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Lincoln-Douglas Debates and the Freeport Doctrine

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Freeport Lincoln-Douglas debateLess than a week after their first debate in Ottawa, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas ventured into Freeport, Illinois, for the second of their seven joint debates during the senate election of 1858. By all standards, Freeport turned out to be the most consequential. From it came the Freeport Doctrine.

Freeport sits in the northern part of Illinois, which meant that it was generally settled by northern state migrants and tended to be more antislavery. Lincoln was on safer ground here. The joint debate agreement stipulated that the two candidates would alternate who spoke for the first hour, after which the other candidate had ninety minutes to speak, followed by a thirty-minute wrap up by the first speaker. Since Douglas started in Ottawa, Lincoln got to speak first in Freeport.

He started by answering the seven interrogatories (aka, questions) posed by Douglas in Ottawa. There was some danger to doing so as Douglas had tried to peg Lincoln as a “Black Republican,” that is, a radical leftist and abolitionist who wanted not only the end of slavery but the complete equality in all respects for African Americans. Lincoln as actually a moderate on those points, noting that the U.S. Constitution effectively barred the federal government from abolishing slavery in the states where it already existed. Indeed, all of the northern states that had banned slavery had done so at the state level, and Lincoln and others understood that the same would have to happen for any remaining slave states. In addition, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, while it failed to acknowledge the immorality of slavery, was unfortunately the law of the land. Being an honest man, notwithstanding the danger even in a generally favorable part of Illinois, Lincoln reiterated and responded to Douglas questions:

Question 1. “I desire to know whether Lincoln to-day stands, as he did in 1854, in favor of the unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave law?”

Answer. I do not now, nor ever did, stand in favor of the unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave law. [Cries of “Good,” “Good.”]

Q. 2. “I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to-day, as he did in 1854, against the admission of any more slave States into the Union, even if the people want them?”

A. I do not now, or ever did, stand pledged against the admission of any more slave States into the Union.

Q. 3. “1 want to know whether he stands pledged against the admission of a new State into the Union with such a Constitution as the people of that State may see fit to make?”

A. I do not stand pledged against the admission of a new State into the Union, with such a Constitution as the people of that State may see fit to make. [Cries of “good,” “good.”]

Q. 4. “I want to know whether he stands to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia?”

A. I do not stand to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.

Q. 5. “I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to the prohibition of the slave-trade between the different States?”

A. I do not stand pledged to the prohibition of the slave-trade between the different States.

Q. 6. “I desire to know whether he stands pledged to prohibit slavery in all the Territories of the United States, North as well as South of the Missouri Compromise line?”

A. I am impliedly, if not expressly, pledged to a belief in the right and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the United States Territories.

Q. 7. “I desire him to answer whether he is opposed to the acquisition of any new territory unless slavery is first prohibited therein?”

A. I am not generally opposed to honest acquisition of territory; and, in any given case, I would or would not oppose such acquisition, accordingly as I might think such acquisition would or would not agravate [sic] the slavery question among ourselves. [Cries of good, good.]

After showing he was responsive to Douglas’s questions, Lincoln posed four of his own. He asked:

Question 1. If the people of Kansas shall, by means entirely unobjectionable in all other respects, adopt a State Constitution, and ask admission into the Union under it, before they have the requisite number of inhabitants according to the English bill-some ninety-three thousand-will you vote to admit them? [Applause.]

Q. 2. Can the people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State Constitution? [Renewed applause.]

Q. 3. If the Supreme Court of the United States shall decide that States cannot exclude slavery from their limits, are you in favor of acquiescing in, adopting and following such decision as a rule of political action? [Loud applause.]

Q. 4. Are you in favor of acquiring additional territory, in disregard of how such acquisition may affect the nation on the slavery question? [Cries of “good,” “good.”]

Feeling pressured to respond truthfully as Lincoln had done, Douglas’s answer to the second question would come back to haunt him.

Can the people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State Constitution?

The question directly positioned Douglas’s Popular Sovereignty (from his Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854) against the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision (of 1857). Douglas was forced to choose between alienating those people he required to get reelected to the Illinois Senate or the Southerners he needed in his third run for the presidency two years later. After some obfuscation, Douglas finally responded that people in a territory could keep out slavery despite the Dred Scott decision, which stated that federal and state governments had no authority to exclude slavery because it would deprive slaveholders of their “property” rights without due process.

