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 * Lincoln-Douglas Debates﻿**

By: Jonathan Pait (xp), Tasha Coggins, Jessica Chamberlin
Stephen A. Douglas and Republican challenger Abraham Lincoln during the 1858 Illinois senatorial campaign, largely concerning the issue of slavery extension into the territories.

Lincoln was a relative unknown at the beginning of the debates. In contrast to Douglas' Popular Sovereignty stance, Lincoln stated that the US could not survive as half-slave and half-free states.

The slavery extension question had seemingly been settled by the Missouri Compromise nearly 40 years earlier. The Mexican War, however, had added new territories, and the issue flared up again in the 1840s. The Compromise of 1850 provided a temporary respite from sectional strife, but the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854—a measure Douglas sponsored—brought the slavery extension issue to the fore once again. Douglas’s bill in effect repealed the Missouri Compromise by lifting the ban against slavery in territories north of the 36°30′ latitude. In place of the ban, Douglas offered popular sovereignty, the doctrine that the actual settlers in the territories and not Congress should decide the fate of slavery in their midst.

The Lincoln and Douglas Debates if 1858 were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for Senate in Illinois, and incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. At the time, U.S. senators were elected by state legislatures; thus Lincoln and Douglas were trying for their respective parties to win control of the Illinois legislature. The debates previewed the issues that Lincoln would face in the aftermath of his victory in the United States presidential election, 1860. media type="youtube" key="we4DofhdJs0?fs=1" height="380" width="475" align="left"

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**First Debate: Ottawa Illinois, August 21, 1858**=====


 * Second Debate: Freeport, Illinois, August 27, 1858**


 * Third Debate: Jonesboro, Illinois, September 15, 1858**


 * Fourth Debate: Charleston, Illinois, September 18, 1858**


 * Fifth Debate: Galesburg, Illinois, October 7, 1858**


 * Sixth Debate: Quincy, Illinois, October 13, 1858**


 * Seventh Debate: Alton, Illinois, October 15, 1858**

Over 15,000 people attended the original debate in Freeport, then a town of 5,000. Freeport Doctrine, which was the result of the debate, states people had the right to choose whether or not to exclude slavery from their limits.

The debates, each three hours long, were convened in Ottawa (August 21), Freeport (August 27), Jonesboro (September 15), Charleston (September 18), Galesburg (October 7), Quincy (October 13), and Alton (October 15). Douglas repeatedly tried to brand Lincoln as a dangerous radical who advocated racial equality and disruption of the Union. Lincoln emphasized the moral iniquity of slavery and attacked popular sovereignty for the bloody results it had produced in Kansas.

Douglas’s position, while acceptable to many Northern Democrats, angered the South and led to the division of the last remaining national political institution, the Democratic Party. Although he retained his seat in the Senate, narrowly defeating Lincoln when the state legislature (which then elected U.S. senators) voted 54 to 46 in his favour, Douglas’s stature as a national leader of the Democratic Party was gravely diminished. Lincoln, on the other hand, lost the election but won acclaim as an eloquent spokesman for the Republican cause. Hillary Clint

Summary:
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates relate to the theme: Debate and Diplomacy because it is an actual debate. They were fighting each other with words of persuasion. This was actually a fight for a seat in the senate. Douglas stated that "Each stated should do as it pleases." Lincoln stated that "Slavery is a moral, social, and political wrong." This was a historic event because they invented a new way to debate. In fact, in 2008 Hillary Clinton challengened Barrack Obama to a Lincoln Douglas style Debate. =Biblography:= "The Lincoln Douglas Debate." Web. 22 Nov 2010. []. This video gave us a simple view at what the Lincoln-Douglas Debates were. //The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858//. Web. 23 Nov 2010. //Abraham Lincoln - Stephen Douglas Debates//. Web. 23 Nov 2010. < orrinwoodward.blogharbor.com/.../30/3383697.html>. This picture gave us an example of what the debates could have looked like.