PROGRESS OF THE CAMPAIGN.
Grand Republican Rally in Mason County.
ABE LINCOLN AND JUDGE KELLOGG AT HAVANA.
Two [Th]ousand Persons Present.
SPEECHES INCIDENTS, &C[etc]., &C., &C.
(Correspondence of the Press and Tribune.)

The fine steamer Editor, Capt Garrett,2 gaily decorated with banners, and bearing a huge inscription on her pilot house, “For Senator, Abraham Lincoln,” arrived at our levee yesterday afternoon. Douglas was inveighing against Negro Equality, and telling us what a blessing the Dred Scott decision is, when the whistle of the Editor souned half a mile down the river. Forthwith some five hundred persons broke away from the Dred Scott oration, and scattered to the landing. When the boat touched the shore three cheers were called for, and given with a vengeance, for Abraham Lincoln.3 Mr. Lincoln was greeted by a host of friends from different parts of Mason and Fulton counties, who had come to hear him reply to the amalgamation lecture which Douglas has been reading all over the State.4 Several of the old stagers of the company which Lincoln raised and commanded in the Black Hawk war, were present, and joined in the general greeting.5 A procession of carriages was then formed, and Mr. Lincoln was escorted through the principal streets to the residence of Francis Low, Esq[Esquire]. Several persons suggested the propriety of his going to the grove and hearing the remainder of Douglas’ fables. “No,” said Lincoln, “the Judge felt so ‘put out’ by my listening to him at Bloomington and Clinton, that I promised to let him alone for the rest of the canvass. I understand he is calling Trumbull and myself liars, and if he saw me in the crowd he might be so ashamed of himself as to omit the most vivid part of this argument.”6

Judge Kellogg also arrived here last evening to keep his and Lincoln’s appointment at the Mason County Convention to-day.7 This afternoon the finest Republican rally we ever witnessed in this section, came off in the grove just north of the town. Fully two thousand persons were present—including delegations from Bath, Spring Lake, Chandlerville, (Cass Co.,) and various parts of Fulton county. Mr. Lincoln was introduced to the audience at precisely two o’clock, and received three rousing cheers. He said that before pursuing the line of argument which he had marked out for the day, he would call the attention of his audience to the matters between himself and Judge Douglas, which he he thought would probably answer them.

A QUESTION OF MUSCLE.

“I am informed, (said he,) that my distinguished friend yesterday became a little excited, nervous, perhaps, (laughter) and he said something about fighting, as though referring to a pugilistic encounter between him and myself. Did anybody in this audience hear him use such language? (Cries of yes.) I am informed, further, that somebody in his audience, rather more excited, or nervous, than himself, took off his coat, and offered to take the job off Judge Douglas’ hands, and fight Lincoln himself. Did anybody here witness that warlike proceeding?8 (Laughter, and cries of yes.) Well, I merely desire to say that I shall fight neither Judge Douglas nor his second. (Great laughter.) I shall not do this for two reasons, which I will now explain. In the first place, a fight would prove nothing which is in issue in this contest. It might establish that Judge Douglas is a more muscular man than myself, or it might demonstrate that I am a more muscular man than Judge Douglas. But this question is not referred to in the Cincinnati platform, nor in either of the Springfield platforms.9 (Great laughter.) Neither result would prove him right or me wrong. And so of the gentleman who volunteered to do his fighting for him. If my fighting Judge Douglas would not prove anything, it would certainly prove nothing for me to fight his bottle-holder. (Continued laughter.)

“My second reason for not having a personal encounter with the Judge is, that I don’t believe he wants it himself. (Laughter.) He and I are about the best friends in the world, and when we get together he would no more think of fighting me than of fighting his wife. Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, when the Judge talked about fighting, he was not giving vent to any ill-feeling of his own, but merely trying to excite—well, enthusiasm against me on the part of his audience. And as I find he was tolerably successful, we will call it quits.” (Cheers and laughter.)

“TWO UPON ONE.”

“One other matter of trifling consequence,” continued Mr. Lincoln, “and I will proceed. I understand that Judge Douglas yesterday referred to the fact that both Judge Trumbull and myself are making speeches throughout the State to beat him for the Senate, and that he tried to create a sympathy by the suggestion that this was playing two upon one against him. It is true that Judge Trumbull has made a speech in Chicago, and I believe he intends to co-operate with the Republican Central Committee in their arrangements for the campaign to the extent of making other speeches in different parts of the State.10 Judge Trumbull is a Republican, like myself, and he naturally feels a lively interest in the success of his party. Is there anything wrong about that? But I will show you how little Judge Douglas’s appeal to your sympathies amounts to. At the next general election, two years from now, a Legislature will be elected which will have to choose a successor to Judge Trumbull.11 Of course there will be an effort to fill his place with a Democrat. This person, whoever he may be, is probably out making stump-speeches against me, just as Judge Douglas is. It may be one of the present Democratic members of the lower house of Congress—but whoever he is, I can tell you he has got to make some stump speeches now, or his party will not nominate him for the seat occupied by Judge Trumbull. Well, are not Judge Douglas and this man playing two upon one against me, just as much as Judge Trumbull and I are playing two upon one against Judge Douglas? (Laughter.) And if it happens that there are two Democratic aspirants for Judge Trumbull’s place, are they not playing three upon one against me, just as we are playing two upon one against Judge Douglas?12 (Renewed laughter.)

Mr. Lincoln then made a most effective speech of two hours in length, which was loudly and enthusiastically applauded. I can give an idea of its power by telling some of its effects. A delegation of Old Line Whigs who voted the Fillmore ticket in 1856, came up from Bath expressly to hear Mr. Lincoln. They had been told by the Douglas prints that there were only two planks in his platform—negro equality and amalgamation. They learned that he not only had never advocated either of these doctrines, but that the fact of Douglas’s being unable to assail him in any of his real positions, was the sole reason of his creating these fictitious and disgusting issues. They learned that in the conspiracy to Africanize the American continent, Stephen A. Douglas was the arch-conspirator—the Catiline of the cabal. Thist hey learned not from the bare say-so of Mr. Lincoln, but from a mountain of evidence.13 They learned enough things from the exercises of the day to give three rousing cheers for Abe Lincoln—enough to go home and set their town in order for a rousing majority for “Old Abe” in November. After the speeches were over they called on him and gave him an earnest invitation to go to Bath and speak on Monday—engaging to carry him over to Lewiston in time to fill his appointment in that place on Tuesday. I am glad to learn that Mr. Lincoln accepted the invitation.14 This is only one case of our complete success to-day. Large numbers from the eastern part of the county joined in the general acclaim. I cannot say that Lincoln brought back any Fremont Republicans who were inclined to go for Douglas, for the reason of there being none of that class in the good county of Mason.15