Southerners, who wanted the ability to expand slavery without limit, had grown concerned that states could choose to exclude slavery in accordance with Douglas’s Popular Sovereignty. They saw the Dred Scott decision as confirming their right to bring slaves wherever they wanted, and now Douglas was saying that was not true, that states could somehow choose not to allow slavery intrusion. This presented a long-term problem for slave-owning states. While they knew that most of the new territories were grossly inadequate for growing cotton, which was still the primary driver of the need for enslaving millions of their fellow Americans based solely on the color of their skin, they recognized that every new slave state would increase their representation in Congress—and their continued power to dictate policy.

Lincoln and Douglas would debate five more times during the campaign. When the votes were counted, Lincoln’s Republican party had won the popular vote and picked up seats in the legislature. But the state legislature, which due to gerrymandering would remain majority Democratic despite the vote totals, was still choosing Senators. Douglas retained his Senate seat. Lincoln likely realized his chances of winning the seat were close to nil because of the legislature’s makeup. When he was asked why he would give Douglas an advantage for Senate reelection, Lincoln replied that he had a longer view in mind: Douglas might win the Senate, but he would lose the presidency. The Freeport Doctrine would see to that.

It would be almost three weeks before the next debate in Jonesboro deep into the southern part of the state and with a significantly different view on slavery than Freeport.

[Photo of Lincoln-Douglas statues in Freeport, IL by David J. Kent.]

 

Fire of Genius

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is Immediate Past President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity andEdison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Lincoln-Douglas Debates: On to Jonesboro and Charleston

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After haggling out the arrangements and debates in Ottawa and Freeport in the northern part of Illinois, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas slowly made their way down to the southern part of the state for two debates in quick succession. Along the way they each gave a myriad of additional individual speeches to smaller venues.

Jonesboro, September 15, 1858

The third official Lincoln-Douglas debate was held in Jonesboro, which was as far south as Freeport had been north. They reflected two vastly different citizenries. Whereas the northern part of Illinois had largely been settled by northeasterners moving west, the southern part of the state was mostly settled by slave state migrants moving north. Unlike Freeport, the sparsely populated Jonesboro (about 1,500 residents) was heavily supportive of the Democratic party views on slavery (i.e., proslavery or pro-accommodating to southern rights to enslave other Americans based on the color of their skin). It’s safe to say that Lincoln was at a disadvantage.

Douglas was well aware of this. He charged Lincoln and the Republicans (which by now Democrats had started to refer to as “Black Republicans”) said one thing in northern Illinois, something different in central Illinois, and something wholly different in the southern part of Illinois. Douglas argued that Lincoln wanted full racial equality, a position that was anathema across Illinois in general and perhaps fatal in the deepest south portions of the state like Jonesboro. Lincoln not only denied he pitched differently in the north and south, but also went on offense to quote documents and speeches by Democrats to demonstrate that it was they, the self-avowed conservative Democrats who had entirely different stories across the state.

Lincoln’s main focus in Jonesboro was to argue that the expansion of slavery into the western territories would endanger the rest of the Union. He pointed out this was already happening as he looked back over the fight over slavery in Missouri, the upheaval over whether slavery could go into the territories taken after the Mexican War, and the resulting “Bleeding Kansas” violence. The only way past the crisis, he said, would be to put slavery on “the course of ultimate extinction.”

Jonesboro Lincoln-Douglas statues

Charleston, September 18,1858

Three days later the two men found themselves about 175 miles northeast in Charleston, where they would begin a wide counterclockwise swing through the remaining four debate sites. Charleston had many southern migrants from slave states but even the more antislavery residents were not in favor of equal political or social rights for African Americans. It was one thing to find slavery abhorrent, yet another to call for full equality. Douglas used this sentiment to his benefit by running a clearly racist campaign overall. In Jonesboro he had accused Lincoln of favoring racial equality. To emphasize Douglas’s constant fearmongering of amalgamation, or worse, his supporters held up a banner that read “Negro equality” with a picture of a white man, a negro woman, and a mulatto child. His goal was to either get Lincoln to declare he was for full equality or to declare he wasn’t for full equality. Admitting the former would have ended Lincoln’s campaign immediately in a time when racism was the norm, even among most abolitionists.

