Lincoln, the unknown

14Wbe have now come to the summer of 1858, and we areabout to watch Abraham Lincoln making the first great fight ofhis life. We shall see him emerge from his provincial obscurityand engage in one of the most famous political battles in UnitedStates history.He is forty-nine now—and where has he arrived after allhis years of struggle?In business, he has been a failure.In marriage, he has found stark, bleak unhappiness.In law, he is fairly successful, with an income of three thousanda year; but in politics and the cherished desires of his heart,he has met with frustration and defeat."With me," he confessed, "the race of ambition has been afailure, a flat failure."But from now on events move with a strange and dizzyingswiftness. In seven more years he will be dead. But in thoseseven years he will have achieved a fame and luster that willendure to the remotest generations.His antagonist in the contest we are to watch is Stephen A.Douglas. Douglas is now a national idol. In fact, he is worldrenowned.In the four years that had elapsed since the repeal of theMissouri Compromise, Douglas had made one of the mostamazing recoveries in history. He had redeemed himself by adramatic and spectacular political battle. It came about in thisway:99