United States History Student Edition

A Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas’s First Debate • August 21, 1858 In the 1858 Illinois Senate campaign, Abraham Lincoln debated the current senator, Stephen Douglas, seven times. Each debate lasted about three hours, and thousands of people traveled to hear the two speakers. Their first debate was in Ottawa, Illinois. Douglas, a Democrat, spoke first and accused Lincoln of having a radical abolitionist platform that threatened the rights of Americans who wanted to keep slavery. In his response, Lincoln addressed Douglas’s accusations.

PRIMARY SOURCE: SPEECH “ I will say here, while upon this subject, that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality. . . . I hold that, notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he [black men] is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many respects—certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But in the right to eat the bread, without the leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man. ” — from Abraham Lincoln, First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois, August 21, 1858

notwithstanding in spite of enumerate to list or count leave permission

EXAMINE THE SOURCE 1. Explaining What does Lincoln think should happen to slavery in the South? Why does he take this position? 2. Analyzing Is the fact that Lincoln is running for political office relevant while reading this speech? Why or why not?

PHOTO: ART Collection/Alamy Stock Photo; TEXT:Lincoln, Abraham. “First Joint Debate, at Ottowa, August 21,1858,” Political Debates Between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon. Stephen A. Douglas in the Celebrated Campaign of 1858, in Illinois. Columbus, OH: Follett, Foster and Company, 1860.

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