The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Overview:

The Lincoln Douglas debates were a series of seven debates in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for Illinois Senator, and Senator Douglas, the Democratic candidate for reelection.  The main topic up for discussion was slavery. Each debate was held in a different town in Illinois over the course of a little less than three months. The debates grew rapidly in popularity as people from other states traveled many miles to see the two orators combat each other with words. All of the debates were covered by Chicago newspapers, and the newspaper companies even sent stenographers to record and publish the entire debate so those at home could know what was going on as well. However the newspapers were biased and the Republican papers edited out any errors on Lincoln's behalf, but the Democratic newspapers did the same with Douglas' speech too. The way the debates worked was the first candidate spoke for an hour, an following that the second candidate spoke for 90 minutes, and after the second candidate spoke, that, the first candidate was allowed 30 minutes to refute or solidify his argument. The order in which was the candidates spoke first was alternated, leaving Douglas to speak first four times, and Lincoln to strike first three times. 

The Debates:

Both Lincoln and Douglas discussed a variety of topics, but the one everyone was most interested in was slavery. Douglas tried to poison people's view of Lincoln by saying that Lincoln believed that the slaves should be set free as equals of the white man, endangering the jobs of all the hardworking white males of America. Lincoln refuted by saying he did not view the blacks as equals, he said "I agree with Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many respects-certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But the right to eat the bread , without leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man." Lincoln explains how the slaves deserve to be paid for their hard labor, even if they are not the "equal" of the white man. He argues that regardless of their skin color or social class, they should be able to rejoice in the fruits of their labor. He also challenges Douglas' policy of popular sovereignty, forcing Douglas to explain the Freeport Doctrine. He explained how he believes that the new Territories or States should have the right to govern whether or not they want to allow slavery to be present within their boundaries. This pleased few people on either side, because it brought up concerns for the South by threatening their way of life, because they were worried that the black freedom would spread to the South. It also concerned Northerners because they were distressed at the thought of the ideals and ideology of slavery being so close to home. Lincoln saw a fatal flaw in Douglas' popular sovereignty policy, because of Douglas' firm support of the Dred Scott case. The Dred Scott case basically said that it was illegal to ban slavery anywhere in the United States because the fifth amendment protects a citizen's property, and because of the Dred Scott case, all slaves were to be considered property. This means that to outlaw slavery would be illegal to prohibit a man's right to property, or slave in this case. Lincoln had successfully trapped Douglas, putting Douglas in a sticky situation. 

Results:

Although Lincoln had effectively trapped his opponent, Douglas ended up winning the Senate race because in that time period, Senators were elected by State Legislatures, and the Democrats were able to take over control of the Illinois Legislature. However, even though he lost the Senate race, this wasn't a complete loss for Lincoln. Even with his loss, Lincoln gained mass popularity and national support, which gained him the Republican nomination for president in the presidential elections two years later, and this time he managed to defeat Douglas and become the president of the United States.