Abraham Lincoln’s first heated exchange with Stephen A. Douglas took place in Ottawa on Aug. 21, 1858, in the first formal joint appearance of the U.S. Senate campaign. Lincoln’s advisors received his performance coolly and thought he had treated Douglas too tenderly, but Lincoln wrote that “The fire flew some and I am glad to know I am yet still alive.” In this canal town, industrial center, and county seat, the population more than doubled as 14,000 people poured into Washington Square, with onlookers crowding the steps of the newly completed Reddick Mansion across Lafayette Street for a dramatic view. Fifty years later, witnesses remembered the contenders’ contrasting appearances as much as their words: Douglas was recalled as short, broad, red-faced, and deep-voiced, while Lincoln was remembered as lanky, six feet five inches tall, and high-tenored. Hannah Patterson remembered the crowd’s holiday air but insisted the questions under debate were serious. In the mid-nineteenth century, political leanings could be read in the newspaper a man carried, as Ottawa’s Democratic Weekly Free Trader followed Douglas closely while readers turned to the Weekly Republican for news of Lincoln, and the two papers loudly attacked one another. Neither candidate confined himself to the seven joint appearances, as both also spent countless hours campaigning in nearby communities. After the debate, local supporters tried to carry Lincoln off in triumph, but his long frame proved awkward; George Fuchs and Herman Meyers struggled to lift him, Lincoln clung frantically to their heads as his legs dangled and his clothing was pulled up, and he finally freed himself, shook hands with his bearers, and went on to the home of Mayor J.O. Glover for the night.