"
Even so skillful a debater as Douglas soon found himself hard put to it
to answer Lincoln's arguments, without offending one or the other of the
powerful factions whose support he must have to reach the presidency. At
the beginning, his experience and adroitness gave him an advantage,
which, however, Lincoln's earnestness and directness soon overcame. Tens
of thousands of people gathered to hear the debates, they were printed
from end to end of the country, and Lincoln loomed larger than ever
before the nation; but so far as the immediate result was concerned,
Douglas was the victor, for the election gave him a majority of the
legislature, and he was chosen to succeed himself in the Senate.
Yet more than once he must have regretted that he had consented to cross
swords with his lank opponent, for he had been forced into many an
awkward corner. There is a popular tradition that the presidential
nomination came to Lincoln unsought; but this is anything but true. On
the contrary, in those debates with Douglas, he was consciously laying
the foundation for his candidacy two years later. He used every effort
to drive Douglas to admissions and statements which would tell against
him in a presidential campaign, while he himself took a position which
would insure his popularity with the Republican party.
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