====== Lincoln-Douglas Debates ======

The **Lincoln-Douglas Debates** were a series of seven public debates held in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate, and Stephen A. Douglas, the incumbent Democratic senator, during the campaign for one of Illinois's seats in the United States Senate. The debates were conducted in seven Illinois towns - Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and Alton - between 21 August and 15 October 1858. The central subject was the expansion of slavery into the territories, particularly the doctrine of popular sovereignty that Douglas had championed. Although Douglas won the Senate seat under the indirect election system then in place, the debates gave Lincoln national prominence and contributed to his nomination for president in 1860.

===== Current State of Knowledge =====

Historians generally agree on the basic chronology, format, and immediate political outcome of the debates: each debate followed an agreed format of an opening hour, a ninety-minute reply, and a half-hour rejoinder, with the candidates alternating which role they took. There is broader interpretive disagreement, however, over what the debates reveal about Lincoln's views on race and slavery, and about the degree to which Lincoln's positions evolved between 1858 and his presidency. These interpretive questions are treated in [[abraham-lincoln-racial-attitudes-static-viewpoint]] and related viewpoint pages, and the surrounding political and legal context - including the 1857 *Dred Scott* decision, which figured prominently in the debates - is treated at greater length at [[lincoln-douglas-debates-history]].

===== Viewpoints =====

  * **Lincoln as a man of his time on race** - holds that Lincoln's statements during the debates, including his disavowal of social and political equality between the races at Charleston, reflected widely shared assumptions of antebellum America and should be read in that context rather than judged by later standards. See [[abraham-lincoln-racial-attitudes-static-viewpoint]].
  * **Lincoln's racial views as fixed and limited** - holds that Lincoln's recorded statements during the debates represent a consistent personal outlook on race that did not substantially change, regardless of his later policy actions. See [[abraham-lincoln-racial-views-fixed-viewpoint]].
  * **Lincoln's racial views as evolving** - holds that Lincoln's debate-era statements reflect a political and rhetorical strategy suited to a statewide Illinois electorate, distinct from a personal view that continued to develop through his presidency. See [[abraham-lincoln-racial-views-evolving-viewpoint]].
  * **Debates as primarily a contest over constitutional principle** - emphasizes the debates as centered on competing readings of self-government, federal authority over the territories, and the *Dred Scott* decision, treating the moral question of slavery as subordinate to these constitutional disputes.
  * **Debates as primarily a moral reckoning with slavery** - emphasizes Lincoln's framing of slavery as a moral wrong and the debates as a contest over whether the nation could remain "half slave and half free," treating the constitutional arguments as instrumental to that larger moral claim.
  * **Declaration of Independence as a living standard** - holds that Lincoln's repeated invocation of the Declaration of Independence's equality clause during the debates was meant to articulate an aspirational standard toward which the nation should continue to strive, applicable beyond its original framers' intent. See [[declaration-of-independence-living-document-viewpoint]].

===== Controversies =====

  * **Did Lincoln's personal views on race change over time?** - Historians dispute whether Lincoln's debate-era statements reflect a fixed personal outlook or a political strategy distinct from views that continued to evolve through his presidency. See [[abraham-lincoln-racial-views-evolution-controversy]].

===== Related Pages =====

  * [[lincoln-douglas-debates-history]]
  * [[abraham-lincoln-racial-attitudes-static-viewpoint]]
  * [[abraham-lincoln-racial-views-fixed-viewpoint]]
  * [[abraham-lincoln-racial-views-evolving-viewpoint]]
  * [[declaration-of-independence-living-document-viewpoint]]
  * [[dred-scott-v-sandford]]
  * [[united-states-senate-election-illinois-1858]]
  * [[abraham-lincoln]]
  * [[stephen-a-douglas]]

===== Footnotes =====

  - Harold Holzer, ed., *The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: The First Complete, Unexpurgated Text* (New York: Fordham University Press, 2004).
  - David Zarefsky, *Lincoln, Douglas, and Slavery: In the Crucible of Public Debate* (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990).
  - Allen C. Guelzo, *Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates that Defined America* (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008).
  - David Herbert Donald, *Lincoln* (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995).