Political Debates between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, In the Celebrated Campaign of 1858, in Illinois.

"The most important series of American Political Debates": FIRST EDITION OF THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES

Political Debates between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, In the Celebrated Campaign of 1858, in Illinois.

LINCOLN, Abraham; Stephen A. Douglas.

Item Number: 116741

Columbus: Follett, Foster and Company, 1860.

First edition, second issue with the Table of Contents on page ii of “the most important series of American political debates” (Howes L338). Octavo, original publisher’s brown cloth with gilt titles to the spine and elaborate blind stamping to the front and rear panels. In very good condition. Ownership name.

Although the debates were originally performed during the Illinois Senatorial race in 1858, they were published when both men became presidential candidates in 1860. Douglas won the race for senator, but the debates were his undoing in the presidential race, as Lincoln reminded voters repeatedly of the inconsistency between Douglas' principle of "popular sovereignty", in which the new territories would individually determine the status of slavery, and the Dred Scott decision in which the Supreme Court declared that slavery would not be excluded from the territories by Congress. As a result, Douglas was too tolerant of slavery for many northerners, and not vigorous enough for Southern Democrats. Somewhat surprisingly for an attorney, Lincoln did not seek Douglas’ permission to publish a book of their combined speeches, although Douglas was later given the last-minute opportunity—he declined—to make corrections to his own remarks” (Morris, 121).

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