Shields sent a friend to the editor of the “Journal,” and demanded the name of the real “Rebecca.”  The editor, as in duty bound, asked Lincoln what he should do, and was instructed to give Lincoln’s name, and not to mention the ladies.  Then followed a letter from Shields to Lincoln demanding retraction and apology, Lincoln’s reply that he declined to answer under menace, and a challenge from Shields.  Thereupon Lincoln instructed his “friend” as follows:  If former offensive correspondence were withdrawn and a polite and gentlemanly inquiry made, he was willing to explain that: 

“I did write the ‘Lost Townships’ letter which appeared in the ‘Journal’ of the 2d instant, but had no participation in any form in any other article alluding to you.  I wrote that wholly for political effect; I had no intention of injuring your personal or private character or standing as a man or a gentleman; and I did not then think, and do not now think, that that article could produce or has produced that effect against you, and had I anticipated such an effect I would have forborne to write it.  And I will add that your conduct toward me, so far as I know, had always been gentlemanly, and that I had no personal pique against you and no cause for any....  If nothing like this is done, the preliminaries of the fight are to be: 

“First.  Weapons:  Cavalry broadswords of the largest size, precisely equal in all respects, and such as now used by the cavalry company at Jacksonville.

“Second.  Position:  A plank ten feet long, and from nine to twelve inches broad, to be firmly fixed on edge, on the ground, as the line between us, which neither is to pass his foot over upon forfeit of his life.  Next, a line drawn on the ground on either side of said plank and parallel with it, each at the distance of the whole length of the sword and three feet additional from the plank, and the passing of his own such line by either party during the fight shall be deemed a surrender of the contest.”

The two seconds met, and, with great unction, pledged “our honor to each other that we would endeavor to settle the matter amicably,” but persistently higgled over points till publicity and arrests seemed imminent.  Procuring the necessary broadswords, all parties then hurried away to an island in the Mississippi River opposite Alton, where, long before the planks were set on edge or the swords drawn, mutual friends took the case out of the hands of the seconds and declared an adjustment.  The terms of the fight as written by Mr. Lincoln show plainly enough that in his judgment it was to be treated as a farce, and would never proceed beyond “preliminaries.”  There, of course, ensued the usual very bellicose after-discussion in the newspapers, with additional challenges between the seconds about the proper etiquette of such farces, all resulting only in the shedding of much ink and furnishing Springfield with topics of lively conversation for a month.  These occurrences, naturally enough, again drew Mr. Lincoln and Miss Todd together in friendly interviews, and Lincoln’s letter to Speed detailing the news of the duels contains this significant paragraph: