Two years later Abraham Lincoln was asked to be a candidate for the
United States Senate. He would be running against Douglas. Abe wanted
very much to be a Senator. Even more he wanted to keep slavery out of
the new states. Taking part in the political campaign would give him a
chance to say the things that he felt so deeply.
"I am convinced I am good enough for it," he told a friend, "but in
spite of it all I am saying to myself every day, 'It is too big a thing
for you; you will never get it.' Mary insists, however, that I am going
to be Senator and President of the United States, too."
Perhaps it was his wife's faith in him that gave him the courage to
try. Never was there a more exciting campaign. Never had the people of
Illinois been so stirred as during that hot summer of 1858. A series of
debates was held in seven different towns. The two candidates--Douglas,
"the little Giant," and "Old Abe, the Giant Killer," as his friends
called him--argued about slavery. People came from miles around to hear
them.
On the day of a debate, an open platform for the speakers was decorated
with red-white-and-blue bunting.
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