From Illinois: A Descriptive and Historical Guide - Alton section:
The SITE OF THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE, Broadway at the foot of Market
St., is now occupied by a large municipal parking area. Here, on October
15, 1858, Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln met in their campaign for
election to the United States Senate. From a platform erected on the east
side of the old City Hall they addressed a crowd estimated at 5,000 to 10,000
people. Douglas, with voice worn with continual public speaking,
maintained, as in previous debates, that each State should decide the slavery
question for itself, and told the audience that Lincoln believed that a Negro
was as good as a white. Lincoln stated his belief that a house divided
against itself could not stand, that the States must be all slave or all free,
and that a crisis was approaching which would swing the country on way or the
other.
The site now is occupied by a statues commemorating the seventh and final
debate between Lincoln and Douglas. From the plaque in front of statues:
"At this site on the 15th of October in 1858, on a temporary platform built in
front of city hall, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas engaged in the
seventh and final encounter of their famous series of debates.
At an early hour on that date, the spectators began to arrive. They came on
foot, on horseback, by carriage, lumber wagon, steamer, and railroad. By noon
they numbered six thousand.
At the hour of two Douglas opened the debate with a speech of one hour. His
speech was flat and unsatisfactory, unredeemed by a single sparkle of with or
patriotic elevation.
In his reply of one and one-half hours, Lincoln took the charges of Douglas
and scattered them to the winds. His performance was deemed clear and logical,
honest and candid.
Douglas' half hour rejoinder was in better spirit than his opening but the
consensus of the day was that Lincoln had scored the victory.
Although Lincoln won the non-binding popular vote, Douglas was elected U.S.
Senator by the state legislature in January 1859. Lincoln was elected President
of the United States in November 1860.
City hall was destroyed by fire in 1923. The stone wall behind this plaza
stands where the east wall of city hall stood.
The lifesize sculptures of Lincoln and Douglas, created by Jerry McKenna of
Boerne, Texas under commission by the Alton-Godfrey Rotary Club, were dedicated
on October 15, 1995"
The full text of the debate can be found at this
website.