ipl-logo

Douglass Vs Abraham Lincoln Essay

749 Words3 Pages

The United States was divided in the ideas of slavery,freedom of slaves, or the choice for states to decide whether that slaves would be be free or not. Many citizens in America were also disagreeing on the person rights for slaves as whether they should be considered citizens, have the right to own property,or if they should have the right to vote for political issues. Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky in 1809. He lived his childhood in the Kentucky and Indian frontier. Later on in his house when he was a young adult he moved to Illinois. Lincoln worked many different types of jobs in Illinois such as fighting in the Blackhawk War, being a postmaster, and practicing law. Lincoln was very little known around the community and the state …show more content…

“For four months Lincoln and Douglas crisscrossed Illinois, traveling nearly 10,000 miles and participating in seven face-to-face debates before crowds of up to 15,000.” (digitalhistory.uh.edu). The outcome of the debates and the election caught national attention because many people thought who everyone won would decide the ability of the Democratic party to stay strong together with the problems with sectionalism and the issues on slavery. Also people thought the outcome would decide if the Union was viable for the people supporting it. In the debates Douglas’s goal was to paint Lincoln to the people as a “Black Republican”. This meant he wanted people to think Lincoln was for the Nation to go into a civil war and that we wanted to make slaves have the same right as the free white citizens. Lincoln was not a full on abolitionist but did believe that slavery was morally wrong and did not want slavery spreading to the new western territories. His opponent,Douglas, believed in the idea of popular sovereignty which allowed states to determine if there state should have slaves or not. In the debates the would argue over the Kansas-Nebraska act,The decision over Dred Scott, and over slavery in state. In one debate Lincoln would set up Douglas by asking him “if people of a territory could legally exclude slavery before achieving statehood”(textbook pg ). If Douglas said yes he would be

Show More
Related
867 Words | 4 Pages

Lincoln talks about the union in Document G and said the following: “But you say that sooner than yield your legal right to the slave—especially at the bidding of those who are not themselves interested, you would see the Union dissolved.” If the South successfully separated from the North the Confederacy would no longer be under the control of the Union and Lincoln’s access to freeing the slaves would minimal. This “new nation” that Lincoln was trying to create and put into effect had a strong foundation based upon Constitutional rights which declare that all men are created equal. Yes, maybe Lincoln at this point wanted to keep the Union together, which can most definitely be perceived as racist too but slavery on the back burner for the time being, but in the end, he encouraged and defended the rights of all humans.

Read More
1009 Words | 5 Pages

What were the key issues at stake during the historic Lincoln-Douglas debates, and how did they shape the nation's future? The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 are pivotal movements in American political history. Some people believe that it was mainly about the state's rights, while others say it was more about slavery. This was a big deal in American history because it changed the future of the U.S. by settling the state's rights and abolishing slavery. This debate was about two big-time politicians who were running for the Senate seat in Illinois in 1858.

Read More
238 Words | 1 Pages

 Douglas expanded Lincoln’s message about ending slavery in a heavy abolitionist movement, actually Lincoln wanted to avoid the expansion

Read More
471 Words | 2 Pages

Lincoln and Douglass participated in seven debates throughout Illinois, one in each of the state’s congressional districts. Lincoln believed slavery was wrong and wanted slavery to end. He preserved the union during

Read More
533 Words | 3 Pages

Douglas had the power and the advanced tactics against Lincoln, so when he would declare that slavery wasn’t immoral, people would often follow and think what he thought. Popular sovereignty is what he referred to during these heated debates, also stated how he wanted to expand slavery across the country and claim territories for his own. Lincoln on the other hand wanted to oppose slavery. Was part of some sort of anti-slavery party and entitled himself to support “free soilers”. Free Soilers were free men who basically belonged on free land.

Read More
1121 Words | 5 Pages

In this election, Lincoln and Douglas had some series of debates over slavery. Although Lincoln never exactly stated that he wanted to abolish slavery, much of the South believed he was an Abolitionist. At his speech in 1858 in Springfield Illinois, Lincoln wanted the nation to be one thing or another, meaning all free or all slave, because it couldn’t keep going on how it was, else it would fall apart. In his speech, Lincoln said, “...but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other” (Doc G).

