Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). Political Debates Between Lincoln and Douglas. 1897.
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| Preface | |
| HARDLY a day passes without a new contribution to Lincoln literature. Never a year but brings its quota of books, pamphlets, articles, essays, poems. An enumeration of all the titles, if such an enumeration were possible, would make a large volume, and Lincoln bibliographies bear eloquent testimony to the mass of printed material in existence which is of value. Many of these titles are in constant demand and are reissued periodically, and of this class there is no more striking example than the present volume. It is an essential item to whoever would approach Lincoln intelligently, and an indispensable unit in any collection of historical interest. There is no portion of the great War President’s printed work to which it yields in interest and importance. | 1 |
| These speeches “made history” in a very concrete way. Much grew out of the conflict between these men whose political careers presented such striking contrasts, whose ambitions so conflicted, from the time when their paths first met, followed nearly parallel courses, separated, met again, and finally diverged so widely. The significance of it all is heightened when we remember that their rivalry was not political only—that it was carried into social life, into that odd, spirited courtship of Mary Todd, into all the relations of private life; that is was constantly acting, directly or indirectly, to modify each man’s conduct—to spur him and sting him on to more energetic action, or to operate as a restraining influence when desperate chances were to be taken. The almost exact reversal of the relative positions occupied by these two men in the early fifties is made clear to us by the material of this book. | 2 |
| From the date of the first of the speeches here presented—that made on the evening of the day which saw Lincoln nominated for Senator from Illinois by the State Convention at Springfield—from the delivery of this widely-celebrated address his chance of realizing his ambition grew steadily, though perhaps not | |