rs of age, claimed to right to nominate me as he had
done in previous conventions. He was absent at the moment, but
the convention, in deference to his known wishes, awaited his
coming. From that time until the election, I was actively engaged
in the presidential canvass. I spent but little time in my district,
as there was but a nominal opposition to my election. The Democratic
candidate, Barnabus Burns, was a personal friend, and sympathized
with me on many subjects. Scarcely a week day passed that I did
not speak at least once.

Of the many speeches made by me in that canvass, I recall but very
few. I have already referred to my debate with Cox, if it can
properly be called a debate. It was friendly badinage. He charged
me with pulling the Morrill tariff bill through by a trick. I
answered that if it was a trick, it was a trick well played, as
the bill passed by a vote of 105 to 64, many Democrats voting for
it. He complained of the duties on wool, declaring that the farmers
were sacrificed. I showed that the duties on wool had been advanced.
He said I was president of a Know Nothing Lodge in Mansfield. I
said this was simply a lie, and that there were plenty of Douglas
Democrats before me who knew it. He said that I initiated therein,
Sam Richey in a stable. I asked who told him that story, when the
audience called out loudly for Burns. Mr. Burns rose and said he
did not tell Mr. Cox so. I said I was glad to hear it, that it
was a silly lie made up out of whole cloth, and asked if Richey
was present. Richey was in the crowd, and rose amid great laughter
and applause and said: "Here I am." I said: "Well, friends, you
see my friend, Richey, is a genuine Irishman, but he knows, as I
know, that Cox's story is a falsification. Mr. Cox says I am a
political thief; don't think he charges me with stealing sheep, he
only means to say I stole squatter sovereignty. It is petty larceny
at best. But I did not steal Douglas squatter sovereignty."

I then proceeded to define the difference between the only two
parties with definite principles. The real contest was, not between
Lincoln and Douglas, or between Cox and me, but between Breckenridge
and Lincoln, between free institutions and slave institutions,
between union and disunion. I refer to this debate with Cox to
show how local prejudices obscured the problem then involved. The
people of Ohio were divided on parallel lines, for Cox and I agreed
on