![]() Because the Illinois electorate included every shade of opinion that existed on the slavery question, throughout the debates, as politicians do, both Lincoln and Douglas worked hard to force the other to make admissions that would cost them votes. To achieve the good of limiting the expansion of slavery, Lincoln had to accommodate the prejudice of his fellow citizens. It also explains Lincoln’s effort to argue against slavery while also disclaiming any intention to bring about “perfect equality” between the races. This context helps us understand Douglas’ racist appeals during the debates (he referred to Republicans as “Black Republicans”) and his effort to stigmatize Lincoln as an abolitionist. In 1847 it had adopted a black exclusion provision to its constitution that prohibited free blacks from entering the state and stripped resident blacks of many of the rights of citizenship. Though it sat on the northern side of the Ohio River across from Kentucky, Illinois was perhaps the most racist “free state” in the Union. Illinois mirrored the sectional division of the country: the northern districts tended to be Republican and antislavery, while the southern districts (known as Egypt) were more Democratic and proslavery. The first took place in Ottawa on August 21 (included in its entirety in this document), followed by debates in Freeport on August 27 (Lincoln’s opening speech and Douglas’ reply included here), Jonesboro on September 15, Charleston on September 18 (a brief excerpt from Lincoln’s speech included here), Galesburg on October 7, Quincy on October 13, and Alton on October 15 (another brief excerpt of Lincoln’s speech included here). The candidates alternated giving the opening speech Douglas, as the incumbent, began the first and last debates. The two men agreed to hold seven debates in towns across Illinois with the following format: an opening speech, an hour-and-a half rebuttal, followed by a half-hour rejoinder. In the election of that year, he ran again for the Senate, challenging the incumbent, Stephen Douglas (1813–1861), the author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, to a series of debates. By the summer of 1858, however, Lincoln had emerged as the standard-bearer of the new Illinois Republican Party. ![]() Lincoln ran for the Senate in 1855, but rather than divide the antislavery vote, he bowed out of the race to support another candidate. ![]() ![]() How do Lincoln’s and Douglas’ views of the Declaration differ? Who should or should not be included in the proposition that “all men are created equal”? How did Douglas attempt to stigmatize Lincoln and the Republicans as “the Abolition Party”? Why might this strategy have been effective in Illinois? What was Douglas’ critique of Lincoln’s House Divided Speech and how did Lincoln reply to this attack? What were the “bonds of Union” described by Lincoln? What evidence did Lincoln provide that his views were consistent with those of the Founding Fathers? How, in Lincoln’s view, did popular sovereignty lead to a change in the public mind over slavery and “a new basis” that looked to slavery’s “perpetuity and nationalization”? What evidence did Lincoln provide to support his allegation that there was a conspiracy to make slavery national? How did Douglas and Lincoln approach the Dred Scott decision? How did Douglas appeal to racial prejudice against Lincoln? Did Lincoln’s remarks at Charleston make him a white supremacist? What other factors might account for this statement? ![]()
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