Every word of it was written, every sentence had been tested; but the speaker delivered it without manuscript or notes.

It was not an ordinary oration, but, in the main, an argument, as sententious and axiomatic as if made to a bench of jurists.

Its opening sentences contained a political prophecy which not only became the ground-work of the campaign, but heralded one of the world's great historical events.

He said: [Sidenote] Lincoln-Douglas Debates, p.

1.
"If we could first know where we are and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it.