Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, Volume 2 (of 2)Herndon, William Henry
History
Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, Volume 2 (of 2)
Herndon, William Henry
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
as that is said.' I remember this remark quite distinctly, and if the
old steamer _Editor_ is still in existence I could show the place
where we were sitting. Having secured his assent to the publication I
forwarded it to our paper, but inasmuch as my report of the Beardstown
meeting had been already mailed I incorporated the remarks on the
Declaration of Independence in my letter from Lewiston two or three days
subsequently.... I do not remember ever having related these facts before,
although they have often recurred to me as I have seen the peroration
resuscitated again and again, and published (with good effect, I trust)
in the newspapers of this country and England."
CHAPTER IV.
The importance of a more accurate and elaborate history of the debate
between Lincoln and Douglas has induced Mr. Weik and me to secure,
for publication in these pages, the account by Horace White, of this
world-renowned forensic contest. Mr. White's means of knowledge, as
fully set forth in the article, are exceptional, and his treatment of
the subject is not less entertaining than truthful. It is certainly a
great contribution to history and we insert it without further comment:
"It was my good fortune to accompany Mr. Lincoln during his political
campaign against Senator Douglas in 1858, not only at the joint debates
but also at most of the smaller meetings where his competitor was not
present. We traveled together many thousands of miles. I was in the
employ of the _Chicago Tribune_, then called the _Press and Tribune_.
Senator Douglas had entered upon his campaign with two short-hand
reporters, James B. Sheridan and Henry Binmore, whose duty it was to
'write it up' in the columns of the Chicago Times. The necessity of
counteracting or matching that force became apparent very soon, and I
was chosen to write up Mr. Lincoln's campaign.
"I was not a short-hand reporter. The verbatim reporting for the Chicago
Tribune in the joint debates was done by Mr. Robert R. Hitt, late
Assistant Secretary of State, and the present Representative in Congress
from the 6th District of Illinois. Verbatim reporting was a new feature
in journalism in Chicago, and Mr. Hitt was the pioneer thereof. The
publication of Senator Douglas's opening speech in that campaign,
delivered on the evening of July 9th, by the Tribune the next morning,
was a feat hitherto unexampled in the West, and most mortifying to the
Democratic newspaper, the _Times_, and to Sheridan and Binmore, who,
after taking down the speech as carefully as Mr. Hitt had done, had gone
to bed intending to write it out next day, as was then customary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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