at least put his refusal on some more plausible ground than a mere squibble. The idea that Mr. Douglas is unable to meet Mr. Lincoln in debate because forsooth a Democratic Central Committe had already made some half dozen appointments for him, is pitiful—just as though those appointments could not be changed, or so modified as also to embrace a discussion with Mr. Lincoln or leaving those appointments out of the question, just as though there was not yet remaining full two months in which to make the canvass with Mr. Lincoln! However it is viewed, Mr. Douglas' attempt to Skulk behind a Central Committee, is a cowardly showing of the white feather.
[Chicago Daily Journal, August 2, 1858]
The Times finds fault with Mr. Lincoln's letter to Mr. Douglas because it is "bunglingly expressed."
Our neighbor should recollect that he has not the advantage of having the Douglas candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction to correct it for him!
[Illinois State Register, Springfield, August 2, 1858]
DISCUSSION BETWEEN MESSRS. DOUGLAS AND LINCOLN
We were furnished on Saturday, by Mr. Lincoln, with the following correspondence, from which it will be seen that he agrees to meet Mr. Douglas in discussion at seven points in the state, which are named in the note of the letter. Mr. Lincoln cannot forego, even in this brief note, the expression of the idea uppermost with him, that he is "a victim," Douglas has one more "opening" than himself, which, if it were not so, Mr. Lincoln would have one more than Mr. Douglas. As we are told by Mr. Lincoln's organs that Douglas felt incapable of debating successfully with Mr. L., the latter should have forborne his lament, in a spirit of magnanimity.
Now there is a bit of egotism in all this, pardonable, probably, in view of Mr. Lincoln's extremity. Why had he, any more than Wentworth, or Browning, or Gillespie, or Palmer, or Dougherty, or Judd, or any other republican or Danite notability, a right to expect a challenge for debate from Douglas. True, Lincoln had thrust himself before all the reception meetings gotten up in honor of Mr. Douglas, and had taken shape as a senatorial candidate; but as Mr. Douglas
