Debate Square - Freeport, IL
Posted by: 
adgorn
N 42° 18.030 W 089° 37.189
16T E 284050 N 4686465
Freeport's Debate Square is an acre plus park with winding walkways, benches, and vivid landscaping commemorating the Second Lincoln Douglas Debate of August 27, 1858.
Waymark Code: WMHH2Y
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 07/10/2013
Views: 5
More from the Looking for Lincoln Lincoln-Douglas debate site: (
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"Lily Tolpo's statues "Lincoln and Douglas in Debate" are its center piece, but the massive two-ton "Debate Rock" dedicated by President Theodore Roosevelt is also a popular feature. A series of wayside interpretative signs line the walkway from Debate Rock to the statues and along with a Looking for Lincoln wayside exhibit tell the story of the Freeport debate."
Debate Square rock tablet inscription: "Within this block was held the second joint debate in the senatorial contest between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas August 27, 1858
'I am not for the dissolution of the Union under any circumstances.' Douglas
'This government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.' Lincoln
Erected by the Freeport Woman's Club 1902
Dedicated by President Theodore Roosevelt June 3, 1903"
About the Lincoln-Douglas debates (
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"In 1858, the United States was approaching a crisis. Sectional antagonism smoldered between the North and South over the morality of slavery. Adding to the tension was the basic disagreement between the states and the federal government over the principle of popular sovereignty was based on the belief that citizens of a territory had a right to determine their own destiny rather than the Federal Government. As the nation expanded west, the question became what, if any, limits were to be placed on the further extension of slavery.
These issues focused the nation's attention on the debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in their contest for the Senate seat from Illinois."
More from the Looking for Lincoln Lincoln-Douglas debate site: (
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Second Debate • Freeport, August 27, 1858
Six days after their meeting at Ottawa, Lincoln and Douglas met before 15,000 people at Freeport, the northernmost debate site. Lincoln opened, answering seven questions that Douglas had put to him at Ottawa. Lincoln declared, among other things, that it was “the right and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the United States territories.” Lincoln then asked Douglas some questions of this own, with Douglas responding in part with what would become known as the Freeport Doctrine: that voters in a territory could decide whether to have slavery or not by passing laws favorable or unfavorable to it."
Stop by and walk the interpretive path, then drop in on the local library next door.