Painted into a corner, Lincoln chose to open the debate by saying that while he was entirely against slavery, he was not “in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.” He further added that he thought “there a physical difference” that would “forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so lie, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”

That particular passage and similar statements in the other debates continues to be analyzed to this day. Those so inclined to find fault with Lincoln see him as a typical racist. Those more understanding see it as a political hedging to avoid being booed off the platform, or worse, dragged through the streets and perhaps killed. Those more thoughtful analysts see Lincoln as a less racist man of his racist times struggling to maintain political viability to continue the opportunity of ending slavery.

Lincoln had some charges of his own. He accused Douglas of conspiring with Chief Justice Roger Taney, former President Franklin Pierce, and current President James Buchanan to enable the creation of a pro-slavery constitution for Kansas without allowing the actual residents of Kansas to express their views and vote on it. Not surprisingly, Douglas denied it. Douglas did declare that the government should exist as he believed the founders intended, with some states slave and others free.*

These two debates offered distinct contrasts in other ways as well. Jonesboro had the smallest attendance with perhaps 1,500 people present. Charleston had around 12,000 in attendance, including eleven railroad cars of people who traveled from Indiana to hear these two men speak on the most contentious issue of the day.

Charleston Lincoln-Douglas statues

As with all the other of the seven debate sites, statues of Lincoln and Douglas have been erected. In Jonesboro, full-size bronzes of the two men stand on either side of a large limestone boulder carrying a bronze plaque. A “Looking for Lincoln” wayside marker explains the debate. The Charleston site also boasts full-size bronze sculptures, this time with the two men facing each other over rock-like “podiums.” Charleston is also the only site with a Debate Museum on the grounds, where visitors can pose for photos and watch a film that tells the story of the debate.

After Charleston, the next official debate would not occur for almost three weeks in Galesburg, where Lincoln would “go through college” for the very first time.

[Photos of Jonesboro (top) and Charleston (bottom) by David J. Kent.]

 

Fire of Genius

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is Immediate Past President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity andEdison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Lincoln and Douglas Debate in Ottawa

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Lincoln Douglas debates OttawaAbraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas engaged in perhaps the most important series of debates on American history, the haggling over which I discussed in my last post. Their first debate took place on August 21, 1858, in Ottawa, Illinois.

While we usually refer to them as the Lincoln-Douglas debates, at the time there were referred to as the Douglas-Lincoln debates. Douglas was the incumbent U.S. Senator and de facto leader of the right wing conservative Democratic party. He had risen to fame in 1850, taking Henry Clay’s failed omnibus bill and turning it into five separate bills known as the Compromise of 1850. The most notable of the five were the creation of California as a free state and the formidable Fugitive Slave Law. Four years later he pushed through passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise banning slavery in the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase and opened up those territories and the new territories taken in the Mexican American War to a principle he called Popular Sovereignty. In short, Popular Sovereign meant that people in all territories and newly forming states could choose for themselves whether to enslave other Americans on the basis of color of their skin. This issue of expansion of slavery was the primary focus for both Lincoln and Douglas in the debate series.

Ottawa was, and remains, a small town southwest of Chicago. Newspapers report “Twelve Thousand Persons Present!” for the debate held in a small park now graced with full size statues of the two men perched on a podium in the center of a fountain. Being in the northern part of the state, most of the residents of Ottawa were migrants from New England, Ohio, and Indiana and thus more likely to oppose the extension of slavery. Later the two men would debate in the southern part of the state populated mostly by migrants from slave states like Kentucky. But Lincoln was on safer ground here in Ottawa. Still, Douglas was the incumbent senator, owned land in the Chicago area, and generally well liked. He also had a favorable state legislature where senators were still picked (the direct election of senators by the people would not occur until the 17th Amendment in 1913).

Douglas mainly stuck to his stump speeches heavy on pandering to racism and fears that somehow banning the extension of slavery to western territories would unleash millions of former southern slaves into the free state of Illinois. Douglas argued that this supposed influx would violate the Illinois state constitution “black laws” severely limiting the presence of African Americans, free or enslaved, in the state. He accused Lincoln of wanting full political and social equality for Blacks, something Lincoln would find himself having to refute. “Mr. Lincoln and his party…are trying to array all the Northern States…against the South, to excite a sectional war between the free States and the slave States,” Douglas would argue.

