Semi-centennial of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in Illinois, 1858-1908 : circular of suggestions for school celebrations . he two. His ambition prompted him to attemptto win national regard by advocating the theory that the people ofKansas should be allowed to determine for themselves whether theywould come into the Union a free or slave state. Being short ofstatute and yet of powerful physical strength, had won for Douglas thenickname of the Little Giant. The debate was said to be a contestbetween Old Abe and the Little Giant. At the close of the debate the election was held which chose a ma-j
Semi-centennial of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in Illinois, 1858-1908 : circular of suggestions for school celebrations . he two. His ambition prompted him to attemptto win national regard by advocating the theory that the people ofKansas should be allowed to determine for themselves whether theywould come into the Union a free or slave state. Being short ofstatute and yet of powerful physical strength, had won for Douglas thenickname of the Little Giant. The debate was said to be a contestbetween Old Abe and the Little Giant. At the close of the debate the election was held which chose a ma-jority of the State Legislature favorable to Douglas instead of Lincolnand the former was consequently returned to the Senate. Two yearslater he was nominated by one branch of the Democratic party for thepresidency and was therefore an unsuccessful candidate against hisold rival, Lincoln. Although an intense partisan, he was a more intensepatriot and immediately upon the breaking out of the war, he tenderedhis services to President Lincoln. He died in 1861 and lies buried onthe lake shore in Chicago. ,*-*%tJW«^ hf r. The Origin and the Outcome of the Debates. When Lincoln ended his single term in Congress in March, 1849,he retired to his law practice and gave it more exclusive attentionthan ever before. During the next five years he was gradually losinghis interest in politics, as he himself tells us. The passage of theKansas-Nebraska Act, in May 1854, fathered by Senator Douglas,with its repeal of the Missouri Compromise, changed his whole atti-tude. Immediately he was aroused, as he expressed it. His strongpatriotism and his high conception of legal and moral justice inspiredhim with a new zeal and he was soon addressing politcal gatherings. Generally the ready wit and broad humor of the speeches of formerdays were missing. Instead, the listeners were moved by new earnest-ness and seriousness of argument. Passing by personal issues, leavmgunmentioned the policies of the day,
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