Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-03-28
A FAMOUS AMERICAN DEBATE
OratoricaI Contest Between Lincoln
and Douglas Recalled.

| The Lodge ana Lowell QeDate on tns
leauge of nations has awakened
Throughout the United States livel!
interest in that famous forensic con.
test Of the fifties between Abraham
Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas
known in the political history o.
the country as 1.-THE Battle Of
the Giants" Here and there an effort
lhas been made to discover points Of
similarity between the two. 1t Nigh
perhaps, be more instructive to look t.
the points Of contrast.
| The principals of the Lodge-Lowel
debate were both men of national dis
tinction. Both were university men;
both were accomplished scholars; both
were known in the world of literature;
both were recognized as constitution
al authorities. From youth they ha6
for an audience an intellectual and
cultured public. Their debate was held
in the finest halls of the Athens OF
America" under the most favorable Of
auspices, in the most agreeable Of en-
vironments, with all the facilities Of
highly organized publicity system al
their command. One of them occupied
fixed place in the nation as a states
man; the other a corresponding posi-.
ton as an educator.
Stephen A. Douglas was what the
west, some years ago, was fond Of
calling a "self-made man." He was g
rough diamond" from the frontier
The nation had to come to know him
for the fluency and the boldness of his
oratery but nobody outside Illinois
knew anything about Abraham Lin
coin. He had never received a school
ing. He had sprung from the poor
white" class of Kentucky. He had
been boatman, and several other
things before he literally broke his
way into the law. When he met Doug
las ION circuit" it was case Of the
frock coat meeting the sack. The rep
utation of Douglas preceded him into
every county seat; the reputation OF
Lincoln Jagged. There is in American
history hardly anything more pathetic
than the words from the 'gawky former
railsplitter in opening the famous de-
bates.
One point was, and Is, universally
conceded with reference to the Lodge
Lowell debate: the principals were
well matched, in point Of social stand
ing, in point of intellectual endow-
ment, in point of scholarship, in point
of general ability, in point Of reputa-
ton. How was it with one of the
principals in the Lincoln Douglas de-
bates? Says Clark Mills Carr, one
familiar with every phase of the sit
uation at the time:
Outside of Illinois only few people
knew Mr.. Lincoln; comparatively few
had ever heard his name. People in
other states wondered that the Repub-
licans of Illinois should put him up to
debate with so great man as Sena-
tor Douglas, and marveled at Mr..
D4ncoin's tenre rity fn" assuming such
an undertaking. They had read the
debates in which Senator Douglas had
engaged for q quarter of a century
with the greatest orators and states
men of the senate, and they knew his
power and skill.
1t has been said that the Lincoln
and Douglas joint debates took place
on the Illinois prairies. That is hardly
an exaggeration. They were, of nee
essity, held outdoors. No halls then
existent in Illinois could have accom-
modated the crowds which the series
Of meetings attracted. No distance
seemed too great for the people to 60
At the Ottawa meeting great part OF
the crowd arrived on the night before
and camped under the azure sky OF
the corn belt. At the meeting the at
tendance was estimated at 10000. Al
Charleston, Quincy, Alton, and, in fact
a. all the meeting places, the assem-
bled crowds were immense. In the
early stages Of the debate, Judge Doug
las received practically all the honors
On the Illinois Central railroad he al
ways had a special car and sometimes
special train at his disposal. On his
way to the meeting places he often
swept by Lincoln, sidetracked on an
accommodation or freight train. Upon
arrival in the towns where the de-
bates were held, Douglas was always
met by q brass band and salute OF
thirty-two guns,' representing the
number Of states then in the Union
and was escorted to the hotel in the
finest equipage the community af-
forded. Lincoln's supporters made
capital out Of this by affecting Repub-
lican simplicity. often carrying their
hero through the streets on a high
and unadorned hayrack. But as the
debate proceeded, and Lincoln's speech
es appeared in print and were read
conditions changed. At the Ottawa
the enthusiasm Of his supporters rar
so high that they insisted upon carry
ing him on their shoulders from the
platform to the house where he was tc
be entertained, regardless of his ap-
peal, Don't boys; let me down, come
now, don't!'
Robert A. Hit, a young man of the
time, afterward to make a distinguish
ed place for himself in congress was
the reporter of Mr.. Lincoln's speeches
He has told how after sending to The
Chicago Tribune a full transcript Of
his notes at the close Of one of the
meetings, he witnessed the making Of
wager between two men, one o1
them asserting that no man coulc
write out the speeches in full as de-
livered, and the other declaring thai
It had actually been done. In addi'
ton to the speeches, the newspaper
Just mentioned published letters IRON
Horace White descriptive and analy'
tical Of the. debate as it proceeded
Mr.. White was later editor of the Tri'
bune, and later still editor of The
New York Evening Post. Press FAC
ilities were not, in the fifties, wha
they are today, and in the Lincoln
Douglas debate several days, ever