ty and
most commendable dignity. He said, "While pretending no indifference to
earthly honors, I do claim, in this contest, to be actuated by something
higher than anxiety for office," and apparently he was.

Lincoln looked into the future and foresaw the coming campaign of 1860
for the Presidency. He foresaw that Douglas would be the leader of the
Democrats in that campaign and conducted the debate accordingly.

Lincoln thought not alone of momentary issues, but also of eternal
verities. Some things which his friends wished him not to say, for fear
it would lose him votes, he said, because they were things that were
true and ought to be said: for example, "This nation cannot endure half
slave and half free.... A house divided against itself cannot stand.... I
do not expect the house to fall.... I do not expect the Union to be
dissolved. I do expect it to cease to be divided. It will become all one
thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest
the further spread of it and place it where in the public mind it is in
the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it until
it will become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new, North
as well as South." While such utterances probably did cost him votes at
the time, later his people could see that his prophetic vision had been
right and their confidence in him, always strong, was accordingly
increased.

Lincoln, with the training of the lawyer, the wily cross-examiner, the
profound jurist, the farsighted statesman, forced Douglas into a dilemma
between the northern Democrats of Illinois and the southern Democrats of
the slave states. Lincoln was warned by his friends that Douglas would
probably choose to please the Democrats of Illinois and be elected
United States Senator; but Lincoln replied to his friends: "I am after
larger game: the battle of 1860 is worth a hundred of this." Time proved
that Lincoln was right. While Lincoln's friends guessed wisely as to the
prediction that Douglas would choose to secure the Senatorship by
pleasing the Democrats of Illinois, many of whom were opposed to
slavery, Lincoln was wise in his prediction concerning the effect on the
campaign of 1860 for President.

For example, one of the questions Lincoln asked was: "Can the people of
a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the wishes of any
citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to
the formation of