3.3.3 Journal: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates Journal United States...

3.3.3 Journal: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates		Journal
United States History and Geography Sem 1 Points Possible:30	Name:
	Date:

In this assignment,  read excerpts from speeches given by Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln during the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Based on what you've read and your own research, you will write summary of the debates.

To get the best grade possible, follow the instructions in the assignment closely and answer all questions completely. This assignment is worth 30 points.

 

Read these excerpts from speeches by Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln in the first Lincoln-Douglas debate. Then answer the following prompts.

Stephen Douglas:

If you desire negro citizenship, if you desire to allow them to come into the State and settle with the white man, if you desire them to vote on an equality with yourselves, and to make them eligible to office, to serve on juries, and to adjudge your rights, then support Mr. Lincoln and the Black Republican party, who are in favor of the citizenship of the negro. For one, I am opposed to negro citizenship in any and every form. I believe this Government was made on the white basis. I believe it was made by white men for the benefit of white men and their posterity for ever, and I am in favor of confining citizenship to white men, men of European birth and descent, instead of conferring it upon negroes, Indians, and other inferior races. . . .

. . . This is a question which each State and each Territory must decide for itself — Illinois has decided it for herself. We have provided that the negro shall not be a slave, and we have also provided that he shall not be a citizen, but protect him in his civil rights, in his life, his person and his property, only depriving him of all political rights whatsoever, and refusing to put him on an equality with the white man. . . . Now, my friends, if we will only act conscientiously and rigidly upon this great principle of popular sovereignty, which guaranties to each State and Territory the right to do as it pleases on all things, local and domestic, instead of Congress interfering, we will continue at peace one with another. . . . Our fathers intended that our institutions should differ. They knew that the North and the South, having different climates, productions and interests, required different institutions. . . . Mr. Lincoln and the Republican party set themselves up as wiser than these men who made this Government, which has flourished for seventy years under the principle of popular sovereignty, recognizing the right of each State to do as it pleased. . . . Under that principle we have become, from a feeble nation, the most powerful on the face of the earth, and if we only adhere to that principle, we can go forward increasing in territory, in power, in strength and in glory until the Republic of America shall be the North Star that shall guide the friends of freedom throughout the civilized world. . . . I believe that this new doctrine preached by Mr. Lincoln and his party will dissolve the Union if it succeeds. They are trying to array all the Northern States in one body against the South, to excite a sectional war between the free States and the slave States, in order that the one or the other may be driven to the wall.

Abraham Lincoln:

I hate [the spread of slavery] because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it . . . enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites . . . and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty — criticizing the Declaration of Independence. . . .

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, and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position. I have never said anything to the contrary, but 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 is as much entitled to these as the white man. . . .

I leave it to you to say whether, in the history of our Government, this institution of slavery has not always failed to be a bond of union and, on the contrary, been an apple of discord, and an element of division in the house. . . . But lately, I think . . . that [Douglas], and those acting with him, have placed [slavery] on a new basis, which looks to the perpetuity and nationalization of slavery. And while it is placed upon this new basis, I say, and I have said, that I believe we shall not have peace upon the question until the opponents of slavery arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or, on the other hand, that its advocates will push it forward until it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South. Now, I believe if we could arrest the spread, and place it where Washington, and Jefferson, and Madison placed it, it would be in the course of ultimate extinction, and the public mind would, as for eighty years past, believe that it was in the course of ultimate extinction. The crisis would be past and the institution might be let alone for a hundred years, if it should live so long, in the States where it exists, yet it would be going out of existence in the way best for both the black and the white races.

. . . Then what is necessary for the nationalization of slavery? It is simply the next Dred Scott decision. It is merely for the Supreme Court to decide that no State under the Constitution can exclude it, just as they have already decided that under the Constitution neither Congress nor the Territorial Legislature can do it. When that is decided and acquiesced in, the whole thing is done.

 

In at least three paragraphs, come up with a summary of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Your summary should cover the main ideas of the debates, especially those related to the issue of slavery. You might consider addressing topics like the westward extension of slavery, popular sovereignty, citizenship for Black Americans, the ideas of the Founders, and others.

Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that states the main idea of the paragraph. In each paragraph, support your main idea with two to three supporting detail sentences. Finally, finish each paragraph with a concluding sentence that ties together the paragraph's ideas. Be sure to pay attention to spelling, grammar, and writing mechanics. (30 points)