A few days after the delivery of this speech, a gentleman named Dr. Long called on Lincoln and gave him a foretaste of the remarks he was to hear during the next few months.  “Well, Lincoln,” said he, “that foolish speech of yours will kill you—­will defeat you in this contest, and probably for all offices for all time to come.  I am sorry, sorry, very sorry.  I wish it was wiped out of existence.  Don’t you wish so too?” Laying down the pen with which he had been writing, and slowly raising his head and adjusting his spectacles, Lincoln replied:  “Well, Doctor, if I had to draw a pen across and erase my whole life from existence, and I 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.”

The Senatorial campaign was now well begun.  Douglas opened it by a speech at Chicago on the 9th of July.  Lincoln was present, and on the next evening spoke in reply from the same place—­the balcony of the Tremont House.  A week later Douglas spoke at Bloomington, with Lincoln again in the audience.  The notion of a joint discussion seems to have originated with Lincoln, who on the 24th of July addressed a note to Douglas as follows: 

HON.  S.A.  DOUGLAS—­My Dear Sir:—­Will it be agreeable to you to make an arrangement for you and myself to divide time, and address the same audiences during the present canvass?  Mr. Judd, who will hand you this, is authorized to receive your answer, and, if agreeable to you, to enter into the terms of such arrangement.  Your obedient servant, A. LINCOLN.

The result of this proposal was an agreement that there should be a joint discussion between the two candidates in each of the seven Congressional districts in which they had not both already been heard.  Places were named and dates fixed extending to the middle of October.  It was agreed that the opening speech on each occasion should occupy one hour; the reply, one hour and a half; the close, half an hour; and that Mr. Douglas should have the first and last voice in four of the seven meetings.

The champions who were thus to enter the lists in a decisive trial of forensic strength and skill are forcibly contrasted by Mr. Speed, who says:  “They were the respective leaders of their parties in the State.  They were as opposite in character as they were unlike in their persons.  Lincoln was long and ungainly; Douglas was short and compact.  Douglas, in all elections, was the moving spirit and manager.  He was content with nothing short of a blind submission to himself.  He could not tolerate opposition to his will within his party organization.  He held the reins and controlled the movements of the Democratic chariot.  With a large State majority, with many able and ambitious men in it, he stepped to the front in his youth and held his place till his death.  Lincoln, on the other hand, shrank from any controversy with his friends.  His party being