Chapter 13.
- Growth of Lincoln's reputation. -- his dejection. -- Greeley's letters. -- Herndon's mission to the Eastern states. -- interviews with Seward, Douglas, Greeley, Beecher, and others. -- the letter from Boston. -- the Springfield convention. -- Lincoln nominated Senator. -- the “house-divided against-itself” speech. -- reading it to his friends. -- their comments and complaints. -- Douglas's first speech in Chicago. -- the joint canvass. -- Lincoln and Douglas contrasted. -- Lincoln on the stump. -- positions of Lincoln and Douglas. -- incidents of the debate. The result. -- more letters from Horace Greeley. -- how Lincoln accepted his defeat. -- a specimen of his oratory.
I shall be forced to omit much that happened during the interval between the election of Buchanan and the campaign of 1858, for the reason that it would not only swell this work to undue proportions, but be a mere repetition of what has been better told by other writers. It is proper to note in passing, however, that Mr. Lincoln's reputation as a political speaker was no longer bounded by the border lines of Illinois. It had passed beyond the Wabash, the Ohio, and the Mississippi rivers, and while his pronounced stand on the slavery question had increased the circle of his admirers in the North it provoked a proportionate amount of execration in the South. He could not help the feeling that he was now the leading Republican in his State, and he was therefore more or less jealous of his prerogative. Formidable in debate, plain in speech, without pretence of literary acquirements, he was none the less self-reliant. He already envied the ascendancy and domination Douglas exercised over his followers, and felt keenly the slight given him by others of his own faith whom he conceived were disposed to prevent his attaining the leadership of his party. I remember early in 1858 of his coming into the office one morning and speaking in very dejected