Lincoln countered this by pointing out how slavery was morally wrong and the primary source of conflict since the beginning of the country: “I leave it to you to say whether, in the history of our government, this institution of slavery has not always failed to be a bond of union, and, on the contrary, been an apple of discord and an element of division.” Lincoln and the recently formed Republican party – a progressive party arisen from the ashes of the liberal northern Whigs and the antislavery factions of other parties – emphasized the immorality of slavery but limited their platform to barring the extension of slavery into the western territories. Despite Douglas’s race baiting, Lincoln repeatedly said that the party would make no effort to abolish slavery in the states where it still existed. He understood that the U.S. Constitution effectively blocked the federal government from dealing with slavery in the states, and that all the northern states that had abolished slavery had done so at the state level. Lincoln reiterated that it was up to the states to rid themselves of the horror of slavery. But Lincoln also emphasized that the federal government did have the right to limit slavery in the federal territories like the District of Columbia and all the territories west of the Mississippi River.

Since Douglas had the privilege of making the opening arguments in Ottawa (they would alternate in the seven debates), he posed a series of questions to Lincoln with the expectation they would be answered in the next debate in Freeport. Lincoln would answer, but also propose four questions of his own to Douglas, which became the most consequential result of the debates for both their future political careers. I’ll have more on that next week when I talk about the Freeport debate.

[Photo of Lincoln-Douglas statues in Ottawa, IL by David J. Kent.]

 

Fire of Genius

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is Immediate Past President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity andEdison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Haggling Over Presidential Debate Arrangements: Lincoln-Douglas Edition

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Stephen A. Douglas had been selected by the Illinois State Legislature to serve as senator in the same year that Abraham Lincoln was elected by the people to serve in the House of Representatives. Lincoln would serve only a single term, heading back home to a more pedestrian life as a circuit lawyer. Roused to get back into politics following the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which his old rival Douglas had pushed through Congress, Lincoln found himself in 1858 trying to block Douglas’s reelection and become a senator himself. Perhaps if Douglas would agree to a series of debates?

On July 24, Lincoln wrote to Douglas:

“Will it be agreeable to you to make an arrangement for you and myself to divide time, and address the same audiences during the present canvass?”

Douglas had little to gain. He was the incumbent senator, highly influential, and the state legislature that made the final senate selection was overwhelmingly gerrymandered to reelect him. He had known Lincoln for two decades and debated him many times. Douglas acknowledged to friends that Lincoln was a formidable debater. Why should he take the risk of debating?

After some hesitation, Douglas responded with a certain amount of indignance and some accusations that Lincoln wanted to include third-party candidates–which Lincoln just as indignantly denied–and some rather whining complaints about the tardiness of asking for joint debates. After more discussion, Douglas offered the following to Lincoln:

“I will, in order to accommodate you as far as it is in my power to do so, take the responsibility of making an arrangement with you for a discussion between us at one prominent point in each Congressional district in the state, excepting the second and sixth districts, where we have both spoken and in each of the cases you had the concluding speech. If agreeable to you I will indicate the following places as those most suitable in the several Congressional districts at which we should speak, to wit, Freeport, Ottawa, Galesburg, Quincy, Alton, Jonesboro & Charleston.”

In his response, Lincoln pointed out that Douglas was not correct that Lincoln “had the concluding speech” in Chicago and Springfield, but notwithstanding this misrepresentation, he accepted the proposed seven joint debates. Douglas followed up on July 30 by stipulating the times and places:

  • Ottawa – August 21
  • Freeport – August 27
  • Jonesboro – September 15
  • Charleston – September 18
  • Galesburg – October 7
  • Quincy – October 13
  • Alton – October 15

Douglas also in that letter agreed to Lincoln’s suggestion that the two of them alternate the opening and closing of the debates, stipulating that:

“I will speak at Ottawa one hour; you can reply occupying an hour and a half and I will then follow for half an hour. At Freeport you shall open the discussion and speak one hour, I will follow for an hour and a half, and you can then reply for half an hour. We will alternate in like manner at each successive place.”

