This week we celebrate the 164th anniversary of the first Lincoln-Douglas debate. It marked the beginning of a series of seven prominent debates between Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Stephen Douglas.
Meeting across Illinois, the two men sparred over a seat in the United States Senate. In the process, they examined some of the most important issues in American history: the institution of slavery, the founding, and the Declaration of Independence.
The debates keyed in on the public’s growing concerns over the expansion of slavery. A staunch Democrat who enjoyed national fame, the incumbent Senator Douglas espoused the doctrine of “popular sovereignty.” In other words, Douglas believed that the sovereignty of the people ought to decide whether slavery could exist in new lands acquired by the United States. The doctrine had already been put to the test with the passage of the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act. As a result, pro and anti-slavery setters mobbed the territory with the intent of voting to make the state open or closed to slavery.