Read More
226 Words | 1 Pages

Lincoln was only twenty-three when he got into politics as a legislature; with limited education and no political experience at all. Despite not having much political experience, he worked his way up in the government and even became a nominee for the Republican candidate for the election of 1860; winning the election by 40% without a single Southern state. After his election, Southern states started to secede; South Carolina being the first; claiming that because Lincoln won, slavery wasn’t safe. Lincoln believed in unity. He wanted to assure the South that he didn’t want them to fear about the loss of slavery.

Read More
962 Words | 4 Pages

This was due to the fact that the Abraham Lincoln was the one that was for ending slavery and making both the sides come together again. Abraham Lincoln was not for the difference between the United Stated because and did not want there to be a different country within the United

Read More
633 Words | 3 Pages

Lincoln Douglas Debates Rated as a worthy antagonist Douglas was that very antagonist for Lincoln during 1854-1861 (Johannsen, 1989). Many do not know that the debates were part of a larger campaign. These debates were designed to acheive cetain political abjectives, and these debates reflected of the politcal rhetoric of the time (History.com Staff, 2009). Douglas was in the Democratic Party where Lincoln was in the Republican Party, so you can imagine that their opinions differed greatly. They differed in not just opinion but political standing, their actual looks, and how they advanced up the political ladder so to speak.

Read More
740 Words | 3 Pages

He had very little traditional education, but read a lot when not working on his father 's farm. After moving away from home, Lincoln co-owned a general store for a couple of years before selling his stake and enlisting as a militia captain defending Illinois in the Black Hawk War of 1832, when he was 19, he followed a produce-laden flatboat down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. After settling in the town of New Salem, Illinois he worked as a shopkeeper and a owner of a post office. Lincoln became involved in local politics as a supporter of the Whig Party, he won the election to the Illinois state legislature in 1834. The Whig Party was a political party active in the middle of the 19th century in the United States of America.

Read More
478 Words | 2 Pages

Douglas moved to Washington, DC in the late 18th century where he edited a newspaper and became president of the ill-fated Freedman’s Bank. During his stay in Washington, DC he was appointed as a U.S. marshal from 1877-1881, from 1881-1886 he was a recorder of deeds, and from 1889-1891 he was in charge of affairs to minister to Haiti. He did not believe in slavery and wanted it abolished so during the civil war he tried to convince President Lincoln to let the slaves serve in

Read More
154 Words | 1 Pages

McGovern notes that “Lincoln’s approach to the issue [slavery] started with his personal view, often expressed privately and sometimes publicly, that he abhorred slavery (66).” McGovern also notes that Lincoln’s own family had antislavery values (66). But in congress, his position on slavery was not always consisten with his own personal values. “He was never an abolitionist, because he firmly believed that slavery was constitutionally protected in states where it already existed (66).”

Read More
771 Words | 4 Pages

Lincoln made a powerful moral statement against Douglas after he said he was indifferent to the expansion of slavery: I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world -enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites-causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of liberty -criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest (Gienapp

Read More
574 Words | 3 Pages

He was practicing law at the time and along with several other Republicans and fired upon the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Kansas-Nebraska Act assumed that it was okay for a man to enslave another man. Lincoln knew that if he outlawed slavery, it would lead to a civil war. Lincoln had other ideas, “instead, he advocated outlawing the spread of slavery to new states. He hoped his plan would preserve the Union and slowly eliminate slavery by confining it to the south, where, he believed it would die slowly” (history.com).

Read More
1784 Words | 8 Pages

Although he didn’t have much popularity, the Republican Party still pressured him to at least try. Then in 1960 he was invited to speak at Copper Union in New York City. The speech that he made in New York became so popular and exciting that was all over the newspapers. Soon enough his life was going to change when he was elected as the Republican presidential candidate. Lincoln stayed at home with his wife Mary while Republican leaders went across the United States making speeches and campaigning for Lincoln.

Read More

More about Douglass Vs Abraham Lincoln Essay

Related Topics

Open Document