- Tags:
- Show more
- Pages:
- 3
- Words:
- 825
Name Professor Course Date The Lincoln-Douglas Debate The Lincoln-Douglas Debates are an essential part of American beliefs and political history. The debates were caused by the senatorial campaigns of 1858 between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was nominated as the Republican candidate while Stephen A. Douglas was chosen as the Democrat candidate. In the fall of 1858, for four months, these two politicians campaigned actively throughout Illinois. They also contested openly in seven towns and by the time November 2nd had reached, the citizens of Illinois had become very informed of the central issues represented by each candidate. The two contestants discussed the effectiveness of the Dred Scott resolution, the power of states in controlling slavery in their territories, and the growth of slavery (Matthews 165). Regarding the Dred Scot deliberation, the United States Supreme Court declared that because a slave was non-human, he/she could not litigate for his/her right to freedom. Indeed, Douglas and Lincoln differed on the matter of the increase of slavery. While Lincoln disputed the expansion of slavery, Douglas supported the sovereignty of the people's rule that allowed each state government to define its regulations and procedures. On the 21st of August 1858 in Ottawa, 12,000 people from Illinois appeared for the first debate. Henry Willard, a reporter from New York, commented, “Until now the unbiased mind sensed immediately that, while there was on the one side a competent dialectician and disputant contending a wrong and weak cause, there was on the other a meticulously sincere and ingenuous man, motivated by sensible
Leave feedback