The Portland daily press., 1895-05-25

thus deny the power of the suuatters to
protect themselves from slavery, he would
S tand a mighty slim chance of being
elected to the Senate, and he would prob
ably render it impossible if he were nom
mated to carry any Northern State? And
if he answers asyou believe he will it will
cost him good many votes down in
Egypt, where the old settlers come most
| ly from the slave States, and feel about
the same as the people of the South
That is the substance of what passed
between us and the language as far as ]
can recall it. We argued it at some fur.
ther length, but 1 could make no i'm
preston on Mr.. Lincoln's mind. He
said that he wouldn't change the form OF
the question, and that he intended tc
| ''spear it, at Douglas that afternoon,
In due time we arrived at Freeport, and
there was a great crowd of Lincoln s
friends at the depot with carriage to
take him up to his hotel. The town was
swarming with people, great numbers
coming from all the adjoining counties.
found at the hotel the Republican mem
Der of Congress from that district, E. B.
| Washburne, with whom was intimately
| acquainted, and Norman B. Judd of Chi
cago, who was chairman of the Republi-
can State Central Committee. took each
OF them to one side and related what
passed between Lincoln and myself on
the cars, and repeated the language of
the second question which he intended to
PROFOUND to Douglas, and both of them
said that they feared i'll effects from it,
and they would try and persuade Lin
coin to leave it out or modify its Ian
guage. They followed Mr. Lincoln up
stairs into his apartments, where he was
making his toilet for dinner, as the road
had been dusty on the way up, and they
spent considerable time with him When
they came downstairs saw both of them
again, and they informed me that they
had argued the impolicy of putting ques-
tion two to Douglas as strongly as they
could, but they were not able to change
his purpose. Other leaders saw Mr. Lin
coin before the debate began and urged
him not to give Douglas such an oppor-
tunity to get out of the tight place it
was believed he was in before the people
of Illinois on the slavery question. But
nothing was accomplished in that direc-
tion.
Mr. Lincoln opened the discussion in
the afternoon, and first replied to Doug
lass seven questions put to him to Otta-
wa, and then he said:
81 now proceed to PROFOUND to the
Judge interrogatories so far as 1 have
framed them. will bring forward to-
day an installment, only to number four
and reserve the other questions to our
next debate. -
And thereupon he read his four ques-
tions, including the No. to which I
have referred He went on and finished
his speech, and Mr. Douglas arose to reply
tions. When he came to No 2 he real
lied in his reply my worst fears. He
said in substance:
1t matters not what way the Supreme
Court may hereafter decide as to the alb
stract question whether slavery may or
may not go into a Territory under the
constitution, a majority of the people
thereof have the lawful means to intro
duce or exclude it as they please, for the
reason that slavery cannot exist day or
an hour anywhere unless it is supported
by local police regulations These police
regulations can only be established by
the local legislature and if the majority
of the people of the Territory are opposed
to slavery they will elect representatives
to that body who will, by unfriendly leg
islation, effcetually prevent the introduce
tion of it into their midst. If, on the
contrary, they are for slavery their legis-
lature will favor it's admission and exten-
sion. Hence, no matter what the decision
of the Supreme Court may be on that abb
stract question, still tbs right of the
people to make slave Territory or free
Territory is perfect and complete under
the Nebraska bill. I hope Mr.. Lincoln
deems my answer satisfactory on that
point
That was Senator Douglass reply to
Mr.. Lincoln's sharp question, and it so
pleased the thousands of Democrats pres
ent that they cheered and shouted and
kept it up SO long it was with great diff
Guilty the chairman of the meeting, aided
by Mr.. Douglas himself. could induce
them to stop applauding in order that he
might proceed with his speech, while the
Republicans maintained an absolute 81
lence.
The Democratic papers all over Northern
Illinois quoted and applauded Douglas
triumphant reply to Mr.. Lincoln's inter-
rogatory The campaign was fought out
to the conclusion. 1t was the most ex-
citing and desperate political contest that
had been known in the State up to that
time Enough of the close and doubtful
counties voted for Douglas to secure him
control of the legislature, which reelected
| him to the Senate for the third time,
and Lincoln was defeated.
Two years later the great parties met
in conventions to nominate candidates
for the Presidency, the Republicans plac-
ing Lincoln before the country. The
Democratic party failed to agree ON a