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

Consider the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, in which Lincoln, as the anti-slavery Republican candidate for an Illinois seat in the U.S.

From Washington Post • Oct. 24, 2022

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

Or, even better, that someone will build a time machine before my time on this planet is over and I can travel to 1858 and listen to the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

From New York Times • Sep. 24, 2016

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