Of the speeches in this campaign, Mr. Henry J. Raymond, the distinguished journalist, pronounced the following well-considered opinion:  “While Douglas fully sustained his previous reputation, and justified the estimate his friends had placed upon his abilities, he labored under the comparative disadvantage of being much better known to the country at large than was his antagonist.  During his long public career, people had become partially accustomed to his manner of presenting arguments and enforcing them.  The novelty and freshness of Lincoln’s addresses, on the other hand, the homeliness and force of his illustrations, their wonderful pertinence, his exhaustless humor, his confidence in his own resources, engendered by his firm belief in the justice of the cause he so ably advocated, never once rising, however, to the point of arrogance or superciliousness, fastened upon him the eyes of the people everywhere, friends and opponents alike.  It was not strange that more than once, during the course of the unparalleled excitement which marked this canvass, Douglas should have been thrown off his guard by the singular self-possession displayed by his antagonist, and by the imperturbable firmness with which he maintained and defended a position once taken.  The unassuming confidence which marked Lincoln’s conduct was early imparted to his supporters, and each succeeding encounter added largely to the number of his friends, until they began to indulge the hope that a triumph might be secured in spite of the adverse circumstances under which the struggle was commenced.”

Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield (Mass.) “Republican,” said that Lincoln “handled Douglas as he would an eel—­by main strength.  Sometimes, perhaps, he handled him so strongly that he slipped through his fingers.”

“In this canvass,” says Mr. Lamon, “Mr. Lincoln earned a reputation as a popular debater second to that of no man in America—­certainly not second to that of his famous antagonist.  He kept his temper; he was not prone to personalities; he was fair, frank, and manly; and, if the contest had shown nothing else, it would have shown at least that ’Old Abe’ could behave like a gentleman under very trying circumstances.  His marked success in these discussions was probably no surprise to the people of the Springfield district, who knew him as well as they did Mr. Douglas, or even better.  But in the greater part of the State, and throughout the Union, the series of brilliant victories successively won by an obscure man over an orator of such wide experience and renown was received with exclamations of astonishment alike by listeners and readers.”

Caleb Cushing, the distinguished Massachusetts lawyer, was one of those acute minds whose attention was attracted to Lincoln by his debates with Douglas.  Mr. Cushing said that these debates showed Lincoln to be the superior of Douglas “in every vital element of power”; and added that “the world does not yet know how much of a man Lincoln really is.”  It was soon to know him much more clearly.  In less than two years after the great debate this lately obscure Illinois lawyer was elected President of the United States.