The following day, Lincoln responded in a bit of a whiney tone that “although, by the terms, as you propose, you take four openings and closes to my three, I accede, and thus close the arrangement.”

The debates were on!

[Photo of Lincoln-Douglas statues in Freeport, IL by David J. Kent. This post was originally published at Lincolnian.org]

 

Fire of Genius

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is Immediate Past President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity andEdison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Stephen A. Douglas Dies

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Stephen A. DouglasAt 9:10 am on Monday, June 3, 1861, Stephen A. Douglas died in Chicago at the age of forty-eight. Thus ended a remarkable life, both as a leader in the antebellum Democratic party and as a foil to Abraham Lincoln’s rise. Douglas had fallen ill weeks before while headed back to Illinois to lobby for Democratic support of the newly elected President Lincoln once the Civil War started. Lincoln immediately directs that government offices be close on the day of the funeral and that the Executive Mansion (aka, the White House) and departments be draped on mourning for thirty days. On June 4th, Secretary of War Simon Cameron issues a circular to Union armies, announcing “the death of a great statesman…a man who nobly discarded party for this country.”

Douglas’s legacy is a complicate one. He rose to great influence in the Senate, perhaps single-handedly pushing through passage of a series of bills that became known as the Compromise of 1850. He also pushed through the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which voided the Missouri Compromise of 1820, thus putting the United States on a path to ultimate civil war. He was a horrific racist, who used blatant racism as a tool to defeat Lincoln in the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates during his Senate reelection campaign. He became the catalyst of the split between northern and southern Democrats in the 1860 election. As I wrote in Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America:

As expected, northern Democrats nominated Stephen A. Douglas. Because of Lincoln’s clever positioning on slavery during the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates—especially coaxing Douglas into the Freeport Doctrine—the Democratic Party had split into two factions, and Douglas represented only the North. Southern Democrats from the eleven slave states nominated their own candidate, John C. Breckinridge, the sitting Vice President under James Buchanan. To split the vote further, John Bell was nominated for a new Constitutional Union party, the main goal of which was that everyone just get along.

 

Lincoln again stayed in Springfield, as it was considered inappropriate for candidates to personally hit the campaign trail. Instead, Seward, Davis, and others made the case for him. Stephen A. Douglas, in contrast, campaigned extensively, spending a large amount of time in the South warning against disunion. Douglas race-baited as usual, insisting that government was “made by white men for white men” forever, but did try to convince southerners that they were better off working within the Union than trying to separate.

 

Because the Democratic Party had split, Republicans felt confident that Lincoln would win the election. Indeed, he won with about 40 percent of the popular vote and 180 of the 303 electoral votes available; 152 were needed to win. He won all the northern states plus the two new states of California and Oregon. John Breckinridge came in second, gaining 72 electoral votes from most of the southern slave states. Bell got 39 electoral votes by capturing the three border slave states of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Douglas, once considered the likely winner, received only 12 electoral votes from the two states of Missouri and New Jersey. Lincoln was president-elect.

 

And yet, after the election, and after the Civil War began, it was Stephen A. Douglas who tried to rally the country to support Lincoln’s efforts to retain the Union. His life would come to an early end, but Douglas was a major influence – for good and for bad – on the antebellum nation. Douglas is buried in Chicago.

David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America. His newest Lincoln book is scheduled for release in February 2022. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Follow me for updates on my Facebook author page and Goodreads.

 

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The Pre-Presidential Debates That Made Lincoln President

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Lincoln Douglas DebatesIn 1858, Abraham Lincoln began following Douglas from town to town as they campaigned against each other for Douglas’s Senate seat. Challenging the incumbent Senator in a Democratic-dominated state, Lincoln had to coax Douglas to go against his own interests and formally debate. Whenever Douglas gave a major speech, Lincoln told the crowd he would respond that evening or the next day. After doing this for a while, and with the help of his influential friend Jesse Fell, Lincoln approached Douglas about holding a series of joint debates across the state. Reluctant at first, Douglas eventually agreed to one debate in each of the nine congressional districts in Illinois. They had both already spoken in Springfield and Chicago within a day of each other, so they agreed to seven additional joint debates in Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and Alton over the next two months. For each debate one candidate would speak for sixty minutes, followed by the other for ninety minutes, and the first would get a thirty-minute reply. They alternated who would speak first, with the incumbent Douglas getting the benefit of doing so in four of the seven debates.

