The debates of 1858 caught the nation's interest largely because of their theme. They hinged on a single sentence in the Declaration of Independence: ""We hold these truths to be ...

Although we regard the debates today as a head-to-head contest for votes, in fact neither Lincoln nor Douglas was on the ballot. U.S. senators were chosen by state legislatures, as they would be ...

Lincoln Douglas Debates. The Lincoln–Douglas Debates of 1858 were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois, and ...

The 1858-book on the Lincoln-Douglas debates is laced with patterns of leaves, tattered and worn and is filled with controversial debates. Most of the debates are about slavery, ...

A lot separates us from 1858. Even so, do the Lincoln-Douglas debates hold any lessons for us today? Presidential debating, as it is conducted today by the Commission on Presidential Debates, has been ...

The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 were splendid affairs. The gangly Republican and the dimunutive Senate incumbent waxed eloquent on the great issues of the day — slavery and states’ rights. Each ...

The 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates were short on substance but long on "sound bites," Harold Holzer writes . Abraham Lincoln ran an aggressive presidential campaign, secretly purchasing a newspaper ...

The Lincoln-Douglas senatorial debates of 1858—the seven three-hour-long contests conducted around Illinois by Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, the incumbent, and Republican Abraham Lincoln, the ...

This year marks the 160th anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas debates about slavery in the territories. By the year 1858 the abolitionist movement had reached fever pitch. The abolitionists had ...

The 1858 debates reframed America’s argument about slavery and transformed Lincoln into a presidential contender Fergus M. Bordewich In Freeport, Illinois, just beyond the somnolent downtown, a ...