Ottawa, Ill., on Saturday, the 21st instant. The meeting was the largest ever held in this part of the State, and the enthusiasm was unbounded. It is estimated that not less than 20,000 persons were present on this important occasion. The bare announcement that the two candidates were to meet in open debate was sufficient to bring together an immense crowd.
A special train of fourteen passenger cars, filled to overflowing, came from Chicago. Another train, composed of eleven cars, came from Peru and LaSalle; whilst delegations in wagons, carriages, and on horseback, came from all directions, and aided to swell the great multitude.
Gorgeous flags and ensigns, bearing appropriate inscriptions, unfurled to the breeze, whilst the rapid discharges of artillery reverberated on the air, and seemed to make the very earth tremble.
Judge Douglas, the great champion, and the invincible defender of the rights, liberties, and institutions of a free people, was met at the city of Peru, sixteen miles distant, by the committee, in an elegant carriage drawn by four splendid horses, and brought to Ottawa. Four miles out he was met by a delegation composed of several hundreds, bearing flags and banners, and escorted into the city amid the booming of cannon, the shouts of thousands, and the strains of martial music. As he neared the Geiger House, it was almost impossible for the carriages to force their way through the dense mass of living beings that blocked up the streets, and clung to the carriage containing the distinguished Senator, anxious to clasp him by the hand. The shouts and cheers that arose on his approach were deafening. No conception can be formed of the enthusiasm that was manifested without having been present, and I cannot command the language to render a proper description. He came like some great deliverer, some mighty champion, who had covered himself with imperishable laurels, and saved a nation from ruin; he came as the immortal Washington, or the patriotic Lafayette, with a nation ready to do him homage. But how different his deeds! They had distinguished themselves on the battle field, whilst the statesman and Senator had reached the culminating point of his career in the councils of the nation, by beating back the tide of political tyranny, and gloriously establishing the doctrine of popular sovereignty, and the right of the people to make their own laws.
When they reached the Geiger House, and the carriage halted in
