to the depot of the Rock Island Railroad, where Mr. Lincoln was expected to arrive, and the other moving down the road towards Peru whence Mr. Douglas was advertised to come. As the first procession was crossing the canal, an enormous canal boat was moored near the bridge, crowded with men and women. In the bow was a large banner inscribed:
THE CORPORATION OF MARSEILLES
FOR
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
In a few minutes another boat appeared from Morris with a similar crowd and similar devices.
Shortly after twelve o'clock a special train from Chicago, Joliet, etc., came in with seventeen cars. When it reached the depot, three deafening cheers were repeated and re-repeated until the woods and bluffs rang again. Mr. Lincoln was placed in a carriage beautifully decorated with evergreens and mottoes by the young ladies of Ottawa, and escorted by the procession, over half a mile in length, with military companies and bands of music, from the depot to the public square, around the square and to the residence of Mayor Glover. Enormous crowds blocked the streets and side-walks through which the procession moved, and the shouts of the multitude rolled from end to end, around the street corners and across the bridge, in a continuous tumult. When Mr. Lincoln's carriage stopped at the Mayor's residence, three mighty cheers were given and the crowd scattered miscellaneously for dinner.
The Douglas procession moved down the Peru road to Buffalo Rock, where they met the pro-slavery champion, whom they escorted to the Geiger House. The procession was about half as long as that which waited on Mr. Lincoln, and the enthusiasm was almost wholly confined to the Irish Catholics.
At one o'clock, the crowd commenced pouring into the public square. The rush was literally tremendous. The speaking stand had been foolishly left ungarded, and was so crowded with people, before the officers of the day arrived, that half an hour was consumed in a battle to make room for the speakers and reporters. Even then the accomodations were of the most wretched character. Two or three times the surge of people on the platform nearly drove the reporters off, and half a dozen clowns on the roof broke through some of the boards and let them down of the heads of the Reception Committees.
