Lincoln/Net

Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858

In 1858, a series of seven debates for the Illinois State Senate were held across the state of Illinois between Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln and Democratic nominee Stephen Douglas. The debates served as a precursor for the issues that Lincoln would face in the 1860 presidential election. The debates were well-attended and covered heavily by the press throughout the state. After ;losing the election, Lincoln edited the transcripts for the debates and published them into a book. The success of this publication helped Lincoln secure the Republican party's nomination in the 1860 race. Use the links in the navigational bar to your left in order to read newspaper accounts of the debates as well as commentary by newspaper reporters. 

Funding for this project was provided by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.


Debate Text from Nicolay and Hay

John Nicolay and John Hay, two of Lincoln's secretaries while president, compiled available Lincoln writings for an 1894 publication, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. These works included texts from the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, and are available from this website. Since the debates themselves were not written down by Lincoln and Douglas, Nicolay and Hay relied on newspaper accounts. Other newspaper accounts of the debates are available under Debate Texts from Newspapers.

Click on a city to link to the Nicolay and Hay version of that debate:

Click on an article to read other materials from the campaign published by Nicolay and Hay:

Debate Text from Newspapers

Since neither Lincoln nor Douglas wrote down the complete text of their speeches, citizens relied on newspaper accounts. In general, newspapers at that time were expressly party-affiliated, so accounts differed based upon which candidate the reporter was rooting for. It is interesting to examine these debates by comparing the texts offered by Republican (R) and Democratic (D) newspapers. This site offers debate texts from a wide variety of newspapers throughout the state including debate-city papers: Freeport Weekly Bulletin (D), Freeport Weekly Journal (R), Galesburg Semi-Weekly Democrat (R), Quincy Daily Whig and Republican (R), Alton Weekly Courier (R), as well as papers from other towns: Galena's Weekly North-Western Gazette (R), Rockford Republican (R), Bloomington's The Daily Pantagraph (R), Urbana's Central Illinois Gazette (D), Paris' Prairie Beacon News (R), Springfield's Illinois State Journal (R), The Jacksonville Sentinel (D), Dixon's Republican and Telegraph (R), and the Weekly Belleville Advocate (R).

Ottawa Debate — August 21, 1858.

The Daily Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois. (R)

Weekly North-Western Gazette, Galena, Illinois. (R)

The Jacksonville Sentinel (D)

Quincy Daily Whig and Republican (R)

Rockford Republican (R)

Illinois State Journal, Springfield, Illinois. (R)

Freeport Debate — August 27, 1858.

Alton Weekly Courier (R)

Weekly Belleville Advocate (R)

Freeport Weekly Bulletin (D)

Weekly North-Western Gazette, Galena, Illinois. (R)

Galesburg Semi-weekly Democrat (R)

The Jacksonville Sentinel (D)

Quincy Daily Whig and Republican (R)

Illinois State Journal, Springfield, Illinois. (R)

Jonesboro Debate — September 15, 1858.

Weekly North-Western Gazette, Galena, Illinois. (R)

Illinois State Journal, Springfield, Illinois. (R)

Charleston Debate — September 18, 1858.

Weekly Belleville Advocate (R)

Quincy Daily Whig and Republican (R)

Rockford Republican (R)

Galesburg Debate — October 7, 1858.

The Daily Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois. (R)

Galesburg Semi-Weekly Democrat (R)

Quincy Debate — October 13, 1858.

In the newspapers reviewed by this site, there were no articles which published transcriptions of the Quincy debate.

Alton Debate — October 15, 1858.

The Daily Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois. (R)

Campaign speeches from other cities

Alton Weekly Courier (R)

The Daily Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois. (R)

Republican and Telegraph, Dixon, Illinois. (R)

Freeport Weekly Bulletin (D)

Weekly North-Western Gazette, Galena, Illinois. (R)

Illinois State Journal, Springfield, Illinois. (R)

Lapsley, Arthur Brooks, ed. The Writings of Abraham Lincoln. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1905.

Browne, Francis, F. The Every-Day Life of Abraham Lincoln. New York: N.D. Thompson, 1886.

  • This biography of Lincoln contains speeches of Lincoln relating to the campaign of 1858.