Hey everyone, thanks for tuning into episode number 18 of our

Civil War Podcast. I'm Rich. And I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Welcome to the

podcast. In 1858, while battling for a US Senate seat, the Republican

candidate Abraham Lincoln and the incumbent Democratic Senator Stephen

Douglas squared off in a series of seven debates that were staged at cross

the length and breadth of Illinois. The two antagonists met first on August 21st

in Ottawa in the North Central part of the state. By the time the last debate was

concluded in the Mississippi River Town of Alton on October 15th, the

dramatic train of encounters had drawn national attention. Everyone observed the

obvious physical difference between the two candidates. Douglas was known as

the little giant, but at five foot four barely came up to Lincoln's shoulder. He

was a ruddy thick set man while Lincoln was extremely tall and painfully thin.

Douglas had a booming authoritative voice while Lincoln spoke in a piercing

tenor, which at times became shrill and sharp. But the differences between the

two candidates went far beyond the contrast in their appearance. In that epic

1858 political campaign between Lincoln and Douglas, the two men offered

Illinois voters and a wider national audience, a choice between two

starkly contrasting views of the American experience. The debates are

deservedly the most famous in American history because the stakes were much

higher than a mere senatorial election. The theme of the severant

confrontations was nothing less than the future of slavery and the integrity of

the Union. Tariffs, banks, corruption, internal improvements, none of those

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