Abraham Lincoln and the New Era in American Politics: The Historical Background and Setting of the Great Debates with Stephen A. Douglas (English Edition)

In 1858, for the first time in the history of the United States, the entire nation had riveted its attention on a merely statewide election. The speeches of the contenders for the Senate from Illinois had gained national recognition, as they were published in the major newspapers of the day. No greater speeches had ever been delivered on a public question since the days of the founding fathers. As for Mr. Douglas, he gave his very best performance in his opening remarks at Ottawa, wherein he expected to make short work of his opponent. When aroused, there was no more formidable antagonist in the United States than Senator Douglas, of whom it was said, “It would have been as easy to hold a globule of mercury under the finger's tip as to fasten him to a point he desired to evade.”
Stephen A. Douglas was soon to realize that his relatively unknown opponent was more dangerous to his political career than all the other Republicans and Abolitionists combined. Abraham Lincoln realized that he was speaking to a far wider audience than the thousands who strained to hear his voice during the political debates, and claimed that the real issue in their controversy was “the sentiment on the part of one class that looks upon the institution of slavery as a wrong, and of another class that does not look upon it as a wrong.” As such Lincoln and Douglas shared “in the defining of an issue which the two men clearly faced and which did not subside until the house ceased to be divided against itself, and the whole nation became free.”