The Lincoln-Douglas Rivalry

Allison Dietrich
Oregon High School, Oregon

From the beginning, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas were very different. They grew up in different places under different conditions. Their personalities and views on political issues were different because of their backgrounds. These two political rivals faced each other in the election for the Illinois Senate seat in 1858. The widely known debates that preceded the election displayed their differing personalities and views by giving them the chance to express their ideas.

Lincoln and Douglas were opposites in almost every aspect imaginable. At six feet four inches, Lincoln was unusually tall. Douglas, standing only five feet four inches, was unusually short. Lincoln's father was a farmer and a cabinet-maker; Douglas was the son of a doctor. The Lincoln family lived in a southern state, while the Douglas family resided in Vermont. Lincoln had little formal education; Douglas was well educated. As far as their speaking style, Lincoln spoke slowly and deliberately. Douglas was a fiery, energetic speaker. Unlike Douglas, Lincoln was a great storyteller. Their views on slavery were very different also. Lincoln was

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deeply and morally concerned with human need. Douglas had a more "flexible moral code" and he was not "preoccupied with human welfare," in the words of one historian. Lincoln was sympathetic toward slaves; Douglas cared little for blacks.

Abe Lincoln and Stephen Douglas had faced each other in debates long before 1858. In 1838 Lincoln's law partner, John Stuart, was too ill to face Douglas in a debate when they were running against each other for Congress; hence, Abe filled in for him. At the end of 1839 and during the spring and summer of 1840, Lincoln and Douglas squared off in a number of encounters over the state bank issue and improvement projects. They faced off in 1854 as well, in an election for the state legislature. In heated debates, Lincoln explained the Nebraska issue on slavery and concluded that Douglas and the South "had departed from the ideals of the Founding Fathers and altered the national position on slavery." Douglas's popular sovereignty philosophy opened the territories for slavery. It gave the territories an opportunity to decide status rather than being controlled by slavery limitations specified in the Missouri Compromise.

Abe Lincoln fought Stephen Douglas for a seat in the United States Senate in 1858. By that time the Missouri Compromise was dead. Further, with the Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court destroyed the possibility of drawing a line between slave and free territory. Chief Justice Taney ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional and denied Dred Scott freedom and citizenship. He said slaves were property and Congress could not forbid slavery in any area without violating a slave owner's right to own property. That decision hurt Douglas's popular sovereignty a great deal.

Douglas claimed that slavery could exist as an institution only if it had the positive support of the law, and if people did not want to provide that support then they did not have to. He said that neither Congress nor a legislature could declare a territory free. He suggested that the Republicans misinterpreted the Declaration of Independence, which only had white men in mind.

Lincoln said his rival's popular sovereignty notion was "a mere deceitful pretense for the benefit of slavery," and that Taney's decision "lacked authority, falsified history, denied legal public expectations, and thus was exposed to opposition." He believed the people could get the Court to reverse its decision; it had before.

The issue at hand was the unlimited expansion of slavery everywhere. Lincoln knew the Union could not stay half slave and half free permanently. He knew it had to become either completely slave or completely free. Douglas and his Democratic followers believed a house divided could stand and expected it to.

The two men met in Chicago and Springfield and spoke to large crowds. The debates had attracted national attention by then, and many people followed them. Lincoln was on the defensive and worried about that. He was under pressure from his party to start making it difficult for Douglas. Douglas's campaign headquarters published a list of speaking appointments covering much of the state. Lincoln responded and arranged meetings along with the ones made by Douglas. Then he proposed a series of debates. Douglas knew they would give Lincoln good publicity, but he could not decline. He agreed, specifying the places and times he wanted.

The first debate took place in Ottawa. Douglas made the opening statement, like he did in three others. Lincoln responded and Douglas finished. They spoke in Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Freeport, Quincy, and ended the series in Alton. In these debates, Abraham Lincoln never denied white supremacy. He certainly did not approve of mixing of the races or giving blacks the right to vote or hold office.

When election day came, the total popular vote for those pledged to Lincoln was larger than those for Douglas. The distribution of seats in the legislature, however, had not changed with the changed distribution of population; hence there were more electoral votes for Douglas, and he won the election.

In the long run, Douglas suffered most from the debates when the Union did divide. His views on slavery proved to be unrealistic. The direction the nation was headed confirmed Lincoln's views on slavery and the effect it had on the nation. Abraham Lincoln came out ahead in the end because of the national attention and respect he earned.—[From O. Handlin and I. Handlin, Abraham Lincoln and the Union; J.G. Nicolay and J. Hay, Abraham Lincoln; P. Simon, Lincoln's Preparation for Greatness: The Illinois Legislative Years; M. Whorton, R. Kendall and D. Kendall, Marks of Lincoln on Our Land.]

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