Lincoln and Douglas: the Debates That Defined America May 22, 2008

In 1858, an obscure one-term congressman named Abraham Lincoln mounted a campaign for the United States Senate against the country's most formidable politician, Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln confronted Douglas on the questions of slavery and the inviolability of the Union in seven fierce debates, and although Lincoln lost his Senate bid, he emerged as a predominant national figure, the leader of his party, and the man who would bear the burden of the national confrontation.