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How Did Abraham Lincoln-Douglas Debate

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The Lincoln Douglass debates were a series of debates that took place between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglass while they were running for a seat on the Illinois state Senate. The debates took place during the election of 1858 and showed how diverse opinions can be. These debates were held all over the eastern coast, and the common theme was slavery and states rights. The two men had very different debate styles, Douglass was more aggressive and attacked his opponent while Lincoln used calm logic and sound thinking. In total, they held 7 debates. Douglass, an advocate of popular sovereignty , believed that it should be up to the individual state to make a decision over slavery while Lincoln thought that slavery itself should be outlawed across the United States. As the debates went on, more and more people got interested in them, and pretty soon, each debate drew in a large crowd. Abraham Lincoln was on the side of the people in these debates. During one debate, Lincoln gave his famous " House Divided" speech. In it, he said a house …show more content…
Torwards the end of the debates, Lincoln hit Douglas with a hard question. He asked Douglas this, could people anywhere were to, before a states constitution was written, lawfully prohibit slavery from any territory against the wish of a United States citizen. That question backed Douglas into a wall. If he responded simply yes, it would look like he was going against popular ssovereignty . If he responded no, he would be going against his very argument that it should be up to the majority to decide on how things go. After thinking it through, Douglas said yes, they could exclude slavery before the states legislature was written but could only exist if local legislature passed laws protecting slave property and could therefore get around slavery laws without outright banning it. Confusing right? This solution later became known as the Freeport

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