The favorable manner in which Douglas' speech was received by the Democrats in the city of Chicago was a disappointment to the supporters of Buchanan in his contest with Douglas and immediate steps were taken to curb the latter's popularity in Illinois. The administration machinery was put in motion and, before many days had passed, lists of proscribed postmasters and of other federal employees favorable to Douglas began to appear in the newspapers. The Union, the administration organ in Washington, devoted columns of space to show why the Democrats of Illinois should not support Douglas, and urged them to vote for Judge Breese, who was faint-heartedly put forward in opposition to the Little Giant. Senator Trumbull, bound to support Lincoln because of his sacrifice four years before, as well as by party ties and natural hostility toward Douglas, took the stump in a series of abusive attacks on Douglas, which drew from the latter equally caustic and offensive rejoinders. Without a formal nomination or indorsement by the people of Illinois, ridiculed as a "my-party" candidate, and facing the loss of the federal patronage, Douglas entered upon the greatest of his many battles for supremacy—a contest surpassing that waged two years later for the presidency, when he was in a hopeless situation from the beginning of the campaign. Alone and unaided, he faced in the lists Trumbull and Lincoln, the best debaters afforded by the Republicans in the West, and probably equaled only by Seward in the East.
[Daily Whig, Quincy, Ill., June 23, 1858]
DOUGLAS TO TAKE THE STUMP
Judge Douglas has left the Democratic party, or the party has left him. He opposed the Administration in its darling measure to en-
