U.S. History Project 3 - Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Storyboard-Text
- The Lincoln-Douglas Debates were held in the year of 1858 from August through October (HISTORY) throughout Illinois in a race for the U.S. Senate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas (National Park Service, “Lincoln-Douglas Debates”)
- Stephen Douglas was not completely in support of slavery; rather, according to History.com, he took the stance that the states should decide the issue (HISTORY). In addition, he happened to support the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision and, “held that the nation’s founding document had been written by white men, who intended it to apply only to white men” (HISTORY).
- Douglas said, “I hold that the signers of the Declaration of Independence had no reference to negroes at all when they declared all men to be created equal. . . . They were speaking of white men” (National Park Service, “Seventh Debate”)
- Lincoln did not want slavery to grow, (HISTORY), and believed “slaves were humans” and ought to be freed from slavery (American Battlefield Trust). Simultaneously, he did not think once the slaves were free that they should be citizens (American Battlefield Trust).
- Lincoln said, “The real issue in this controversy-the one pressing upon every mind-is the sentiment on the part of one class that looks upon the institution of slavery as a wrong, and of another class that does not look upon it as a wrong”(“Seventh Debate”).
- Lincoln said, “ ‘there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence’ ” (HISTORY).
- While Douglas won the race for Senate in Illinois, the Lincoln-Douglas debates boosted Lincoln's publicity and helped push him to the presidency in 1860 (HISTORY; American Battlefield Trust). American Battlefield Trust indicates that, “Lincoln’s stellar performance in these debates enabled his nomination for President in 1860” (American Battlefield Trust).
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- In short, the Lincoln-Douglas Debates were Lincoln's stepping stone to the largest duty of his life: leading the Union through the Civil War as President and eventually helping bring the country back together with slavery abolished for good.
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