Northern Illinois had been peopled largely from the free States,
and southern Illinois from the slave States; thus the feeling
about slavery in the two parts was very different. To take
advantage of this, Douglas, in the very first debate, which took
place at Ottawa, in northern Illinois, asked Lincoln seven
questions, hoping to make him answer in a way that would be
unpopular farther south. In the second debate Lincoln replied to
these very frankly, and in his turn asked Douglas four questions,
the second of which was whether, in Douglas's opinion, the people
of any Territory could, in any lawful way, against the wish of
any citizen of the United States, bar out slavery before that
Territory became a State. Mr. Lincoln had long and carefully
studied the meaning and effect of this question. If Douglas said,
"No," he would please Buchanan and the administration Democrats,
but at the cost of denying his own words. If he said, "Yes," he
would make enemies of every Democrat in the South. Lincoln's
friends all advised against asking the question. They felt sure
that Douglas would answer, "Yes," and that this would win him his
election. "If you ask it, you can never be senator," they told
Lincoln. "Gentlemen," he replied, "I am killing larger game. If
Douglas answers he can never be President, and the battle of 1860
is worth a hundred of this.
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