Credit: Steve Davis/The Register-Mail
Tablets of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas adorn the east entrance of Old Main on the Knox College campus in Galesburg. The tablets were hung during a celebration honoring the 100th anniversary of the Oct. 7, 1858, debate in Galesburg.

•October 3, 2018•

By Owen W. Muelder
For the Register-Mail of Galesburg

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates are among the most important events in the United State’s history.
The seven debates were conducted throughout Illinois in the summer and fall of 1858. Not only significant in their own time, the debates have since been recognized as an ultimate example of our political process - which has continued throughout the centuries as most office seekers nationwide debate each other every campaign season.
Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln were respectively the Democratic and Republican party candidates for the U.S. Senate. The primary question these men discussed was whether slavery should be extended into the nation’s territories.
Lincoln was not an abolitionist, but he loathed slavery and looked forward to a time when it would disappear. He also maintained that it should be forbidden from being established in new states that desired to join the Union. Douglas defended the concept of “Popular Sovereignty,” whereby the people who resided in western territories should have the right to decide if slavery would be allowed.
The slavery question was so important then that no other political issue was raised by either candidate during the debates.
Public oratory was popular in the 19th century; both candidates often used harsh language and outspoken mud-slinging to characterize each other. People attending these contests also shouted out derogatory comments and catcalls toward both men. Spectators came from every part of Illinois to hear the speakers and newspapers throughout the country published detailed accounts.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.