All the other Historians are very eager to get onto the actual debates. “Come on, let’s get going. The debates are where the rubber meets the road.” Blah, blah. I’m anxious too, but I just love these old letters too much to skip this one. This letter is very cool. It’s Stephen Douglas accepting the debate challenge and laying out some ground rules. Way cool! “The Little Giant” had some nice penmanship, if you ask me. The letter is pretty self explanatory, so I don’t need to go into much. I will tell you that Douglas wasn’t thrilled with the debate prospect. I mean, he could only really lose ground by debating Lincoln. Lincoln persisted and Douglas finally relented. However, Douglas does get the better set-up, he gets to open up the debates one more time than Lincoln. Okay, enough of my talk, read on!

From Stephen A. Douglas to Abraham Lincoln, July 30, 1858

S. A. Douglas

I’ll never get over that “Your obedient servant” stuff, too cool. We should try speaking that way now. “Thank you, Barley. I will take into account that you always bring an apple to headquarters and that I should not eat it. Thank you. I remain always, your obedient servant.” Ha!

Below is a copy of Lincoln’s speech against the Lecompton Constitution.  Oh yeah, let me tell you about the Lecompton Constitution.  By now, it is clear that the fight over slavery is coming down to the territories.  Should slavery expand? Should slavery be kept where it is?  There are also the abolitionists who want slavery wiped from the United States, but for Lincoln and Douglas we need to focus on the expansion of or the limiting of slavery.  The Lecompton Constitution was a possible state constitution for Kansas that protects the rights of slave owners, supports the existence of slavery, and allows people to vote to allow more slaves into the state.  President James Buchanan supported Lecompton, while Senator Stephen A. Douglas did not.  Wondering why Douglas didn’t support it?  Well, remember “popular sovereignty?” Good.  Douglas saw that the Lecompton Constitution did not allow popular sovereignty.  Douglas was not a supporter of slavery as much as a supporter in what he saw as self-government.  Douglas even rejected a gift of slaves, noting that he didn’t want to own slaves, but didn’t mind if others did.  The Lecompton Constitution was a major event leading up to the Debates and the Civil War.

This speech by Lincoln shows off both his philosophy of republican government and his political skill.  Douglas’ rejection of Lecompton put him at odds with President Buchanan and many others in the Democratic Party.  There was talk within the Republican Party of embracing Douglas, but Lincoln opposed this for a few reasons.  He thought that the new Republican Party would lose some core identity if it embraced Douglas, and he didn’t think Douglas would take on any Republican principles.  Another important factor was that Lincoln did not want to share any of his leadership roles with Douglas.  In this speech, Lincoln manages to attack both the Lecompton Constitution and Stephen Douglas.  This is so neat.  Let’s take a look at a section of the speech.

Well, I too, believe in self-government as I understand it; but I do not understand, that the privilege one man takes of making a slave of another, or holding him as such, is any part of “self government"-- To call it so is, to mind, simply absurd, and ridiculous--
I am for the people of the whole nation doing just as they please, in all matters which concern the whole nation; for those of each part, doing just as they choose, in all matters which concern no other part; and for each individual doing just as he chooses in all matters which concern no body else--
This is the principle-- Of course I am content with any exception, which the constitution, or the actually existing state of things, makes a necessity--
But neither the principle, nor the exception, will admit the indefinite spread and perpetuity of human slavery—

Do you see Lincoln’s ideas on republicanism?  Basically, a group or faction should not be able to do something that harms the entire nation.  This is direct from The Federalist Papers by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay.  He also takes a shot at Douglas with the interpretation of “self government.” I love these old papers; they are full of great stuff.  Thanks Library of Congress for the image.

The Republicans nominated Lincoln to run against Douglas on June 16, 1858.  Little FYI nugget: that is when Lincoln delivered his famous “house divided” speech, but more on that later.  At that time, Stephen A. Douglas was very well known and had a lot more money than Lincoln to campaign with.  As a solution to that problem, Lincoln followed Douglas around the state.  Douglas would make a speech and Lincoln would respond with a speech of his own in the same town.  Sometimes he responded the same day, sometimes the next day.  Lincoln and his assistant, Norman Judd, concluded that this approach was not working well.  So they decided to challenge Douglas to debates in order to get more exposure.  Well, it worked.  Boy did it work.  This is the first letter that Lincoln sent to Douglas.

Chicago Ills. July 24, 1858

A. Lincoln

One of the biggest New Year’s resolutions made is about starting a diary.  Yes, I admit that I’ve made that resolution as well.  I’ll also admit that it is a difficult one to keep.  It is a really cool thing to do though, because you can keep track of events in your life and read back on them later.  This is what Abraham Lincoln did with the debates against Douglas.  Lincoln kept a scrapbook that he filled with news accounts of the seven debates.  Is that cool or what?  Wow.

To make it even cooler, Lincoln realized that newspapers could lean towards one candidate and not the other.  So he clipped reports about his speeches from newspapers that leaned Republican, while he clipped the Douglas reports from newspapers that leaned towards the Democrat.  He was so concerned with inaccuracies that he even wrote in the margins if he was unsatisfied with the news account.  I guess that’s why they called him “Honest Abe.”

Below is an actual page from the scrapbook.  It reads,
“Fifth joint debate
October 7, 1858, at,
Galesburg, Illinois
Douglas as reported in
The Chicago Times –
Lincoln as reported in
The Press & Tribune.”
Very neat!  Okay, I’m going to go start my diary.  Thanks to the Library of Congress.