Hey everyone, welcome to the 19th episode of our Civil War podcast.

My name is Rich. And I'm Tracy. Hello, y'all. Thanks for tuning into the podcast.

So as you probably already know, this episode is the continuation of our coverage of the famous Lincoln Douglas debates.

In the last show, we gave the background to the 1858 Senate race between Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln.

And then we talked about the first two debates, which were held in the Illinois towns of Ottawa and Freeport.

And this show will give a brief summary of each of the five remaining events. And then we'll wrap things up by talking about the results of the election and the significance of the debates.

All right, so let's dive right back into it.

The third debate was held on September 15, 1858 at Jonesboro, the county seat of Union County.

And Union County in the far southern part of the state was among the poorest in Illinois.

And curiously, this southern part of the state was known as Egypt because of its proximity to the river town of Cairo.

Which is actually spelled C-A-I-R-O like the capital of Egypt.

Exactly. And anyway, the counties of southern Illinois were also known as Egypt because they had the state's highest concentration of people.

Who had been born in slave holding states. And as a result, people with the most hostile attitudes toward African Americans and the Republican Party.

And so Lincoln knew he would face a distinctly unfriendly crowd at Jonesboro.

But so would Stephen Douglas, the Democrats in Union County and the surrounding area were B. Cannon Loyalist. And so were ill-disposed toward Douglas.

Unlike the boisterous welcomes he had received at Ottawa and Freeport, only about 100 people had been on hand to greet him at the train station here.

Well, plus, the Illinois State Fair had just started up in Centralia and that popular event pulled people away from the third debate.

Probably only about 1,500 people turned out at Jonesboro to hear the two candidates.

Douglas had the opening speech this time, but one observer noted the senator seemed uninspired.

Quote, the delivery was very bad. A sort of schoolboy monotone. End quote.

At Jonesboro, Douglas returned to his attack of Lincoln's house divided speech.

To Lincoln's assertion that the nation could not remain forever half slave and half free. Douglas asked, why not?

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