Reasons For The Lincoln Douglass Debate

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Lincoln Douglas Debate #7 This was the last debate of seven, between Lincoln and Douglas, in their Senatorial race. The debate took place in Alton Illinois, on October 15, 1858. More than five thousand people were present for this debate, many of whom were not from Illinois. The growing popularity of these debates had peeked, and the nation had taken notice for the last one. The format for the debate was strict; this was very typical for the day. The debate went as follows: Douglas opened with his remarks for an hour, Lincoln responded for an hour and a half, then Douglas responded for a half hour. Lincoln was a poorly known politician, who was competing against perhaps the most influential congressman of his era, Douglas. Douglas was a part of the long running Democrat Party; while Lincoln was a part of the newly begun Republican Party. The primary focus of this debate, as in the six before this one, was slavery. Douglas started the debate going right for the throat of Lincoln. He brought up three key points Lincoln had made in previous speeches/debates. He took them out of context, and said that he was basically quoting Lincoln. First, of these points, was…show more content…
The reason that they are not today is because of popular sovereignty. He argued that each state has the right to determine whether or not they shall be a free or slave state. The federal government does not have or deserve the right to restrict slavery. If popular sovereignty were in action, then perhaps all of the states would eventually abolish slavery as the other states before them had. Douglas reaffirms that slavery is mentioned in the constitution; which means that the act of slavery is protected in the constitution. This attack dog style seemed to be effective until the diction master himself, Lincoln, took the
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