st this mark consider the clarity
of Lincoln's method of thinking and speaking.

In his address to the convention, accepting the senatorial nomination,
he had said: "If we could first know where we are and whither we are
tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it. We are now
far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed
object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation.
Under the operation of that policy that agitation has not only not
ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion it will not cease
until a crisis has been reached and passed. A house divided against
itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently
half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved; I
do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect it will cease to be
divided. It will become all one thing or all the other."

When the campaign opened he challenged Douglas to the debate, and the
critical contest began.

After several meetings, in which the senator proved himself a slippery
wrestler, Lincoln determined to force Douglas into a corner. He wrote a
question, and with such skill that Douglas was compelled to answer one
way or the other, either answer being fatal to his political ambition.
When Lincoln read this question to his advisers, Medill, Washburne and
Judd, all begged him not to ask it, saying that it would cost him the
senatorship. "Yes, but my loss of the senatorship is nothing. Later on
it will cost Douglas the presidency. I am killing bigger game. The
battle of 1860 is worth a hundred of 1858." The question with which
Douglas was confronted was this: "Can the people of any United States
territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the
United States, exclude slavery from its limit prior to the formation of
a State constitution?"

What a path perilous was this for Douglas's feet! The path up the edge
of the Matterhorn is a foot wide, yet it is granite, even if the climber
does look down thousands of feet upon his right and thousands of feet
upon his left. But Lincoln made Douglas walk not upon a narrow granite
way, but on a sharp sword. He who tries to walk a tight rope across
Niagara has two alternatives--he either arrives, or he does not. Yonder
is Stephen Douglas, trying to walk a tight rope over the Niagara.

Forced to an answer, Douglas finally spoke:

"It matters not what way the Supreme Court may herea