By Michelle Miller
While campaigning for U.S. Senate in 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas met on the debate stage in seven different cities between August 21 and October 15. The main theme of the conversations was slavery and its expansion into the lands that the United States had claimed as territories. It was a debate that had touched all levels of politics, and it continued to grow more divisive and violent.
Illustrator Isa Barnett's take on one of the seven Lincoln-Douglas debates. (ALPLM)
Lincoln and Douglas took aim at one another over the moral issues of slavery and the idea that slavery was an issue that would shatter the American Union. Douglas claimed that Lincoln was in favor of racial equality and abolition of slavery, then considered radical ideas. Lincoln responded that Douglas’s policy of popular sovereignty and the conflicts that had erupted over slavery as a result would damage the union. The debates forced both sides to put their policies on display, and they received widespread coverage in newspapers, which were typically tied to one political party or another.
While Lincoln had been active in state politics and had served one term as a U.S. congressman in the late 1840s, it was his debates with Douglas that cemented Lincoln’s national reputation. Douglas would be victorious in the Senate race, but Lincoln was able to make use of the attention from the debates to continue the political rise that would soon bring him to the Presidency.
The ALPLM is home to many treasures related to the debates, from artwork to poetry to souvenirs from the 50th anniversary. We even have Lincoln's notes for the third debate:
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We also have a letter from Abraham Lincoln about publishing a record of the debates, a move that would help him reach the White House.
In the months following the debates, Lincoln acquired copies of the Chicago newspapers that he believed had most faithfully represented his words and Douglas’s. For his own speeches, he relied on the Republican-leaning Chicago Press & Tribune, and for Douglas’s, the Democrat-leaning Chicago Times. He clipped the articles from these papers and used them to create a scrapbook, adding his own notes to make corrections.
Title from Lincoln’s debate scrapbook (Library of Congress, Alfred Whital Stern Collection)
Meanwhile, others were eager to see the text of the debates published. One such man was William A. Ross of Washington, Ill. He wrote to Lincoln on March 18, 1859, asking if Lincoln would object to the text of the debates being published, and proposing how it might be done.
The ALPLM has Lincoln’s March 26, 1859 response to Ross in our collection, which portrays how Lincoln took initiative in how he wanted to be seen in the wake of the debates, and thus how he knowingly shaped his political future.
Lincoln told Ross that he was eager to see the debate text published, and recommended Ross get the texts from the same papers he had used to create his scrapbook – stating that “this would represent each of us, as reported by his own friends.” He explained the contents included in his own scrapbook, noting the corrections he had made and suggesting that Douglas would need to correct the errors in his own speeches. (However, he pointed out that Douglas’s might have less errors, as Douglas had brought his own reporters along for the campaign)
Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln to William A. Ross, March 26, 1859 (ALPLM)
In his letter, Lincoln even offered that his scrapbook of the texts be used to print from directly, though with the stipulation that it be done in Springfield so that he could keep control of the scrapbook. However, he insisted that he would not claim any share of the profits from the publication.
It is possible that this was a gesture of humility, but it could also be that Lincoln recognized that the wider attention he would receive from the published debates would be just as valuable.
Ultimately, it does not appear that Lincoln and Ross ended up publishing the contents of the scrapbook. It was instead published by Follett, Foster and Company, a publishing firm in Columbus, Ohio, thanks to the help of Ohio Republicans. The book, titled “Political debates between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon. Stephen A. Douglas,” was widely published in 1860, allowing more people than ever to see the contrasts between Lincoln and Douglas, who were now battling for the presidency.
This published version of the debates sold 30,000 copies in 1860, which worked in Lincoln’s favor. Since it came from his own collection of articles, he had been able to control the narrative – much to the consternation of his opponents. It boosted his reputation, put his name in front of a far greater number of Americans, and was likely one of the many factors that pushed him to the top of American politics.
Michelle Miller is the manuscripts librarian at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.