The methods of the two men were as diverse as their bodily appearance.
Douglas was a master of what the ancient Greeks would have called
"making the worse appear the better reason." He was able to misstate
his antagonist's position so shrewdly as to deceive the very elect. And
with equal skill he could escape from the real meaning of his own
statements. Lincoln's characterization is apt: "Judge Douglas is
playing cuttlefish--a small species of fish that has no mode of
defending himself when pursued except by throwing out a black fluid
which makes the water so dark the enemy cannot see it, and thus it
escapes."

Lincoln's method was to hold the discussion down to the point at issue
with clear and forcible statement. He arraigned the iniquity of slavery
as an offense against God. He made the phrase "all men" of the
Declaration of Independence include the black as well as the white.
Said he: "There is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled
to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of
Independence--the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.... In the right to eat the bread, without the leave of
anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal, and the equal
of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man." He quoted
Jefferson's remark, "I tremble for my country when I remember that God
is just." Mercilessly he analyzed Douglas's speeches and exposed his
sophistry.

The forensic ability of the two men is suggestively indicated by the
remark of a lady who heard them speak, and afterward said: "I can
recall only one fact of the debates, that I felt so sorry for Lincoln
while Douglas was speaking, and then _so_ sorry for Douglas while
Lincoln was speaking."