freedom. This challenge at last aroused the slumbering conscience and
passion of the North, and led to the formation of the Republican party
for the avowed purpose of preventing, by constitutional methods, the
further extension of slavery.

In its first campaign, in 1856, though it failed to elect its candidates;
it received a surprising vote and carried many of the States. No one
could any longer doubt that the North had made up its mind that no
threats of disunion should deter it from pressing its cherished purpose
and performing its long neglected duty. From the outset, Lincoln was one
of the most active and effective leaders and speakers of the new party,
and the great debates between Lincoln and Douglas in 1858, as the
respective champions of the restriction and extension of slavery,
attracted the attention of the whole country. Lincoln's powerful
arguments carried conviction everywhere. His moral nature was thoroughly
aroused his conscience was stirred to the quick. Unless slavery was
wrong, nothing was wrong. Was each man, of whatever color, entitled to
the fruits of his own labor, or could one man live in idle luxury by the
sweat of another's brow, whose skin was darker? He was an implicit
believer in that principle of the Declaration of Independence that all
men are vested with certain inalienable rights the equal rights to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. On this doctrine he staked his
case and carried it. We have time only for one or two sentences in which
he struck the keynote of the contest.

"The real issue in this country is the eternal struggle between these two
principles--right and wrong--throughout the world. They are the two
principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and
will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity,
and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in