Volume 55, Number 16 · October 23, 2008
They Soared Above the Din
By James Oakes
Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates That Defined America
by Allen C. Guelzo
Simon and Schuster, 383 pp., $26.00
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
edited by Rodney O. Davis and Douglas L. Wilson
Knox College Lincoln Studies Center/University of Illinois Press, 392 pp., $35.00
The Lincoln-Douglas debates during the Illinois Senate campaign of 1858 were tedious, long-winded, and repetitious. Both Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas spun out elaborate conspiracy theories alleging nefarious plots by obscure politicians. The candidates were outraged by each other's 'infamous' accusations. Douglas was scandalized by the charge that he was part of a sinister conspiracy to spread slavery nationwide; Lincoln dismissed the claim that his candidacy was part of a shady deal engineered to make up for his failure to win the Senate seat four years earlier. But both candidates ignored each other's indignant denials. They called each other liars. They both used racist epithets, sprinkling their remarks with the 'n' word. On important issues they were often evasive and deliberately misleading. Douglas repeatedly distorted Lincoln's positions; Lincoln often drew apocalyptic inferences from Douglas's arguments, claiming they would make slavery permanent by making it morally acceptable. But no matter how poorly Lincoln or Douglas performed, their operatives tried to make sure that an intensely partisan press would report only that their preferred candidate had inflicted a devastating defeat upon his opponent.
Review, 4384 words
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