Norwich bulletin., 1917-02-12

lived in state other than Illinois, Lincoln might never have been presi- dent of the United States.
 From 1852 to 1860. Judge Douglas was the most noteworthy man in public life in America. The whig par >ty was dead Webster. Clay and Cal
 houn had passed away. Seward,
 Chase and Sumner stin in the early organizing the republican party of the
 future. This interval of eight years belonged to Douglas more than to
 any other one man. He was aggres-
 in a political campaign. As an ora
 tor he has often been compared in i'm
 pressiveness with Webster. His friends
 hoped to see him secure the democra-
 tic nomination for president in 1869,
 and it was as matter of course that
 he was in 1858 nominated tc succeed
 himself in the United States senate.
 The republicans of Illinois put for
 ward as a contestant for MT. Douglas
 seat in the senate, a new man, a pro-
 duct of the soil and the time.' Abra-
 ham Lincoln was forty y-nine years old,
 MT. Douglas senior by four years. MT. Lincoln had struggled up from meanest poverty and had had his own
 way to make. However he had put
 genius into the task and had evolved a great type of man. He had served a single term in the national house of representatives but still was little known outside of his own Illinois. His local reputation was that of a man of ideas and such felicity in expressing those ideas that his choice of words acted always like the application of light. In fact, such was the esteem in which MT. Lincoln was held by his party, that there was not one repub- lican in the state who suggested any other name than his for the senator ship. What was it in a state so large as Illinois. and party that was just 1y proud of it's Browning, it's Yates, T1e- -I- -T-rrw I1fr this ascendency?
 Probably it was his self-sacrifcing devotion to the principles of his par ty. When he first proclaimed himself a whig, Jacksonism was especially strong in Illinois. In 1886, Ohio and Indiana went for Harrison but IlIi- nois was not moved to follow. In 1840, the whigs carried every other free state except New Hampshire-yet Illinois went forNVan Buren, Again in 1844 MT. Lincoln travelled far and wide speaking long and well as a Clay elector, yet the state gave an in creased majority for Polk. She went heavily for Pierce in, '52 and also for Buchanan in '56 In fact. she never cast an electoral vote for any other than the democratic nominee until she cast all she had for her own Lincoln Having espoused the whfg cause when it was hopeless, and struggled for it through twenty years of diversity. his fellow citizens had learned to re- pose implicit faith in him beyond that which they accorded to any other man, Henry Clay alone excepted.
 Outside of Illinois. many believed that it was a grave mistake to put the comparatively unknown Lincoln into the field against Douglas. But the friends and supporters of Lincoln were by no means devoid of shrewd- ness and looking a little way into the future, they could see a number of things First, they saw that the main issue of the campaign would be Douglas Kansas Nebraska bill which became law in 1854. and which pro- vided that the people of the territor- ies were themselves to decide whether the new states were to be slave or free. There was an almost fatal am biguity in the law. Did it mean that the people could make their choice while they were yet but citizens of a territory or must they wait until the new state was admitted into the Union? Lincoln was one of the first