On August 21, 1858, between 10,000 and 20,000 people flocked to Ottawa just to listen to two men who were running for the U.S. Senate. Democratic incumbent Stephen A. Douglas and his Republican challenger, Abraham Lincoln, traveled to that Illinois River town to launch the first of seven debates on the subject of slavery.

Historian Harold Holzer describes those campaign events in his 1993 book, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates. His theme is that the speeches transformed voters' views on the issue. What's striking, though, is how many people were willing to turn out.

"No one," Holzer writes, "was prepared for the crush of humanity" in Ottawa. Citizens "flooded in on foot, on horseback, in ox-drawn wagons, in fancy carriages, and aboard huge canal boats emblazoned with political banners. A fourteen-car special train hauled in spectators at half fare from Chicago, while eleven extra cars brought another crowd from Peru and La Salle." Such scenes were repeated in other Illinois towns throughout that summer and fall, according to Holzer. In September, 12,000 to 15,000 spectators showed up in Charleston, some from neighboring Indiana. In Galesburg that October, another 15,000 to 20,000 braved bad weather.

Flash forward to today's elections, when many citizens have difficulty lifting the channel-changer for televised debates or navigating the few blocks to the polls. An alarming new survey by The Washington Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University finds that many have become disinterested in politics, uninformed about government and misinformed about issues.

Washington Post writer Richard Morin reports that of 1,514 people surveyed, four in 10 could not name the vice president; three out of four were unaware that U.S. senators are elected for six-year terms; and two-thirds could not name their U.S. representative. The survey also found that voters are woefully misinformed about policy debates.

The excuse? Were too busy to follow the news in any depth. But such laziness and ignorance carries a cost, according to Morin's analysis. To the extent that they vote at all, the ill-informed among us are more likely to vote against their own stated interests — lending special poignancy to the old saw that we always get the government we deserve.

Voters in the mid-19th century were asked to grapple with an idea that shaped who we are as a people. Our task is not so grave. Yet today we are engaged in a debate on the scope and responsibility of our central government, a debate that could affect programs and policies for decades to come.

We hope this issue helps you prepare for the March 19 primary. To that end, we've examined key races. And we've identified additional sources of information. Read up. Then go vote. *

4 * March 1996 Illinois Issues