston debate is always remembered in con- 
 nection with a personal incident of dramatic chaiacter. 
 Lincoln had served for a single term in Congress, during 
 
the Mexican AVar. He did not believe in that Avar. He be- 
 lieved that it was begun as an instriunent of injustice and 
 for an unworthy cause. He believed that its real purpose 
 was to add to the Anieiican union new states where slavery 
 was to be legalized. While he Avas in Congress, Mr. Ash- 
 mun of Massachusetts introduced an amendment in which 
 he declared that the Mexican War was unnecessary, and 
 that President James Polk had exceeded his constitutional 
 authority in its inception. For that resolution Lincoln 
 voted. In the coiirse of the earlier debates. Senator Doug- 
 las attacked the record of Mr. Lincoln in Congress, declar- 
 ing that in this particular he had been unpatriotic. Lincoln 
 admitted having cast this vote, and was proud of it; but 
 he also Avished it tO' be understood that, the war having 
 begun, he voted for every measure to suj)ply the troops in 
 the field with all that was necessary to bring the Avar to a 
 speedy and successful termination. 
 
 When the Charleston debate occurred, there sat on the 
 platform Hon. Orlando B. Ficklin, a member of Congress, 
 and a Democrat. Mr. Lincoln, in the midst of his closing 
 speech, turned to him, and led him to the front of the plat- 
 form, and required an answ^er from him, AA^hether Lincoln, 
 having indeed A'oted for the Ashmun amendment, did not 
 loyally support the soldiers in the Avar. Mr. Ficklin was 
 a political opponent of Lincoln, but was his personal 
 friend, as he was a friend also of Douglas. Ficklin was a 
 man of honoi-. and he admitted that Lincoln told the truth 
 in regaid to his own record on the Mexican War. In a 
 debate of (liis < haracter, every personal incident has a par- 
 ticiilMi- interest, and tlie Ficklin incident, creditable alike 
 to Lincoln and to Ficklin, stands out as one of the best 
 rcnicniltcicd events of the day. 
 
 The events which led uj) to the Lincoln-Douglas debate 
 weie honoiable to both the principal participants. It Avas 
 a strong con\ iction of duty, though not unmixed with po- 
 litical amliition, Avhich bjought Lincoln back into politics 
 in isr)l, alter he supposed himself permanently to have 
 w iihdraw n. For the first time in his legal career he was 
 then a lawyer fiist and only incidentally a politician; be- 
 fore that he had been a politician first and a laAvyer as a 
 
 4 
 
congenial and necessary accompaniment. When Lincoln 
 retni-ned to. Illinois after his one teim in Congress, he was 
 at tirst bitterly disappointed in his failnie to secnre ap- 
 pointment as Land Commissioner of the LTnited States. 
 There is no disgnising the sorrow of his discovery that 
 Zachary Taylor, Avhom he had done so much to elect, did 
 not reward him with a position in Washington. Failing 
 in this, Lincoln set himself to practice law, lost interest in 
 politics, and was prospering as he never had prospered 
 before. Bnt the repeal of the Missouri Compromise woke 
 him by its affront to his conscience, and he returned to 
 politics under a strong; compulsion of duty. It does not 
 answer this statement to reply that he hoped also to have 
 been United States Senator in 1854, and was again disap- 
 pointed when Lyman Trumbull was selected instead of 
 himself. The whole incident is highly creditable to Abra- 
 ham Lincoln. AVhen he came back into politics he came 
 Avith a conscience keenly alive to the evils and dangers of 
 slavery in the political and moral life of America. 
 
 On the other hand, we must respect Stephen A. Doug- 
 las for the events which gave Lincoln's candidacy its hope 
 of success in 1858. Douglas had broken with the Buchan- 
 an administration, and the reason was highly to the credit 
 of Douglas. The administration had tried to force upon 
 the unwilling people of Kansas a constitution known as 
 the Leconipton Constitution, which they had never accept- 
 ed and which would have made Kansas a slave state. Be- 
 cause Douglas would not support this measure in the Sen- 
 ate, he won the enmity of Buchanan and all the Buchanan 
 office holders in Illinois. 
 
 The United States Senate chamber can never hold 
 more people than packed it, floor and galleries, on the 
 night of March 22, 1858. On that afternoon it was reported 
 that at seven o'clock Stephen A. Douglas would speak in 
 opposition to the measure of his own party. Those who 
 had seats in the gallery in the afternoon held them, and 
 others packed in until all rules were broken and the place 
 was as full as it could be packed. Douglas had been sick 
 in bed for two weeks, and he spoke witjjout assurance tliat 
 he would have strength to finish. He knew that he called 
 
down on him the wrath of the extreme pro-slavery element 
 in the Democratic party ; he knew that the administration 
 would do its best to defeat him in his approaching cam- 
 paign. But he nmde his speech and renounced James Bu- 
 chanan and all his works. He made it plain that he was 
 not speaking as a Republican or an Abolitionist, or even 
 as an opponent of the extension of slavery. His reason, 
 many times reiterated, was that the Lecompton Constitu- 
 tion did not represent an honest vote of the people of 
 Kansas. He said in so many words that if the principle 
 of popular sovereignty were respected, he w^ould accept 
 it regardless of the slavery issue; it was none of his busi- 
 ness, or of the Senate, w^hether Kansas decided to be a 
 free state or a slave state. He even used that incautious 
 sentence that, if this principle were safeguarded, he cared 
 not whether slavery w^as voted up or voted down. 
 
