Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1899-10-10
Address all communications 10 ARBUCKLE BROS. nv

poilc3 was Tie true way TO avert II. Eur
their stupendous contention signified and
shaped the irrepressible conflict and deter
mined the political alignments and di-
visions which precipitated the ultimate and
inevitable issue.
LincoIn's Memorable Declaration,
Mr.. Lincoln inaugurated his campaign
with that bod and memorable declaration:
"A house divided against itself cannot
stand. L believe this government cannot
endure permanently half slave and half
free. l do not expect the union to be dis
solved; do not expect the house to fall:
but do expect it will cease to be divided
II Will become all one thing or the other
'fimid friends had deprecated and adj
Nised against this portentous deliverance
Ihey feared 1t would expose Lincoln and
his party to the odious charge of disunion-
ism, But LINCOLN rejected the trembling
counsel and spoke the fateful words.
Douglas Takes Up 6antief.
Douglas instantly seized on Lihce,n's
declaration, and used it with archful pow
er. He pictured the union as having ex-
listed half freed, half slave, for over so
years, strong in its very diversity, and
skillfully appealed to the patriotic union
sentiment against what he denounced as
proclamation of sectional war. Lincoln,
who had deliberately measured his ground,
never faltered, but calmly and candidly
Justified his statement of basic truth. and
developed 1t into powerful argument for
the cause and the policy he advocated.
Then he, In turn. poised his lance for the
attack. Douglas was the author and
champion of the doctrine of popular SOW
ereignty which professediy left thepeople
OF the territories to decide between free
dom and slavery for themselves. He was
constrained also to accept the bred Scott
decision, which carried slavery into the
territories under the constitution despite
raSS md fhar ,ln n rff Inca
contradictory propositions Lincoln forged
weapon which inevitably impaled his an
tagonist on the one horn or the other of a
fatal dilemma
around these central points, with their
varying incidents and illuminating side
lights, the whole debate proceeded. Doug
las attacked Lincoln as the fomenter of
sectional strife, as the advocate Of negro
equality, and as the assailant of the SUI
preme court. Lincoln attacked Douglas as
the conjoint partner of slavery extension
and as the champion of a political policy
that reversed the theory Of the fathers
which treated slavery as a moral wrong
to be gradually eXtinguished. The people
followed the two masterful chieftains with
intense and absorbed interest, and their
commanding combat fixed the lines upon
which the country rapidly moved to the
most decisive and momentous events of its
history.
Lincoln yindicateJ.
THE result indicated Lincoln's judg-
ment 1t lost the Immediate field, bur
gained the broad battle 1t elected Douglas
senator, but made Lincoln president The
issues fought on this and other platforms
of Illinois became the battle cries of the
the country, and the two great antagonists
Of the state contest We're swept on to the
leadership of the trial in the national arena.
Lincoln was elected; the irreconcilable
division which he had seen and sought to
mend by a peaceful and regenerated ma
tional policy broke loose; the south APP
pealed to arms; the house divided against
itself threatened to fall; Lincoln, who had
been charged with being a disunionist, be-
came the savior of the union; and, with
nobility not less glorious. Douglas, who
had been his most strenuous opponent, be-
came his 'stanphest supporter. The cour
speons lef.2er.! who mad resolutely fought