The meetings were attended by enormous crowds. People came twenty and thirty miles in carriages and wagons, devoting two or three days to the excursion, and the local excitement was intense. The two parties endeavored to excel each other in processions, music, fireworks, and novel features. At each town salutes would be fired and an address of welcome delivered by some prominent citizen. Sometimes committees of ladies would present the speakers bouquets of flowers, and on one occasion they wound garlands around the lank and awkward form of the future President, much to his embarrassment and dismay. After a debate at Ottawa, the enthusiasm was so great that a party of his admirers carried him on their shoulders from the meeting to the house where he was being entertained. Lincoln did not underrate the ability or the advantages of his opponent. He realized fully the serious character and importance of the contest in which he was engaged. He was aware that the entire country was watching him with anxious eyes, and that he was addressing not only the multitudes that gathered around the platforms, but the entire population of the United States. He knew also that whatever he might say would have a permanent effect upon the fortunes of the Republican party, then only two years old, not to speak of his own personal destiny. He knew Douglas as well and perhaps better than Douglas knew himself. They had been acquainted from boyhood, and their lives had run in parallels in a most remarkable manner. They had met at the threshold of their political careers. They had served together in the Legislature twenty-three years before. They were admitted to practice at the bar of the Supreme Court together. They had been rivals for the hand of the same lady, as related in a previous chapter. They served together in Congress. They had met repeatedly, and had measured strength in the Legislature, in the courts, and on the platform. They had always been upon outwardly friendly terms, but each knew that the other disliked him intensely. It is probable that his inquisitive nature and analytical habits gave Lincoln a better knowledge of the strong and weak points of his antagonist. He was very thorough in whatever he undertook, while Douglas was more confident and careless in his preparation. Lincoln knew that in the whole field of American politics there was no man so adroit or aggressive or gifted in the tricks and strategy of debate, and in this contest Douglas showed his fullest power. Lincoln's talents and habits were entirely different. He indulged in no tricks and made no effort to dazzle audiences. His fairness of statement and generosity were well known and understood by Mr. Douglas, who took advantage of them. His high standard of political morals and his devotion to constitutional principles were equally well understood, and Douglas took advantage of those also.