PREFACE
The present volume contains Senator Douglas's Reply, and Mr. Lincoln's Rejoinder in the Fourth Joint Debate, held at Charleston, and the last three debates. While the forensic contest with Douglas was formally closed at Alton on October 15, 1858, it was, as a matter of fact, continued throughout the next year: by Douglas in a speech-making and Presidential fence-repairing tour through the South and in an article in Harper's Magazine; and by Lincoln in speeches at Chicago, Columbus, and Cincinnati. These three addresses of Lincoln are comprised in the present volume, as well as an address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, in which he attacks slavery as the enemy of free labor.
The introductory note by Professor Robert Allyn, contrasting the characters and oratorical styles of Lincoln and Douglas as revealed in these post-Debate speeches, is taken from "The Lincoln Memorial," and here presented by permission of the editor, Osborn H. Oldroyd.
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