The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Abraham Lincoln was a gifted public speaker, but he found his talents put to the test in the now famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. Lincoln had been chosen by the Republican Party to run against Stephen Douglas for the U.S. Senate that year. In an attempt to get his name out there and generate some much needed publicity, he quietly challenged Douglas — one of the most famous political figures of his time — to a series of seven debates on various issues, primarily the extension of slavery into the territories. Douglas accepted, but he knew he was taking a big chance in doing so. The result was a confrontation between two well-spoken, outspoken men that is still remembered today as one of the most thrilling examples of American politics in action.
The Question of Slavery
Slavery immediately became the hottest issue in the debates, and the verbal sparring often got extremely ugly by contemporary standards. Rather than fielding questions from journalists, as is the case today, the candidates themselves decided the tone and content of the debates.
Douglas tried to discredit Lincoln on the issue of slavery by painting him as a rabid abolitionist who wished to put blacks on equal footing with whites. He also suggested that Lincoln was advocating interracial marriage and hinted that if emancipation were to occur, the Illinois Territory would be overrun with freed blacks who would take jobs away from whites. Lincoln countered by calling Douglas's claims “counterfeit logic.” He tried to explain his position as rationally as he could, noting that his call to halt the spread of slavery did not mean he was advocating any type of amalgamation of the races. He also reiterated his long-held belief that slavery was “a moral, social, and political evil” but that the federal government had no right to interfere in the rights of states in which slavery already existed.
Shared Respect
Douglas knew Lincoln was no backwoods bumpkin, and he would have to be in top form in order to win the debates and then the election. Though they were fierce opponents, each man respected the other. Douglas described Lincoln as “the strong man of his party — full of wit, facts, dates — and the best stump speaker in the West. If I beat him, my victory will be hardly won.” Said Lincoln of Douglas: “Senator Douglas is of worldwide renown. All the anxious politicians of his party… have been looking upon him… to be President. Nobody has ever expected me to be President.”
“A house divided against itself cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to dissolve — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.” — Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln-Douglas debates, December 1858
Lincoln ultimately lost the Senate race to Douglas, who was elected by state legislators, not a popular vote as is the case today. But Lincoln ended up a bigger winner in the long run. His excellent showing in the debates and the fact that he provided Douglas with challenging competition made him a national figure and greatly increased his popularity within the Republican Party, which found his moderate stand on the issues a pleasant change from more radical Republicans like William Seward and Salmon Chase. Party officials would demonstrate their approval just two years later by selecting Lincoln as the Republican presidential candidate.
