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He entered upon the campaign of 1858 better equipped than he had ever
been before. He not only instinctively felt, but he had convinced
himself by arduous study, that in this struggle against the spread of
slavery he had right, justice, philosophy, the enlightened opinion of
mankind, history, the Constitution, and good policy on his side. It was
observed that after he began to discuss the slavery question his speeches
were pitched in a much loftier key than his former oratorical efforts.
While he remained fond of telling funny stories in private conversation,
they disappeared more and more from his public discourse. He would still
now and then point his argument with expressions of inimitable
quaintness, and flash out rays of kindly humor and witty irony; but his
general tone was serious, and rose sometimes to genuine solemnity. His
masterly skill in dialectical thrust and parry, his wealth of knowledge,
his power of reasoning and elevation of sentiment, disclosed in language
of rare precision, strength, and beauty, not seldom astonished his old
friends.


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