Abraham Lincoln represented the republican principles during the Lincoln-Douglas debates by taking a stand against slavery. He declared that if slavery is not wrong, than nothing is wrong. Lincoln predicted that slavery would not last very long and soon eventually die on its own. While there is still slavery in the Southern states then there was to be not slavery in the Western states. Lincoln stated that "I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the whites and black races. There is no reason in the world why the Negro is not entitled to all rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty, and pursuit happiness."
Abraham Lincoln was the Republican. He ran against Stephen Douglas, a Democrat in 1858. Douglas won.
Abraham Lincoln-Republican PartyStephen Douglas-Northern DemocratJohn Breckinridge-Southern DemocratJohn Bell-Constitutional Party
Several of Abraham Lincoln's biographers point out that Abraham Lincoln had a personal political problem with Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas. Reportedly Lincoln tried to associate Douglas with the so-called Slave Power Conspiracy during the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. Allegedly Eastern Republicans such as Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune, and New York Governor William Seward were trying to bring Douglas into the Republican Party. If so, Douglas, a senator of national prominence would then be the leader of the Illinois Republican Party. Looking forward to the 1860 Republican Convention, Seward and Greeley saw the Republican Douglas as a huge boost to the Party's chances to elect a Republican president.
Abraham Lincoln was the winning Republican candidate for president in 1860.
Illinois
Republican Party candidate Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election defeating John Breckinridge, John Bell and Stephen Douglas.
In correspondence to Stephen A. Douglas' friends, he indicated that Abraham Lincoln was not a radical or fanatical Republican. Douglas had admiration for Lincoln. In public, however, politics prevailed. Douglas had to paint Lincoln as an abolitionist and a divisive political figure.
In the electoral campaign of 1860, Lincoln was nominated by the Republican Party to run for President against Steven A. Douglas.
As a candidate for the senate seat held by Democrat Stephen Douglas, Republican Abraham Lincoln provided a moderate position on the issue of slavery. He did this because earlier in the 1850's the radical Republican view that slavery needed to be abolished at once throughout the nation was just "too radical" for many citizens to bear. Lincoln was opposed to the national sovereignty policy created by Douglas. The result of this policy, which Douglas did not approve, was the violence it created in Kansas. There as per the Act passed by Congress, people would vote as to whether the state would be a free one or a slave state. It must be noted however, that although most Republicans and even Democrats in Illinois did not believe slavery was "Just", Lincoln and Douglas believed at that time that Blacks were not equal to whites.
Steven A. Douglas was one, but so were most of his cabinet members. They had run against him at the Republican Convention.
He ran for senate when you actually have sex. IT NEVER HAPPENED
In 1858 when Abraham Lincoln was running for the Senate seat of Illinois held by Stephen Douglas, the Illinois Republican Party declared that slavery and Catholicism were the two greatest threats to American democracy.