The optics of the debates were almost comical. Lincoln was as tall and thin as Douglas was short and wide. Douglas tended toward inflammatory and racist language, while Lincoln was calmer and more logical in his arguments. Douglas had a reputation as a blatant liar; Lincoln as “Honest Abe.” Douglas often arrived in town on a special train accompanied by boisterous bands. Lincoln rode coach. Douglas was prone to histrionics, personal attacks, dogmatic exclamations, blatant negrophobic pandering to white superiority, and lying without remorse. Lincoln avoided sliding in the muck, focusing on making his key points clear to the often large crowds.

Because of the way Illinois was settled—the south moving up from slave states, the central from free states to the east, and the north from the upper states via the Great Lakes—each debate city offered a different range of public opinion. And while topics like banking were briefly mentioned, the main focus of all debates was the defining issue of the day—slavery.

Douglas and Lincoln explored several aspects of the slavery question, with Douglas largely sticking to his stump speech at each stop while Lincoln built on his arguments over time. One aspect was whether slavery was right or wrong. Lincoln argued that slavery was inherently wrong, both from a moral view and from a public policy perspective. Douglas asserted that he “cares not whether slavery is voted down or voted up.” To Douglas, each state could choose whether it wanted slavery, and the federal government had no right to dictate policy. Lincoln disagreed, noting again that the Founders had banned slavery from the territories that became Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and parts north. The Founders also banned the import of new slaves from Africa. As such, Lincoln argued, the federal government had every right to restrict slavery in the territories, and had done so repeatedly.

Sensing this was a difficult position, Douglas went on the attack. He accused Lincoln and all “Black Republicans” of being abolitionists, intent on removing slavery from all the southern states where it currently existed. Lincoln denied this, reminding people that he acknowledged the Constitution protected slavery where it existed. His goal was simply to stop it from expanding. Douglas took his attacks a step further, accusing Lincoln of being for the full equality of the races. This was a straw man used to play to the flagrant racism that permeated the North as well as the South. Douglas knew that if he could paint Lincoln as a “left wing radical,” it would help his campaign.

But Lincoln was hardly a radical. Today he might be considered a “prudent progressive.” True, he achieved great things, including the radical idea of emancipation, but he did so by sticking to authority constrained by the U.S. Constitution. Lincoln, and most Americans at the time, believed that while slavery was immoral (he once said, “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong”), the acknowledgement of its existence in the Constitution meant the federal government did not have the authority to ban it in the states where it already existed. Each state must take action to remove slavery from within its borders, which is how each of the northern states had achieved their free status. As noted above, however, Lincoln believed that Congress did have the power to block slavery from entering the federal territories and the District of Columbia. He and Congress later took steps to ensure freedom from slavery in both of those.

Later, as President, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which did free enslaved people in those states in active rebellion against the Union. This actually remained consistent with the Constitution as it provided for special powers in case of insurrection, powers that would not have been available in the normal state of affairs. Lincoln used these powers as a military necessity. Acknowledging that the Proclamation would become legally moot once the war ended, Lincoln worked hard to have Congress pass the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which permanently enshrined the freedom of all men and women regardless of race.

All of this was possible because of the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. In particular, during the second debate in Freeport, Lincoln posed a set of questions to Douglas. Always thinking ahead, Lincoln set a trap, and Douglas had no choice but to fall into what would become known as the Freeport Doctrine. Lincoln asked:

Can the people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State Constitution?

The question directly pit Douglas’s Popular Sovereignty against the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision. Douglas was forced to choose between alienating those people he required to get reelected to the Illinois Senate or the Southerners he needed in his third run for the presidency two years later. He responded that people in a territory could keep out slavery despite the Dred Scott decision, which stated that federal and state governments had no authority to exclude slavery because it would deprive slaveholders of their “property” rights without due process.

