The year 1858 is memorable alike in the career of Lincoln and in the political history of the country.  It was distinguished by the joint discussions between the two great political leaders of Illinois, which rank among the ablest forensic debates that have taken place since the foundation of the republic.  The occasion was one to call out the greatest powers of the two remarkable men who there contested for political supremacy.  It was not alone that Lincoln and Douglas were opposing candidates for a high office—­that of Senator of the United States:  they were the champions and spokesmen of their parties at a critical period when great issues were to be discussed and great movements outlined and directed.  It was naturally expected that the winner in the contest would become the political leader of his State.  Little was it imagined that the loser would become the leader and savior of the Nation.

On the 21st of April the Democratic convention of Illinois met at Springfield and announced Stephen A. Douglas, then United States Senator, as its choice for another term.  June 16 the Republican convention met at the same place and declared unanimously that “Abraham Lincoln is our first and only choice for United States Senator to fill the vacancy about to be created by the expiration of Mr. Douglas’s term of office.”  For a number of days previous to the meeting of the Republican convention Lincoln had been engaged in preparing a speech for the occasion.  It was composed after his usual method—­the separate thoughts jotted down as they came to him, on scraps of paper at hand at the moment, and these notes were arranged in order and elaborated into a finished essay, copied on large sheets of paper in a plain and legible handwriting.  This was the speech which afterwards came to be so celebrated as the “house-divided-against-itself” speech.  Lincoln was gravely conscious of its unusual importance, and gave great care and deliberation to its composition.  The evening of June 16—­the day of his nomination by the convention—­Lincoln went to his office, accompanied by his friend Herndon, and having locked the door proceeded to read his speech.  Slowly and distinctly he read the first paragraph, and then turned to Herndon with, “What do you think of that?” Mr. Herndon was startled at its boldness.  “I think,” said he, “it is all true.  But is it entirely politic to read or speak it as it is written?” “That makes no difference,” said Lincoln.  “That expression is a truth of all human experience,—­’a house divided against itself cannot stand.’  The proposition is indisputably true, and has been true for more than six thousand years; I want to use some universally known figure, expressed in simple language, that may strike home to the minds of men in order to rouse them to the peril of the times.”  Mr. Herndon was convinced by Lincoln’s language, and advised him to deliver the speech just as it was written.  Lincoln was satisfied, but thought it