 So far as I have discovered, Douglas did not repeat 
 that statement, but Lincoln saw to it that he was not per- 
 ndtted to forget it. 
 
 Lincoln did care, and he knew that in his deepest soul 
 Douglas cared. But Douglas was in a political situation 
 which made it impossible for him to care effectively, and 
 he was loyal to his principle of '^squatter sovereignty." 
 
 Lincoln, when he became a candidate for the Senate in 
 1858, knew that Horace Greeley favored such action on 
 the part of the Republicans of Illinois as should insure the 
 election of Douglas. Indeed, there was some possibility, or 
 so it seemed, that Douglas ndght become a Republican, as 
 Trumbull and other influential Illinois Democrats had 
 done. Lincoln determined to take higher ground than the 
 Whig party had ever dared take, aud he took it in his 
 ''house-divided-against-itself'' speech. 
 
 Douglas had some right to appeal to the constituency 
 of Lincoln for support. He was suffering persecution from 
 the administration for fighting w^hat he tried to think was 
 their battle again the extreme pi'o-slavery wing of the 
 Democratic party. He declared that it was not true that 
 the American house could not stand if divided on the 
 slavery issue; it always had stood, though part of the 
 states held slaves and others did not. 
 
 C 
 
So far as the (quarrel Avas between two wiiig-.s of the 
 Deniociacy, Liiieolii could afford to be an amused spec- 
 tator. His was the cheei-ful neutrality of the settler's wife 
 — "Go it, husband — Go it bear!'' But Lincoln went much 
 more deeply than this into the matter at issue. These two 
 truths he mercilessly hur-led at Dou<>las : The slavei-y issue 
 was a moral issue, and every right-minded man ought to 
 caie Avhether it was voted up or down; and, The slaveiy 
 issue was not a sectional but a national issue. 
 
 Douglas had broken with the Buchanan administra- 
 tion on the question of the Leconipton Constitution for 
 Kansas, and Douglas was light. He had refused to be a 
 party to the nefai-ious scheme of forcing a slave constitu- 
 tion upon Kansas. But in so doing he had taken pains to 
 affirm that he took his position not as an Abolitionist or 
 even as an opponent of slavery, but only as an advocate of 
 popular sovereignty. If the people had a free vote, he 
 cared not whether slavei-y was voted up or voted down. 
 That unguarded remark of Douglas Lincoln used with 
 telling effect. If the slavery question w^as not a moral 
 (luestion, he said, then Judge Douglas had a right to say 
 that he did not care whether it was voted up or voted down. 
 But Lincoln maintained that the slavery question was a 
 moral question and that it was a national question. He 
 had introduced the campaign with the declaration that this 
 government cannot permanently i-emain half slave or half 
 free. Douglas said that it had so remained from the begin- 
 ning and the founders of the republic distinctly intended 
 that the slavery question should be a question for each 
 state to determine for itself. Lincoln replied that Avhile 
 the founders of the republic saw no present way to deliver 
 the nation from the evil of slavery they recognized it as 
 an evil, whereas Douglas could not consistently think of 
 it as an evil, for if he did so he could not say that he cared 
 not whether it was voted up or voted down. 
 
 Here was whei e Lincoln had his great advantage, and 
 he pressed it mercilessly. The slavery issue was one which 
 could not be treated longer as having only a commercial 
 or political character. It was a moral wrong and a na- 
 tional disgrace. Lincoln did not see any immediate way 
 
in wliicli .slavei-Y could be abolished, but lie took his stand 
 squarely against any extension of it, and as in fa\'or of its 
 ultimate extinction. 
 
 The house Avas divided. The political house of Doug- 
 las was divided, and it was his fate to divide it still worse. 
 Not only did he not Avin the support of the "Black Repub- 
 licans" as he publicly called them, but he alienated the 
 extieme southern Democrats. The speech in Avhich he 
 sought to make himself master of a divided house Avas the 
 speech that ultimately kept him out of the White House. 
 It AA'as a brave speech, but it made it possible later to say, 
 "Lincoln split rails, and Douglas split his party." Douglas 
 Avoii the Senatorial re-election ; he may be said to haA^e won 
 it by his courage in opposing the administration ; but he 
 lost the higher pi-ize, and he proved a good loser. The last 
 time he and Lincoln stood on the same platfoi-m Avas on 
 March 4, 18G1, when Douglas held Lincoln's tall, shiny 
 neAV hat, and Lincoln read his inaugural address as. 
 President of the United States. 
 
 The seven cities in Avhicli these memorable debates 
 occurred have reason to conunemorate Avith pride their 
 share in the defining of an issue Avhich the tAVo men clearly 
 faced and Avhicli did not subside until the house ceased to 
 be divided against itself, and the Avliole nation became free. 
 
 Little did ('harleston realize on that notable day, 
 sixty-foui- years ago, Avliat monientous issues hung upon a 
 political meeting held Avithin her borders. On that day 
 this toAvn became one of the great battle-fields where 
 human history Avas made. Not merely an election to the 
 Senate depended upon the discussions of Avhich this Avas 
 one, but the election of a President, and the questions 
 which accompanied that election, greater in their moment 
 than any man could have inuigined. The issues here dis- 
 cussed Aveie not to be settled until the battle here fought 
 Avas Avaged on Avider and reddei- fields. Then the Avorld 
 understood the full meaning ot the things of Avhich Lincoln 
 and Douglas talked in Charleston. The house is no longer 
 divided. We aic one nation, and that Avhole nation is free, 
 
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