Lincoln was ecstatic over Douglas’s response, although he did not show his hand. Southerners, who wanted the ability to expand slavery without limit, had grown concerned that states could choose to exclude slavery in accordance with Douglas’s Popular Sovereignty. They saw the Dred Scott decision as confirming their right to bring slaves wherever they wanted, and now Douglas was saying that was not true. This presented a long-term problem for slave-owning states. While they knew that most of the new territories were grossly inadequate for growing cotton, which was still the primary driver of the need for slaves, they recognized that every new slave state would increase their representation in Congress—and their continued power to dictate policy.

When the votes were counted, Lincoln had won the popular vote and the Republican Party picked up seats in the legislature. But the state legislature, which was majority Democratic, was still choosing Senators. Douglas retained his Senate seat. Lincoln likely realized his chances of winning the seat were close to nil because of the legislature’s makeup. When he was asked why he would give Douglas an advantage for Senate reelection, Lincoln replied that he had a longer view in mind: Douglas might win the Senate, but he would lose the presidency. The Freeport Doctrine would see to that.

The rest, as they say, is history.

[Adapted from Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America]

David J. Kent is an avid traveler, scientist, and Abraham Lincoln historian. He is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World as well as two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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LEAD Me to Abraham Lincoln – Lessons to be Learned

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Looking for LincolnIn June I’ll have the privilege of participating in the annual LEAD: Lincoln’s Path to Leadership program in Illinois. For the past two years LEAD has provided my book, Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, to each of the students in the program; this year I’ll be there too.

LEAD is an initiative of the Looking for Lincoln program of the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area, which covers the 8th Judicial District represented by Abraham Lincoln in his single term in the U.S. House of Representatives (where I recently participated in the dedication of the new Lincoln Room). Led by the Heritage Area’s Executive Director Sarah Watson and long-time Lincoln presenter George Buss, and in partnership with many other Lincoln and youth groups in Illinois, the LEAD program:

“provides an opportunity for youth to learn about the character qualities of a leader by examining Abraham Lincoln’s life, his ideals, his character and his character capabilities.”

Each year the participants – about 40 seventh graders selected from around the state – spend a week visiting historic sites related to Abraham Lincoln and discussing how Lincoln became the great leader we know him as today. Students walk away with a greater appreciation of leadership qualities and how they can apply them to their own lives.

In my portion we’ll talk about my own leadership experiences (I have been president of organizations four times and am currently vice-president of the Lincoln Group of DC), which will segue into how Lincoln went from frontier farm boy to leader of the nation.

If you haven’t yet taken advantage of it, check out the other Looking for Lincoln and Heritage Area programs, as well as their tour itineraries. They provide tons of information to help you visit and appreciate the Land of Lincoln. [BTW, the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area just expanded to include the most southern (Jonesboro) and most northern (Freeport) debate sites.]

For those who followed my Chasing Abraham Lincoln tours (Parts 1 and 2) last year, I’ll be combining my LEAD participation with Part 3. Previous tours took me to Lincoln’s early life in Kentucky and Indiana (plus stops in Tennessee and Michigan) and the Lincoln-Douglas debate sites (and many others) in Illinois.  For Part 3 I’ll be visiting many stops in Illinois I missed previously, plus some Lincoln-related sites in Wisconsin and Michigan.

I’m looking forward to both the LEAD: Lincoln’s Path to Leadership program and my Chasing Abraham Lincoln tour. Before that I’ll be on another adventure, but that’s a topic for a later post.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Chasing Abraham Lincoln, Part 2

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Lincoln Douglas debateNow that I’ve recovered (not) from my recent overseas trip, I’m off on the second part of my Chasing Abraham Lincoln road trip. This part takes me into Illinois, the Land of Lincoln. For stories and photos from Part 1, click on Chasing Abraham Lincoln and scroll down for more.

Once again I’m driving there and back again from the Washington DC area. The first day of driving will take me on much the same route I took at the beginning of Part 1. This time I’ll stop at the Virginia Museum of the Civil War, which I waved to from the highway the first time. By the end of the day I should be somewhere around Knoxville, Tennessee. The next day I’ll make the rest of the trip to Jonesboro, Illinois. And then the fun begins.

