ved in the
canvass that while Douglas was greeted with the loudest cheers, when
Lincoln closed the people seemed serious and thoughtful, and could be
heard all through the crowd, gravely and anxiously discussing the
subjects on which he had been speaking."

Soon after the arrangements for the debate had been made, Senator
Douglas visited Alton, Illinois. A delegation of prominent Democrats
there paid their respects to him, and during the conversation one of
them congratulated Douglas on the easy task he would have in defeating
Lincoln; at the same time expressing surprise at the champion whom he
had selected. Douglas replied: "Gentlemen, you do not know Mr. Lincoln.
I have known him long and well, and I know that I shall have anything
but an easy task. I assure you I _would rather meet any other man in the
country than Abraham Lincoln."_ This was Douglas's mature opinion of
the man of whom, years before, he had said, in his characteristic way:
"Of all the d----d Whig rascals about Springfield, Abe Lincoln is the
ablest and honestest." On another occasion, Douglas said: "I have known
Lincoln for nearly twenty-five years. There were many points of sympathy
between us when we first got acquainted. We were both comparatively
boys, and both struggling with poverty in a strange land. I was a
school-teacher in the town of Winchester, and he a flourishing
grocery-keeper in the town of Salem. He was more successful in his
occupation than I was in mine, and hence more fortunate in the world's
goods. Lincoln is one of those peculiar men who perform with admirable
skill everything they undertake. I made as good a school-teacher as I
could, and when a cabinet-maker I made as good bedsteads and tables as I
could--although my old boss says that I succeeded better with _bureaus_
and _secretaries_ than with anything else. But I believe that Lincoln
was always more successful in business than I, for his business enabled
him to get into the Legislature. I met him there, however, and had a
sympathy with him because of the up-hill struggle we both had had in
life. He was then just as good at telling an anecdote as now. He could
beat any of the boys in wrestling or running a foot-race, in pitching
quoits or pitching a copper; and the dignity and impartiality with which
he presided at a horse-race or fist-fight excited the admiration and won
the praise of everybody that was present. I sympathized with him because
he was struggling with diffic