Lincoln-Douglas Debate 1858

The Lincoln-Douglas Debate was a political debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas . Lincoln was a Republican and a firm opponent to slavery while Douglas was for slavery.  The debate was held during the 1858 campaign for a US Senate seat from Illinois . The debate was about slavery, popular sovereignty , and the legal and political status of black Americas. Lincoln believed that the government could not endure a society that was half free and half slave. This debate between them wen ton whether to make Slavery lawful in all states or not for four months Lincoln and Douglass crisscrossed Illinois , traveling nearly 10,00 miles and participating in seven face to face debates. Douglass had a strategy to picture Lincoln as a fanatical black republican whose goal was to incite the civil war, emancipate the slaves , and make blacks the social and political equals of whites. But Lincoln and Douglass had contrasting views on the problem of slavery Lincoln argued that slavery was a dying institution that had reached its natural limits and could not thrive where climate and soil were inhospitable. Douglass regarded slavery as a dynamic , expansionist institution , hungry for new territory. These debates catapulted Lincoln into the national spotlight and made him a serious presidential possibility in 1860 . The conflict between north and south was heating up.