Lincoln-Douglas debates

Cultural  

1. A series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, when both were campaigning for election to the United States Senate from Illinois. Much of the debating concerned slavery and its extension into territories such as Kansas. The debates transformed Lincoln into a national figure and led to his election to the presidency in 1860.

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Example Sentences

In the previous weeks, the candidates had barnstormed across District 14 in their own version of the Lincoln-Douglas debates — but even more bitter.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 12, 2024

Merryman told Townhall that Williams had submitted an “anti-discrimination bill” that correctly referred to the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 15, 2022

The Lincoln-Douglas debates took place in the late summer and fall of 1858, when Lincoln was the Republican candidate for Senate challenging Democratic incumbent Stephen A. Douglas.

From Washington Post • Jan. 14, 2022

The third volume of Blumenthal’s monumental biography covers the Lincoln-Douglas debates and lays the groundwork for Lincoln’s ascent to power.

From New York Times • Sep. 3, 2019

The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 still further elucidated to the masses of the people the issues impending, and indicated that the end of slavery extension was near.

From Slavery and Four Years of War, Vol. 1-2 A Political History of Slavery in the United States Together With a Narrative of the Campaigns and Battles of the Civil War In Which the Author Took Part: 1861-1865 by Keifer, Joseph Warren