Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates That Defined America

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln was known as a successful Illinois lawyer who had achieved some prominence in state politics as a leader in the new Republican Party. Two years later, he was elected president and was on his way to becoming the greatest chief executive in American history.

What carried this one-term congressman from obscurity to fame was the campaign he mounted for the United States Senate against the country's most formidable politician, Stephen A. Douglas, in the summer and fall of 1858. Lincoln challenged Douglas directly in one of his greatest speeches — "A house divided against itself cannot stand" — and confronted Douglas on the questions of slavery and the inviolability of the Union in seven fierce debates. As this brilliant narrative by the prize-winning Lincoln scholar Allen Guelzo dramatizes, Lincoln would emerge a predominant national figure, the leader of his party, the man who would bear the burden of the national confrontation.

Of course, the great issue between Lincoln and Douglas was slavery. Douglas was the champion of "popular sovereignty," of letting states and territories decide for themselves whether to legalize slavery. Lincoln drew a moral line, arguing that slavery was a violation both of natural law and of the principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence. No majority could ever make slavery right, he argued.

Lincoln lost that Senate race to Douglas, though he came close to toppling the "Little Giant," whom almost everyone thought was unbeatable. Guelzo's Lincoln and Douglas brings alive their debates and this whole year of campaigns and underscores their centrality in the greatest conflict in American history.

The encounters between Lincoln and Douglas engage a key question in American political life: What is democracy's purpose? Is it to satisfy the desires of the majority? Or is it to achieve a just and moral public order? These were the real questions in 1858 that led to the Civil War. They remain questions for Americans today.

"This year marks the sesquicentennial of the great debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, which transformed a contest for a Senate seat into a battle for the future of the republic. Allen C. Guelzo, already in the front rank of Lincoln historians and author of the best book about the Emancipation Proclamation, has now written an important one about this legendary campaign.

... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) Douglas, the Democratic incumbent, was the author of the infamous Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, repealing the Missouri Compromise that had previously forbidden the spread of slavery into the Western territories. Lincoln wrote that this legislation 'aroused him as he had never been before,' and his somnolent political career was given fiery new purpose. He soon became the recognized leader of the nascent Republican Party, and after an unsuccessful run for Illinois' other Senate seat in 1855, he challenged Douglas in 1858. Senate seats in those days were awarded by state legislatures, and the two candidates launched a furious battle to elect a majority in the statehouse.

The grand rhetoric of the campaign began when Lincoln, accepting the Republican nomination, warned that 'a house divided against itself cannot stand.' The contest continued in seven debates across the state, where thousands of voters gathered to listen and enjoy the spectacle. At the heart of the debates was Douglas' argument that 'popular sovereignty,' by which the residents of a territory could choose for themselves whether to accept slavery, would defuse the political tensions then convulsing the country; Lincoln replied that slavery was morally wrong and not among the 'choices' available to a free and decent people. Lincoln lost the campaign but gained fame for his valiant effort, and the publication of the debates spread that fame throughout the country.

Guelzo brings these forensic contests to stirring life; both the great principles and the raw politics get their due. More clearly than previous accounts, 'Lincoln and Douglas' shows how each candidate struggled to unite his internally fractious party, a challenge almost as great as that posed by his opponent on the stage. And, through a detailed analysis of voting patterns, Guelzo shows how close Lincoln came to winning the Senate seat, even in a state as heavily Democratic as Illinois. This is a work of both philosophical nuance and colorful detail.

With 'President Lincoln: The Duty of a Statesman,' William Lee Miller concludes the 'ethical biography' begun in his justly acclaimed 'Lincoln's Virtues.' That volume charted the moral development of the frontier youth and prairie politician; this sequel carries the story from his inauguration to eventual martyrdom.

Lincoln gives the lie to the notion that political greatness depends on long experience in office. He took the oath with only a single term in Congress behind him. But Miller demonstrates that even a man with Lincoln's innate qualities could and did make mistakes. He relates in amusing fashion the story of the USS Powhatan, and how an excess of secrecy and unfamiliarity with naval bureaucracy caused Lincoln to direct that unfortunate warship to two besieged posts at once, Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens.

It was the president's great gift, however, to be able to learn from his mistakes. And his natural self-confidence, bolstered by the dawning realization that his judgment was usually superior to that of his political and military subordinates, made him more and more the master of his office. By the time the book concludes with a moving account of the international reaction to Lincoln's death, the reader will share in the emotions that swept the globe.

Miller is uncommonly skilled at blending narrative and analysis. The reader is swept smoothly along by his charming, avuncular prose as he portrays Lincoln's magnanimity toward opponents, concern for the suffering of others and eagerness to pardon the condemned.

Yet Lincoln's dazzling qualities can have a blinding effect; there were more shadows flickering beneath the light of his character than Miller acknowledges. Ambition as consuming as Lincoln's is never wholly virtuous. And Lincoln could be ruthless in his prosecution of the war; he could not have prevailed otherwise. Not for nothing did Lincoln brood over Shakespeare's 'Macbeth.' In the third of the late George MacDonald Fraser's brilliant Flashman novels, his rascally but perceptive hero meets the young Congressman Lincoln, and muses: 'Just why I liked him I can't say; I suppose in his way he had the makings of as big a scoundrel as I am myself, but his appetites were different, and his talents infinitely greater.' But in Lincoln's case, the light overwhelmed the shadow, and 'President Lincoln' is one of the best and most beautifully written accounts of the great man's years in the White House.

Michael F. Bishop works at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy; from 2002-06, he was executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission."

Reviewed by Michael F. Bishop, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
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"This most accessible of Guelzo's Lincoln books is a rowsing narrative, academically researched, embracingly informative, and deeply thoughful. The legislature picked Douglas. This book is the real winner." Library Journal (Starred Review)

"Guelzo colorfully chronicles the most famous Senate campaign in American history....A crisply articulated, dynamic presentation of how the debates unfolded and why they still matter today." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

"In his searching and illuminating Lincoln and Douglas the eminent Lincoln historian Allen C. Guelzo does the great service of bringing the debates back down to earth, placing them in the context of a brutal four-month senatorial campaign." William Grimes, The New York Times

"Allen C. Guelzo, already in the front rank of Lincoln historians...has now written an important [book] about this legendary campaign....This is a work of both philosophical nuance and colorful detail." The Washington Post Book World

"By exploring the series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas...Mr. Guelzo comes away with plenty of lessons that today's leaders would do well to heed." Newt Gingrich, The Wall Street Journal

"The depth to which Guelzo goes into the debates and the campaigns is tremendous, but in mining so deeply, he does not simply resort to a dry delivery of historical footnotes. His passion for the subject is evident in the text, and he presents it in a wholly engaging and smooth reading manner." BookReporter.com

From the two-time winner of the prestigious Lincoln Prize comes a brilliant account of the most famous open-air debates in American history — those between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. 8-page b&w photo insert.

Allen C. Guelzo is the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era at Gettysburg College, where he also directs the Civil War Era Studies Program and The Gettysburg Semester. He is the author of Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President (1999) and Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (2004), both of which won the Lincoln Prize. He has written essays and reviews for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, the Journal of American History, and many other publications.