In the race for the Illinois Senate seat in 1858, Stephen Douglas was up for reelection. He was challenged by Abraham Lincoln, who had gained a following among Republicans of the Midwest. Lincoln had built upon the political reputation that he had established during his 1854 campaign for the United States Senate. His clear articulation of current issues found favor with educated, urban audiences while his homely touch and sense of humor appealed to country folk. Drawing upon the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln had often expressed the opinion that slavery was inconsistent with human rights and natural law. He maintained that the territories be kept free of the taint of slavery. Lincoln also argued that the original intent of the framers of the Constitution pointed towards eventual emancipation. Douglas and Lincoln traveled around making speeches in which they responded to each others positions. In July of 1858, Lincoln suggested that the two candidates meet face to face in formal debates, a proposition that Douglas accepted reluctantly. Throughout the late summer, the two men met at seven towns. What resulted was an intellectual discussion of slavery that went deeper than any abolitionist's arguments or defenders of slavery had argued up to that point in time. Lincoln forced Douglas to define popular sovereignty in the light of the recent Dred Scott decision. Douglas argued that "slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere unless it is supported by local police regulations." This placed him in an awkward position of accepting the constitutional force of the Dred Scot decision, but at the same time demonstrating that it had no practical effect if it ran counter to public opinion. Lincoln cast the slavery question in the broadest possible terms: "it is the eternal struggle between these two principles - right and wrong throughout the world." During the debates, Lincoln tried to reconcile his high moral purpose and his strongly felt anti-slavery beliefs with the problem of race adjustment which he foresaw and which he knew had to be faced eventually. For his part, Douglas argued for the status quo. What Lincoln did accomplish was to raise the level of the debate on slavery to a higher, more convincing level than had hitherto been achieved. Douglas won reelection because of the way a previous Democratic majority had apportioned the state legislature. Even so, Lincoln lost by only eight votes in the joint session. Lincoln's performance in the debates, which were widely covered and well reported in the press, catapulted him to political prominence throughout the free states and within the leadership of the Republican party. The two men would meet again in the Presidential election of 1860 and the result would be very different. It was at this point that the numerous Southern states which had promised to secede from the Union if Lincoln was elected President followed thru and did exactly that. Civil War was at the doorstep.
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