Years ago Salmon P. Chase had dared to say that, if the courts would not overthrow the pro-slavery construction of the Constitution, the people would do so, even if it should be “necessary to overthrow the courts also.”  Warden’s Life of Chase, 313.

[82] For Lincoln’s explanation of his position concerning the Dred Scott decision, see Lincoln and Douglas Deb. 20.

[83] A nickname for the southern part of Illinois.

[84] Henry Wilson has made his criticism in the words that “some of his [Lincoln’s] assertions and admissions were both unsatisfactory and offensive to anti-slavery men; betrayed too much of the spirit of caste and prejudice against color, and sound harshly dissonant by the side of the Proclamation of Emancipation and the grand utterances of his later state papers.” Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, ii. 576.

[85] Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, i. 145

[86] N. and H. ii. 159, 160, 163; Arnold, 151; Lamon, 415, 416, and see 406; Holland, 189; Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, ii. 576; Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, i. 148.

[87] Arnold, 144.  This writer speaks with discriminating praise concerning Lincoln’s oratory, p. 139.  It is an illustration of Lincoln’s habit of adopting for permanent use any expression that pleased him, that this same phrase had been used by him in a speech made two years before this time.  Holland, 151.

[88] Published in Columbus, in 1860, for campaign purposes, from copies furnished by Lincoln; see his letter to Central Exec.  Comm., December 19, 1859, on fly-leaf.

[89] Many tributes have been paid to Douglas by writers who oppose his opinions; e.g., Arnold says:  “There is, on the whole, hardly any greater personal triumph in the history of American politics than his reelection,” pp. 149, 150; Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, i. 149.

[90] See Lincoln’s letter to Judd, quoted N. and H. ii. 167; also Ibid. 169.

[91] Raymond, 76.

[92] The Senate showed 14 Democrats, 11 Republicans; the House, 40 Democrats, 35 Republicans.

[93] In September, 1859.  These are included in the volume of The Lincoln and Douglas Debates, printed at Columbus, 1860.

[94] The Mirror, quoted by Lamon, 442.

CHAPTER VI

ELECTION

Mr. J.W.  Fell, a leading citizen of Illinois, says that after the debates of 1858 he urged Lincoln to seek the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1860.  Lincoln, however, replied curtly that men like Seward and Chase were entitled to take precedence, and that no such “good luck” was in store for him.  In March, 1859, he wrote to another person:  “In regard to the other matter that you speak of, I beg that you will not give it further mention.  I do not think I am fit for the presidency.”