Lincoln Douglas Debates

By mmfrost

  • Lincoln's House Divided Speech

    Lincoln's House Divided Speech
    "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Lincoln's now famous speech started his campaign in Springfield and quickly gained attention. This led to a series of debates between Lincoln and Stephen Douglas who were running for Illinois Senate.

  • Douglas' campaign speech before debates

    Douglas' campaign speech before debates
    In Chicago, Douglas started of his campaign with a homecoming speech.

  • Ottowa

    Ottowa
    This was the first of seven debates between Lincoln and Douglas during their campaign. Douglas accused Lincoln of being an abolitionist and Lincoln accused Douglas of trying to nationalize slavery.

  • Freeport

    Freeport
    This was the second debate between Lincoln and Douglas during their campaign. Lincoln had the advantage of speaking first which left Douglas with the rebuttal and questions to address.

  • Jonesboro

    Jonesboro
    The debates continue into Jonesboro. The focus of the debate continued to be on slavery. Jonesboro was a heavily democratic area and the debate hosted a smaller audience than the previous two debates.

  • Charleston

    Charleston
    The fourth debate in the Lincoln Douglas series took place in Charleston. With a large crowd in attendance, the two continued to debate and accuse one another mainly on their views of race and slavery.

  • Galesburg

    Galesburg
    The fifth debate occurred in Galesburg. Here, Lincoln and Douglas continued to discuss race and slavery. Douglas believed the Declaration was written by white men and only applied to white men. Lincoln believe the Declaration of Independence applied to all men.

  • Quincy

    Quincy
    The debates continue on in Quincy. About 12,000 Old Whigs attended this debate. The rally continued and the accusations continued flow to and from both parties.

  • Alton

    Alton
    The seventh and final debate took place at Alton. As the debates came to an end, Lincoln and Douglas fired a view last shots. Douglas degraded Lincoln's House Divided speech as slander against the constitution. Lincoln referred to Henry Clay as he continued to claim that slavery is evil.