Abraham Lincoln

Stephen Douglas

The Lincoln-Douglas (Illinois Senate)Debates, 1858

The Lincoln-Douglas (Illinois Senate)Debates, 1858

A House divided against itself, cannot stand.

A House divided against itself, cannot stand.

•Lincoln and Douglas both running for the U.S. Senate in Illinois in 1858.

•The debates were followed by the country because both candidates were interested in running for President in 1860: Slavery was the big issue

•Lincoln stated: A House Divided against itself cannot stand. Either we become all one or all the other. The Constitution had ultimately put slavery on the path to extinction: He was against the EXPANSION of slavery

•Douglas believed that slavery should be decided by the people: He was for popular sovereignty

Lincoln – Douglas Debates: Background

In 1858, Lincoln challenged incumbent Douglas for his seat in the Senate.

(Incumbent – the holder of an office or position)

Abraham Lincoln (left) and Stephen Douglas (right)

• Douglas & Lincoln gave 200 additional speeches to towns and cities across the state

Lincoln – Douglas Debates

• A series of 7 face-to-face debates held throughout Illinois.

Thousands gathered to watch - bands, parades & fireworks & scenes like this were common

• Debates followed familiar themes – Douglas defended slavery while Lincoln opposed it

The Freeport Doctrine: “Honest Abe” tricked Douglas into admitting that Popular Sovereignty could work against expansion of slavery (what if S.C. says

slavery can’t be touched?)… Southerners won’t support Douglas for presidency in 1860

Debates were as much about the men as it was about slavery.

“The Little Giant”

Refined, passionate speakerTraveled in high style in a private rail car, surrounded by advisers & his beautiful wife

“Honest Abe”

“He was gawky, unkempt, and unassuming. He traveled alone, a forlorn figure with a tattered carpetbag on his lap, lost in silent contemplation.”

● Elected twice to HOR and 3 times in the Senate.

• Married into wealth – wife inherited a Mississippi plantation

Resume – STEPHEN DOUGLAS

• Crafted the Compromise of 1850

● KS-NE Act

• Ran unsuccessfully twice for US Senate but served in HOR

• Outspoken critic of the Mexican War

• First Republican Party candidate – originally sided with the Whig Party, which dissolved in 1856

Resume – ABRAHAM LINCOLN

• Self-taught lawyer

• Douglas believed that each territory should be able to decide on its’ own whether or not to allow slavery by using popular sovereignty.

Lincoln – Douglas Debates

Stephen Douglas:

• Lincoln was wrong for wanting to end slavery.

• If Lincoln tried to end slavery, the U.S. could face a civil war.

• Lincoln believed that African Americans were guaranteed “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, as stated in the Declaration of Independence.

• Lincoln believed that slavery was evil and should be kept out of the territories.

Lincoln – Douglas Debates

• Did NOT, however, call for the abolition of slavery… only that it not spread beyond it’s current borders.

LINCOLN (quoting the Bible):

'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided. Either theopponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new -- North as well as South.“

ONE OF HIS MOST FAMOUS QUOTES!!!!

• Argued that it was the national government’s role to prevent the expansion of slavery

• Douglas was conflicted re: popular sovereignty because the Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional to take away slaveholder’s property

• When asked by Lincoln if he thought pop sov could overrule the Supreme Court, Douglas said:

“The people have the lawful means to introduce it or exclude it as they please.”—

Freeport Doctrine

Lincoln Gains the Advantage

• Freeport Doctrine • Could the people of a territory legally

exclude slavery before achieving statehood?• Douglas replied that the people could exclude

slavery by refusing to pass laws protecting slaveholders’ rights

• Douglas replied that whatever the Supreme Court decided was not as important as the actions of the citizens.

• If a territory refused to have slavery, no laws, no Supreme Court ruling, would force them to permit it.

• This sentiment would be taken as betrayal to many southern Democrats and would come back to haunt Douglas in his bid to become President in the election of 1860.

Freeport Doctrine (Freeport, IL Debate)

• However, Lincoln became well known throughout the nation.

• More than 30,000 copies of the transcripts of the debates were sold in the West and North.

• Douglas failed in his presidential campaign to even get nominated, while Lincoln’s won the support of the new Republican Party (leftovers from the Whigs and Free Soil), and eventually won the presidency in 1860.

Lincoln – Douglas Debates - RESULTS

• Douglas won the election by a slim margin – at that time, the state legislature chose their senators, not the people.

John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry, 1859

• After the 1858 Congressional elections, Southerners began to feel threatened by growing Republican power

• In late 1859, an act of violence greatly increased their fears

• After John Brown’s raid, his execution became a rallying point for abolitionists.

• When Southerners learned of Brown’s connection to abolitionists, their fears of a great northern conspiracy against them seemed to be confirmed.

•Slave from Missouri who moved with his owner to Illinois & Wisconsin, both free.•They moved back to Missouri, which still recognized him as a slave, & his master died.•He sued his master’s widow for his freedom, claiming he should be free since he had lived on free land for four years.•Case went to the Supreme Court for a decision-----National issue

•Can a slave sue for his freedom?•Is a slave property?•Is slavery legal?

•Supreme Court hands down the Dred Scott

decision

•North refused to enforce Fugitive Slave Law

•Free states pass personal liberty laws.

•Republicans claim the decision is not binding

•Southerners call on the North to accept the decision if the South is to remain in

the Union.

•Slaves cannot sue the U.S. for their freedom

because they are property.

•They are not citizens and have

no legal right under the

Constitution.•Supreme Court legalized slavery by saying that :Congress could not stop a slave

owner from moving his slaves to a new territory

•Missouri Compromise and

all other compromises

were unconstitutional

A: NO

SUPREME COURT DECISIONS:

Q: Was Scott a U.S. citizen with the right to sue?A: NO

Q: Did living in a free territory make Scott a free man?A: NO

Q: Did Congress have the right to outlaw slavery in any territory?

• The Missouri Compromise was found to be unconstitutional.

RESULTS:• Dred Scott was not given his freedom.

Open to slavery through popular sovereignty (Compromise of 1850)

Open to slavery through popular sovereignty (KS-NE Act)

Missouri Compromise line is declared unconstitutional (Dred Scott Decision)