The Lincoln-Douglas Debates These debates were a series of seven debates between the democratic senator, Stephen Douglas, and republican challenger, Abraham Lincoln, during the senatorial campaign of 1858. The biggest controversy was over slavery. Slavery was a big part of the debates because of the new territories added to the United States. The south believed they should allow slavery, and the North didnt. Douglas sponsered the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which brought the slavery issue back. His bill in effect repealed the Missouri Compromise by lifting the ban against slavery in territories north. Lincoln and Douglas debated the slavery extension issue in 1858, therefore, they were addressing the problem that had divided the nation into two hostile camps. The issue that threatened the continued existence of the nation. Lincoln spoke out against the union. Say that the country wont survive long if it is split. Douglas took this as an opportunity, and refered to Lincoln as a radical. Lincoln then challenged DOuglas to a series of debates, and the two eventually agreeed to have seven debates in the state of Illinois. The debates, each three hours long, were convened in Ottawa held August 21, Freeport held August 27, Jonesboro held September 15, Charleston held September 18, Galesburg held October 7, Quincy held October 13, and Alton held October 15. Douglas repeatedly tried to brand Lincoln as a dangerous radical who stood for racial equality and disruption of the Union. Lincoln emphasized the moral iniquity of slavery and attacked popular sovereignty for the blood it had spilled in Kansas. In the first debate in Ottawa, Douglas accused Lincoln of trying to get rid of the whig and democratic party. He also said that Lincoln was taking the side of the common enemy in the Mexican War. He even decided to say that Lincoln wanted to make Illinois "a free negro colony". Which then was not a normal view. At the debate in Freeport Lincoln challenged Douglas to reconcile popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott decision. Douglas replied that settlers could make the decision by not establishing the local police regulations that protected a master's property. Without that protection, no one with slaves would move into that territory. In the third debate, in Jonesboro, Illinois, Douglas tried to make Lincoln seem unreliable. Saying that Licoln said something new, or took a new stance on an issue in the different parts of Illionois. He again repeated that Lincoln stood for racial equality. Lincoln denied all of the accusations except for the racial equality. In the fourth debate, in Charleston, Illinois, Lincoln accused that Douglas was plotting to create a constitution for Kansas allowing it to be voted uopn by the people of Kansas. Lincoln gave a detailed history of the Kansas Nebraska Act and explained a conspiracy to nationalize slavery. Douglas denied the conspiracy, and restated again, that Lincoln wanted equality of the races. In the fifth debate, in Galesburg, Illinois, Douglas explained how he opposed the Lecompton Constitution as well as an compromise on the issue. He made a statement on how the Declaration of Independance was written by white men, and was only mean to apply to white men. Lincoln stated how he believed that the Declaration of Independence was meant to apply to all men. In the sixth debate, in Quincy, Illinois, Lincoln again denied that he said different things