Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln to Charles H. Ray, 20 November 18581
Springfield, Nov^r 20, 1858D^r C. H. Ray.My dear Sir
I wish to preserve a Set of the late debates (if they may be called so) between Douglas and myself–2 To enable me to do so, please get two copies of each number of your paper containing the whole, and send them to me by Express;3 and I will pay you for the papers & for your trouble–4 I wish the two sets, in order to lay one away in the raw, and to put the other in a Scrap-book– Remember, if part of any debate is on both sides of one sheet, it will take two sets to make one scrap-book.5 I believe, according to a letter of yours to Hatch you are "feeling like h—ll[hell] yet". Quit that– You will soon feel better–6 Another "blow-up" is coming; and we shall have fun again– Douglas managed to be supported both as the best instrument to put down and to uphold the slave power; but no ingenuity can long keep

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these antagonisms in harmony–7
Yours as everA. Lincoln

1Abraham Lincoln wrote and signed this letter.

2Lincoln was the Republican candidate from Illinois for U.S. Senate in 1858. In the summer and fall of that year, Lincoln and his Democratic opponent, the incumbent Stephen A. Douglas, held a series of seven political debates throughout the state. Though Lincoln lost the Senate race, the debates received national coverage and boosted Lincoln’s standing in the national Republican Party. See 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; 1858 Federal Election.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:457-557.

3The Chicago Daily Press and Tribune published the texts of the seven Lincoln-Douglas debates. The Ottawa debate appears in the August 23, 1858 printing, Freeport in the August 30, 1858 printing, Jonesboro in the September 17, 1858 printing, Charleston in the September 21, 1858 printing, Galesburg in the October 9, 1858 printing, Quincy in the October 15, 1858 printing, and Alton in the October 18, 1858 printing.
Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (Chicago, IL), 23 August 1858, 1:2-9, 4:1; 30 August 1858 1:4-6, 2:2-7; 17 September 1858 1:1-9, 4:1; 21 September 1858 1:1-9, 4:1-2; 9 October 1858 2:2-9, 3:1; 15 October 1858 1:2-9, 4:1; 18 October 1858 1:2-9, 4:1-2.

4Charles Ray’s response, if he wrote one, has not been located. On November 30, Lincoln wrote Henry C. Whitney, asking him to procure the relevant copies of the Tribune and forward them by express as Ray had yet to respond.

5The seven debates each appeared in other contemporary newspapers, from which Lincoln compiled a scrapbook that served as the source for the first publication of all of the debates in 1860.
Political Debates Between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon. Stephen A. Douglas (Columbus: Follett, Foster, 1860), iii-iv.

6Lincoln references the state elections in Illinois, which took place on November 2, 1858. Members of the Illinois General Assembly voted for and elected the state’s representatives in the U.S. Senate at the time; therefore the outcome of the races for the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate were critical to the race for the Senate seat. In the state’s local elections as a whole, Republicans won a majority of all votes cast in the state, but pro-Douglas Democrats retained control of the General Assembly.
Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 3 November 1858, 2:1; The Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 November 1858, 2:4; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:546-47; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” The Journal of American History 94 (September 2007), 392-94, 414-16.

7The issue of slavery and its expansion to U.S. territories served as a focal point of the Senate race. In December 1857, Douglas delivered a speech criticizing President James Buchanan’s support for the Lecompton Constitution. While Douglas’s stance caused a rift in the Democratic Party, it also fueled rumors that Douglas might soon defect to the Republican Party. His commitment to popular sovereignty, whereby the people of a territory could vote on whether to legalize slavery, became a recurring issue during the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. On August 27, during the second debate at Freeport, Illinois, Lincoln posed four questions concerning the admission of Kansas to the Union and the expansion of slavery. In his second question, Lincoln asked Douglas whether the people of a territory could, in light of the Dred Scott decision, “exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a state constitution?” Douglas responded by establishing what became called his “Freeport Doctrine.” Douglas answered yes, citizens could exclude slavery by local legislation. “Slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere,” Douglas famously retorted, “unless it is supported by local police regulations, furnishing remedies and means of enforcing the right to hold slaves.” Douglas’s Freeport Doctrine proved distasteful to national Republican leaders who had previously pondered the benefits an alliance with him. It did, however, resolve the inconsistency between popular sovereignty and the Dred Scott decision, thereby satisfying his Illinois supporters.
Douglas’s anti-Lecompton position also helped to charm some former Central Illinois Whigs whose votes Lincoln and the Republicans sought to sway. Douglas argued that popular sovereignty aligned with the principles of the late renowned Whig Henry Clay. In October 1858, T. Lyle Dickey published a letter from John J. Crittenden, another notable former Whig, that effectively amounted to an endorsement of Douglas. In a letter to Crittenden on November 4, Lincoln credited the use of Crittenden’s name as a contributing factor in his defeat.

These factors coalesced to assure Douglas’s reelection to the Senate. His continued defense of popular sovereignty during the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, however, further alienated Southern pro-slavery Democrats. This ultimately dented his position in the national party and his chances in the American South in the presidential election of 1860.
Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, 1:553-57; Allen C. Guelzo, “Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858,” 395, 403, 414-17; Frank L. Dennis, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (New York: Mason & Lipscomb, 1974), 84-85; Paul M. Angle, “Freeport Doctrine,” Dictionary of American History, rev. ed. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976), 3:109; Carl Brent Swisher, "Dred Scott Case," Dictionary of American History (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1940), 2:167-68.