The people of Illinois were mainly farmers in 1858. They traveled long distances to hear these giants debate the question of slavery. Some of them were several days coming and going--in wagons, on horseback, or on foot. The newspapers in the larger cities sent men to listen to these debates, and take down the words used by Lincoln and Douglas. The editors knew the people were anxiously waiting to read what these men had to say about slavery. [Sidenote: =The fatal answer=] "Can the people of a ... Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen ... exclude slavery?" Lincoln asked. "Yes," said Douglas. That was a fatal answer. For, by this answer, Douglas lost the support of the Democrats of the South, although he held the Democrats of Illinois. He could still be senator, but he could never be president. The debates went on. "I do not perceive," said Lincoln, "that because the white man is to have the superior position, the negro should be denied everything ... there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights [named] in the Declaration of Independence ... I agree with Judge Douglas, he [the negro] is not my equal in many respects--certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowments. But, 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." [Sidenote: =Lincoln made famous by the debates=] These debates made Lincoln widely known. He accepted invitations to speak in Ohio, New York, and New England. [Sidenote: =Lincoln the rail-splitter=] In May, 1860, the Republicans of Illinois met in state convention. Lincoln was there. The people picked him up, lifted him over their heads, and placed him on the platform. The cheering was loud. Just at this moment John Hanks came into the hall carrying two fence rails, with the Stars and Stripes mounted between them, bearing in large words the following: "Taken from a lot made by Abraham Lincoln and John Hanks in the Sangamon Bottom in the year 1830." The people stood up and cheered, and threw their hats high and shouted for Lincoln, the "rail-splitter." He made them a speech. The convention then and there named him as the choice of the Republican party of Illinois for the next President of the United States. [Sidenote: =The candidate of the Republican party=] =163. Lincoln President.= A few weeks later Abraham Lincoln was nominated in Chicago by the National Convention of the Republican party for the presidency. Just as the passage of Douglas' Kansas-Nebraska Bill killed the old Whig party, so the debates between Lincoln and Douglas split the Democratic party into a northern and a southern wing. [Illustration: LINCOLN SPEAKING IN THE STATE CONVENTION] [Sidenote: =Lincoln elected=]