Jonesboro was one of the seven sites for the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates. I’ll hit all seven sites on this road trip. All have some sort of statue or two commemorating the event. Some like Charleston have more extensive museums. As I zigzag around the state, I’ll stop at many little towns that have some connection to Lincoln, and thus have some sort of statue to draw in tourists. I’m looking forward to the statue of Lincoln with the pig. Another has him all set to fight the Black Hawk war. Then there is the giant pair of statues 30 feet high in full color where a dapper Lincoln appears to be giving directions to a Perry Como-like tourist. There are many more, all with their particular style and viewpoint. And of course, I’ll visit the statues and other monuments in Kent, IL.

I won’t be stopping in Springfield or the city of Lincoln (complete with a statue of a watermelon) on this trip as I saw them a couple of years ago. I’ll have enough on my plate, as two fellow Lincoln aficionados raised in Illinois were quick to tell me today when I showed them my map. I won’t even be going to Chicago itself (though I’ll be on its outskirts); that will be a separate trip where I fly in for a few days.

Besides the debate sites and the miscellaneous statues I have two other focused locations I am specifically targeting. One is Rock Island (Illinois) and Davenport (Iowa) right across the river. This is the spot where the famous Effie Afton case occurred. The Effie Afton was a steamboat that accidentally on purpose ran into the newly built railroad bridge crossing the Mississippi River. The steamboat caught fire and both it and the bridge were severely damaged. Afterwards, the steamboat company sued the railroads for putting up an obstruction. I won’t give away the ending, but Lincoln played a key role in the lawsuit. A large statue was added to the Iowa side of the river just a few years ago.

The second targeted area is the Illinois and Michigan Canal towns. As part of its internal improvement program, the state legislature agreed to fund many infrastructure projects, including a canal from Lake Michigan in Chicago to the beginning of navigable Illinois River. Doing so would increase commerce by connecting the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf. In large part the I&M Canal is why Chicago grew from a tiny village to a thriving metropolis so fast. Lincoln played a large role in making the canal happen. Today there are few parts that still exist, but several towns along the route have canal-related activities and monuments.

I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to join in a special Lincoln-Douglas debate reenactment in Freeport. George Buss and Tim Connors play Lincoln and Douglas and will perform a unique variation on the debates while I’m there. I’ve known George for many years and met Tim earlier this year when they did their debate at the National Archives in Washington, DC. I’m looking forward to seeing them again.

I’ll post as much as I can from the road, so stay tuned to this spot for updates.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Remembering Abraham Lincoln at the Hill Center, Old Navy Hospital

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On January 18, 2017, in celebration of the Old Naval Hospital’s 150th anniversary, Hill Center and the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia will hold a celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address.  In 1864 President Lincoln authorized $25,000 for construction of the (Old) Naval Hospital, which was completed in 1866, and the building has been restored to its 1860s condition to serve as Hill Center.
You can join us by signing up here: http://hillcenterdc.org/home/programs/3039.  You can also pay at the door.
The program will recall how Abraham Lincoln faced the gravest challenge that ever confronted a new president. The program will include delivery of the First Inaugural Address and a panel discussion about its context and significance. Michelle Krowl, president of the Abraham Lincoln Institute and a Lincoln specialist at the Library of Congress, will moderate the discussion. Panelists will include Lincoln scholar John Elliff, president of the Lincoln Group of DC and former associate professor at Brandeis University, and Michael F. Bishop, Director of the National Churchill Library and Center at George Washington University and former executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.  Other co-sponsors are President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, DC and the Abraham Lincoln Association headquartered in Springfield, Illinois.
The Inaugural Address will be delivered by George Buss of Freeport, Illinois, a professional educator who has performed as President Lincoln widely in Illinois and other states. He delivers the Gettysburg Address at the annual November commemoration at the Gettysburg Cemetery. Mr. Buss portrayed President Lincoln skillfully at a mock press conference hosted by the Capitol Historical Society in 2015 where he took questions from members of the National Press Club.  Mr. Buss is admired for the depth of his knowledge of Lincoln and his ability to represent Lincoln’s principles and historical perspective in both formal and informal settings.
The following organizations are co-sponsors of this event:
The reception with light hors d’oeuvres will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the John Phillip Sousa Hall, and the program will follow in the Abraham Lincoln Hall at 7:00 p.m. Sign up here, or just show up and pay at the door.

David J. Kent is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. His next book is on Abraham Lincoln, due out in 2017.

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