Lincoln, the unknown

104 •LINCOLN THE UNKNOWNWestward the star of empire takes its way.The girls link on to Lincoln as their mothers linked to Clay.The speakers, committees, and reporters wedged and squeezedtheir way through the dense crowd for half an hour before theycould reach the platform.It was protected from the broiling sun by a lumber awning.A score of men climbed on the awning; it gave way under theirweight; boards tumbled down on the Douglas committee.In almost every way the two speakers differed sharply.Douglas was five feet four. Lincoln was six feet four.The big man had a thin tenor voice. The little man had a richbaritone.Douglas was graceful and suave. Lincoln was ungainly andawkward.Douglas had the personal charm of a popular idol. Lincoln'ssallow wrinkled face was filled with melancholy, and he wasentirely lacking in physical magnetism.Douglas was dressed like a rich Southern planter, in ruffledshirt, dark-blue coat, white trousers, and a white broad-brimmedhat. Lincoln's appearance was uncouth, grotesque: the sleevesof his rusty black coat were too short, his baggy trousers weretoo short, his high stovepipe hat was weather-beaten and dingy.Douglas had no flair for humor whatever, but Lincoln wasone of the greatest story-tellers that ever lived.Douglas repeated himself wherever he went. But Lincoln ponderedover his subject ceaselessly, until he said he found iteasier to make a new speech each day than to repeat an old one.Douglas was vain, and craved pomp and fanfare. He traveledon a special train draped in flags. On the rear of the train wasa brass cannon mounted on a box-car. As he approached atown, his cannon fired time after time, to proclaim to the nativesthat a mighty man was at their gates.But Lincoln, detesting what he called "fizzlegigs and fireworks,"traveled in day-coaches and freight-trains and carrieda battered old carpet-bag, and a green cotton umbrella withthe handle gone and a string tied around the middle to keep itfrom flapping open.Douglas was an opportunist. He had no "fixed politicalmorals," as Lincoln said. To win—that was his goal. But Lincolnwas fighting for a great principle, and it mattered to himvery little who won now, if only justice and mercy triumphedin the end.