The Lincoln Douglass debates

1. The Lincoln Douglass debates By Alex Rummell, Paris Kaman, and Andrew Garza Versus

2. What were the debates? • The Lincoln-Douglass debates were a series of debates over who would be elected to the Illinois state legislature. • There were seven debates total and each of them were in different places in Illinois such as Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy and Alton. • The Debates were over a number of issues such as slavery, The compromise of 1850, and badgering of both parties along with popular sovereignty. • Mister Lincoln had all of the quotes from the debates published into a book, which happened to be so popular that it led to Lincoln's nomination for president in 1860.

3. Getting to know the sides • Mister Lincoln was a moderate abolitionist who would be remembered for his speech on “A house divided against itself cannot stand” • His stance was that the united states would tear apart if they were not joined together meaning that one half couldn’t be pro-slavery of the other one wasn’t. • He was in the Whig party and was elected to the house of representatives but for his views towards the Mexican war, be became too unpopular and dropped politics until the Kansas- Nebraska act in1854 then he decided it was time to start again and was nominated to run against Douglass for senate. • He argued that the Kansas-Nebraska act and the Dred Scott cases were part of a conspiracy to make slavery legal in all states and being an abolitionist that simply wouldn’t fly. “A house divided against itself cannot stand”

4. Getting to know Douglass • Stephan Douglasswas the democratic nominee for the senate. • He believed firmly in the principals of popular sovereignty and believed, quite to the contrary of his opponent, that all states should be able to choose whether they wanted slavery or not. • He also believed in slandering his opponent and tried to convince the public that Mister Awesome Lincoln was an extremist an wanted to eliminate slavery every where. • Mister Douglass also went on to win the series of debates • He also portrayed the negro as a horrible race Slavery is not the only question which comes up in this controversy. There is a far more important one to you, and that is, what shall be done with the free negro? 

5. The arguments • The argum…I mean topics for discussion *ahem* were the following, popular sovereignty, and slavery and the rights of free blacks. • Popular Sovereignty • This issue was hotly debated by both sides and they both had opposite pole ideas on both. Douglass supported popular sovereignty because he supported the expansion of slavery and with the states having the privilege to choose, the fragile balance would be knocked off of its stand and then stepped on. • Lincoln argued that the states shouldn’t have the power of popular sovereignty precisely for the reason above. He wanted the slavery to stay where it was, and not to expand. He said” to get rid of a canker sore, you keep it isolated and you don’t spread it all over your body in hopes of healing it faster”. Lincoln Douglass

6. Topic number two: Slavery • Slavery was another issue placed on the hot burner of discussion with yet again two very diverse opinions. Douglass wanted to keep slavery alive because being a supporter of slavery and living in the south made him believe that it had to stay alive and if it died, he would go with it. • Lincoln on the other side, didn’t like slavery but was not a radical abolitionist. He believed that the slaves should have no masters and be free to do as they please.

7. The freed slaves • Another log on the fires of debate is the freed slaves. • Mister Douglass talked passionately about the negatives of the freed slaves and I think he was like this, because a freed slave is a slave that’s not working on a plantation. • Lincoln wanted for the American people to open their eyes and to see that the freed black was the exact same as any other person. He wanted equallity for all men on no bounds and that people should be treated as people and not animals that whenever they are no good for work, you throw them out and get new ones. Lincoln wanted EQUALITY…GET THAT?

8. End ofthe debates • After all of the dust had cleared, verbal swords sheathed, and feeling repaired, it turned out thatDouglass won the debate but, with Lincoln being an average Joe, these debates, which were massively covered, brought mister Lincoln good standings with the public and gave him the boost he needed for his ascension into presidency. • Yay for Lincoln!

9. Mixed Quotes from the debate • No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. • "Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed."  •  Do you desire to turn this beautiful State into a free negro colony,  • I believe it was made by white men for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever • he would "blow out the moral lights around us" and eradicate the love of liberty. • they did consider all men created equal — equal in certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

10. The End • This is the end of our slide show, hope you liked it…So, basically the debates were informing the common people of the major political issues and let the people hear different opinions on very controversial topics and it gave our future president the good standings with the people. Who knows where we would be today if Abraham Lincoln hadn't become president…I wonder…Any way let’s move on to the rest of this presentation shall we? I’m not getting any younger.