Lincoln-Douglas Debate #2
N 42° 18.031 W 089° 37.186
16T E 284053 N 4686467
Freeport, IL hosted this 2nd debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas for a Senatorial seat.
Waymark Code: WM102C
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 11/27/2006
Views: 339
Lincoln and Douglas traveled 10,000 miles for four months and participated in seven face-to-face debates. The second debate occured in Freeport Illinois on August 27, 1858.
Douglas's strategy was to picture Lincoln as a "Black Republican" who wanted to incite civil war, emancipate the slaves, and make blacks the equils of whites. Douglas argued that slavery was a dying institution that had reached its natural limits.
Lincoln regarded slavery as a dynamic institution hungry for new territory. He felt that as slavery spread, it would reduce all laborers to a state of virtual slavery.
Lincoln did lose this election, but gained attention across the nation and made him a serious presidential candidate in 1860.