In after years, Douglas made his friends believe that he accepted the nomination with no expectation of success:  his only purpose was to “consolidate the party."[89] If this be true, his buoyant optimism throughout the canvass is admirable.  He was pitted against a formidable opponent in the person of Major John T. Stuart, who had been the candidate of the Whigs two years before.  Stuart enjoyed great popularity.  He was “an old resident” of Springfield,—­as Western people then reckoned time.  He had earned his title in the Black Hawk War, since which he had practiced law.  For the arduous campaign, which would range over thirty-four counties,—­from Calhoun, Morgan and Sangamon on the south to Cook County on the north,—­Stuart was physically well-equipped.[90]

Douglas was eager to match himself against Stuart.  They started off together, in friendly rivalry.  As they rode from town to town over much the same route, they often met in joint debate; and at night, striking a truce, they would on occasion, when inns were few and far between, occupy the same quarters.  Accommodations were primitive in the wilderness of the northern counties.  An old resident relates how he was awakened one night by the landlord of the tavern, who insisted that he and his companion should share their beds with two belated travelers.  The late arrivals turned out to be Douglas and Stuart.  Douglas asked the occupants of the beds what their politics were, and on learning that one was a Whig and the other a Democrat, he said to Stuart, “Stuart, you sleep with the Whig, and I’ll sleep with the Democrat."[91]

Douglas never seemed conscious of the amusing discrepancy between himself and his rival in point of physique.  Stuart was fully six feet tall and heavily built, so that he towered like a giant above his boyish competitor.  Yet strange to relate, the exposure to all kinds of weather, the long rides, and the incessant speaking in the open air through five weary months, told on the robust Stuart quite as much as on Douglas.  In the midst of the canvass Douglas found his way to Chicago.  He must have been a forlorn object.  His horse, his clothes, his boots, and his hat were worn out.  His harness was held together only by ropes and strings.  Yet he was still plucky.  And so his friends fitted him out again and sent him on his way rejoicing.[92]

The rivals began the canvass good-naturedly, but both gave evidence of increasing irritability as the summer wore on.  Shortly before the election, they met in joint debate at Springfield, in front of the Market House.  In the course of his speech, Douglas used language that offended his big opponent.  Stuart then promptly tucked Douglas’s head under his arm, and carried him hors de combat around the square.  In his efforts to free himself, Douglas seized Stuart’s thumb in his mouth and bit it vigorously, so that Stuart carried a scar, as a memento of the occasion, for many a year.[93]