Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858

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The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas for an Illinois seat in the United States Senate. At that time, the state legislature elected Senators. Thus Lincoln and Douglas were campaigning for their respective parties to win control of the legislature. The debates presaged the issues that Lincoln faced in the 1860 presidential campaign and are remembered partially for the eloquence of both sides. Practically the only issue discussed was slavery. The debates were held in seven towns in the state of Illinois: Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and Alton.

Each debate had this format: one candidate spoke for an hour, then the other candidate spoke for an hour and a half, and then the first candidate spoke for a half hour. The candidates alternated going first.

[edit] Results

In the state election, the Democrats won a narrow majority of seats in the legislature, despite getting slightly less than half the votes. The legislature then re-elected Douglas. Although Lincoln lost, the stature he gained through the debates helped him in his 1860 election to the Presidency.

Douglas actually believed in popular sovereignty. But he had declared that he would follow the ruling of the Supreme Court on restriction of slavery in the territories. After Dred Scott was handed down, Douglas was in a very difficult spot. Southerners (the majority of the Democrats) welcomed Dred Scott and demanded that slavery be allowed and protected in all territories as Dred Scott required. Douglas knew that most Northerners strongly opposed this doctrine, and that Dred Scott was a specious and contorted ruling. If he endorsed Dred Scott, his constituents in Illinois would turn on him. If he repudiated Dred Scott, the South would turn on him.

Douglas was asked to speak on Dred Scott on June 12, 1857. In that speech he put forward the idea of the Freeport Doctrine. But it was not publicized until the Freeport debate, whence the name. This modified form of popular sovereignty satisfied enough Illinoisans for Douglas to be re-elected, and enough northern Democrats to make him the strong favorite for the 1860 Democrat nomination for President. But hard-line pro-slavery Southerners denounced him. They split the party in 1860 rather than support him.

The Lincoln-Douglas debate format is named after this series of debates.