t Joliet, "the very
notice that I was going to take him down to Egypt made him tremble in
his knees so that he had to be carried from the platform. He laid up
seven days, and in the meantime held a consultation with his political
physicians,"[720] etc. Strangely enough, Lincoln with all his sense of
humor took this badinage seriously, and accused Douglas of telling a
falsehood.[721]

The impression prevailed that Douglas had cornered Lincoln by his
adroit use of the Springfield resolutions of 1854. Within a week,
however, an editorial in the Chicago _Press and Tribune_ reversed the
popular verdict, by pronouncing the resolutions a forgery. The
Republicans were jubilant. "The Little Dodger" had cornered himself.
The Democrats were chagrined. Douglas was thoroughly nonplussed. He
had written to Lanphier for precise information regarding these
resolutions, and he had placed implicit confidence in the reply of his
friend. It now transpired that they were the work of a local
convention in Kane County.[722] Could any blunder have been more
unfortunate?

When the contestants met at Freeport, far in the solid Republican
counties of the North, Lincoln was ready with his answers to the
questions propounded by Douglas at Ottawa. In most respects Lincoln
was clear and explicit. While not giving an unqualified approval of
the Fugitive Slave Law, he was not in favor of its repeal; while
believing that Congress possessed the power to abolish slavery in the
District of Columbia, he favored abolition only on condition that it
should be gradual, acceptable to a majority of the voters of the
District, and compensatory to unwilling owners; he would favor the
abolition of the slave-trade between the States only upon similar
conservative principles; he believed it, however, to be the right and
duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the Territories; he was
not opposed to the honest acquisition of territory, provided that it
would not aggravate the slavery question. The really crucial
questions, Lincoln did not face so unequivocally. Was he opposed to
the admission of more slave States? Would he oppose the admission of a
new State with such a constitution as the people of that State should
see fit to make?

Lincoln answered hesitatingly: "In regard to the other question, of
whether I am pledged to the admission of any more slave States into
the Union, I state to you very frankly that I would be exceedingly
sorry ever to be put in a p