Where did Lincoln and Douglas each stand on slavery?

Answer 1

In order to properly answer this question, it's important to provide some background on Illinois, the Democrat & Republican parties along with some background information on the candidates.

It has always been clear the Abraham Lincoln was personally against slavery. His own words in speeches he made in the 1858 senatorial race with Stephan Douglas made that clear. From the view of political science the important question is what the two candidates would do as public office holders regarding the issue. In an election campaign, it often comes to a point where it seems a candidate "flip -flops" on an issue and newspapers and the opponents such a candidate will point this out. To be fair, many things said in a campaign are taken out of context and in other cases the offending candidate will simply retract the flip -flop statement and clarify his or her position on an issue.

The 1858 senatorial race in Illinois deserves close attention because the two major candidates are "stand - out " figures in US history. One, Stephan Douglas was the incumbent seeking re-election. Douglas had already made himself an important political force in the Nation by the roles he played in the Missouri Compromise and in the Kansas - Nebraska Act, among other national issues. The State of Illinois was an important one from a national political standpoint. It had a large population and contained the large city of Chicago. Political campaigns in this State required candidates to understand the "lay of the land" in a manner of speaking. And they needed to understand & give support to the party that had nominated them.

One point is clear about the State of Illinois, it was a State that valued itself as a "White State". Some years before the election of 1858, a poll was taken regarding the policies that voters had regarding Afro - Americans. In that poll 70% of Illinois voters would support a amendment to the Illinois State Constitution making it illegal for Afro Americans from living there. (It needs to be remembered that slavery was legal in the USA at the time)

The Republican Party was a newly created one when the Whig Party dissolved. In Illinois, it was a mixture of anti slavery politics and one that favored evangelical Christianity. The rallying cry of the Republicans in Illinois was "The Two Despotisms - Catholicism and Slavery". The Party was sure that each of the two mentioned items were a threat to democracy.

Candidates have to be practical. Lincoln's campaign catch phrase, he took from The Bible and specifically from Matthew 12:25. This is frequently left out of discussions about Lincoln. But, and it's a big but, the Republican Party was a ferociously Protestant. So quoting scripture as a means to gather support was sensible. During the campaign, Lincoln stated that as a senator, he would favor and promote policies that would prevent the expansion of slavery and reduce it where it already exisited.

Lincoln stated that supporting Douglas was affirming the nationalism of slavery. On more than one occasion, Lincoln implied that Douglas was part of a Slave Power conspiracy.

Research for decades have been done on Stephan Douglas because of the major impact this man had on American politics in the middle of the 19th century. Scholars from prominent universities, to this day, debate Douglas personal view of slavery. On the political position, not the personal one, Douglas stated in his campaign that he would remain and continue to keep his view of "popular sovereignty" on the slavery issue. This meant that the voters of a State or a territory should vote on whether they wanted a legal slavery policy or to vote to ban slavery.

So in 1858 it's clear that Lincoln, if elected would try to prevent slavery from spreading and help to abolish it where it already existed. Douglas remained in his position of "let the voters decide".

It should be noted that Douglas won a narrow victory. Whether each candidates' view on slavery was a deciding factor is not known.