Let’s dive right back into politics.  Dive back in.  Stephen Douglas, now Senator Douglas, was the chairman of the Senate territories committee.  Remember that back in the 1850’s, the United States wasn’t set up like it is today.  There weren’t fifty states.  A lot of the West was just territories.  A big question about the territories was… slavery of course.  Would the new territories have slavery?  Without expanded slavery, the South felt they would lose political power.  Some even spoke of secession at that point.  Douglas wanted to expand west, but knew he needed compromise between the pro slavery states and the anti slavery states to do it.  His solution was called the Kansas–Nebraska Act, signed into law on May 30, 1854.  This Act stirred up the anger over slavery even further.  Plus, it grabbed Abraham Lincoln and led him back into politics.  Back into politics.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act stated that “popular sovereignty” ruled.  Simply, the people living in the territory would have the say as to whether slavery was legal or not.  This created a firestorm.  A giant firestorm.  The Act nullified the Missouri Compromise, not allowing slavery in the Louisiana Purchase territory north of 36 degrees and 30 minutes, except in Missouri.  Settlers from both the pro slavery side and the anti slavery side poured into Kansas.  Violence erupted in Kansas, renamed Bleeding Kansas.  Bleeding Kansas.  This Act also played on other citizens of the United States.  For years people were led to believe that slavery would not extend north of a certain point in the Louisiana Purchase territory.  Now it was happening.  The conflict of Civil War loomed large.

Simply defined, a political party is an organization to gain political power.  Political parties do this by running specific candidates in elections.  The United States has been primarily a two party system for years now: Republican and Democrat.  Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican elected to the Presidency.  The first Republican.  However, before he was a Republican he was a Whig.  What is a Whig?  Let me tell you.

The Whig Party started in 1834 as opposition to Andrew Jackson.  The Whigs can rightly be thought of as an extension of the Federalist Party.  They believed in a strong central government and endorsed something called The American System.  The American System was meant to create a strong, unified country.  Unified and strong.  Some of the issues it put forth were: putting high tariffs on imported goods so that people would buy U.S. products, preserving the Bank of the United States in order to have a stable currency, federal revenue through land sales, and national improvements such as roads and canals.  Whigs like Henry Clay believed that The American System would unite the country because every region would depend on each other.  For example, cotton from the South would go to factories in the North.  Factories in the North.

Slavery ended up splitting the Whig Party.  Whigs from the North supported abolition and halting the spread of slavery to the new territories, while Whigs from the South felt the opposite.  The newly formed Republican Party drew many people from the Whigs, including Lincoln.  A big factor in the Whig split was the Kansas – Nebraska Act which formed the new territories and stated that it was up to the settlers whether to allow slavery or not.  Stephen A. Douglas put forth the Kansas – Nebraska Act.

The Superhero Historians are very fond of something we like to call “history with context.” In other words, we think it is critical to understand everything happening around the time of an event in order to understand the event.  To put it even simpler, you can’t view 1858 through the prism of 2006.  Prism of 2006.  With that in mind, let’s talk a little bit about the 17th Amendment.

First let’s get the bare bone facts out of the way.  The 17th Amendment was ratified on April 8, 1913.  Okay, I know what you are thinking, “Hey Phineas, that is a long way away from 1858.  How can you view 1858 through the 1913 prism thingy?” Bear with me and I will connect the dots for you.  Now the 17th Amendment was put through during the Progressive Era of United States politics.  Progressives were against inefficiency and they moved to put more power into the hands of the people.  Hands of the people.  The 17th Amendment put the election of U.S. Senators directly in the hands of the people.  So when you turn 18 and vote, and promise me that you will vote, you will cast a vote directly for a senator.  Before this Amendment, state legislatures would vote for or appoint U.S. Senators.  Flash back to 1858 and the Lincoln – Douglas debates.  Both politicians were actually debating to influence voters to elect state representatives that would then support them for the U.S. Senate.  For the U.S. Senate.  That is just something to keep in mind while reading about the debates.  Even though thousands of people showed up to listen, they never got to vote directly for either Lincoln or Douglas!

Just so you know, one of the main reasons for the 17th Amendment was that around the time of the Civil War, states were so divided that sometimes nobody was elected to the Senate.  The 17th Amendment is very interesting and you should look into it more, if you like.  There are even people today who want to repeal this Amendment.  They argue that it upsets the balance of power between the Federal Government and the states.  And the states.

Let’s get to the one of the meaty parts of politics… debates.  What is a debate?  The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines debate: to discuss a question by considering opposed arguments. That is the verb form of the word, which is good enough for us.  Good enough.  People have debates about all sorts of things.  For us, we are only interested in political debates.  If you want to debate the merits of chocolate versus vanilla, send us an email.  Barley will be all over that.  All over it.

Presidential debates are the most familiar types of political debates.  Presidential candidates debate everything from taxes to foreign policy in these debates.  Their goal is to inform voters of their views so they can win voters.  One candidate is asked a question, they respond, and then their opponent can offer a rebuttal.  Rebuttals can go longer if needed, back and forth.  Back and forth.  Debates today are very different from the debates that Lincoln and Douglas took part in during 1858.  Today debates are usually ninety minutes long.  Each candidate will get two minutes to respond and their opponents ninety seconds to offer a rebuttal.  The debates in 1858 lasted three hours.  Three hours.  The first candidate spoke for an hour, his opponent spoke for an hour and a half, and then back to the first candidate for a half hour.  Whoa.  That half hour must have seemed like a breeze.  A breeze.  You have to really know your stuff to talk for an hour and a half.