Lincoln & the Franchise
by M. Kelly TilleryLincoln & the Franchise M. Kelly Tillery, Esq. “The most fundamental right in America is the right to vote—and to have it counted. And it’s under assault. In state after state, new laws have been passed, not only to suppress the vote, but to subvert entire elections. We cannot let this happen.” Joseph R. Biden, […]
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The Debate over the Debates: Debating Those Debates: The Historians Weigh In
by Douglas L. Wilson, Edna Greene, Frank J. Williams, Harold HolzerModerated by Harold Holzer A public sensation in the seven Illinois towns that hosted them—reprinted in the press at the time, in book form shortly thereafter, and in many editions since—the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates are remembered today, 160 years after they took place, as a political and cultural phenomenon. But as much as they attracted […]
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What I Did Last Summer: Ed Breen, Vice President of the Friends of the Lincoln Collection, Visits the Lincoln-Douglas Debate Sites
by Ed BreenBy Ed Breen Charleston Joe Judd sat behind the counter of his used book store at 303 Lincoln Avenue on the west side of Charleston, Illinois, and talked about what it meant to him and others in town that their town was among the seven communities across the Illinois landscape where the future of the […]
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The Debate Over the Debates: How Lincoln and Douglas Wages a Campaign For History
by Harold HolzerBy Harold Holzer As most readers of 19th-century history know, the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates sparked an explosion of public interest in Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, and the sport of political debating itself. The encounters not only riveted the tens of thousands of eyewitnesses who packed Illinois town squares and fairgrounds to hear them, but […]
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Interview with Harold Holzer on the 160th Anniversary of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
by Harold HolzerSara Gabbard: In 1858, was there already a precedent for debates between competing candidates for political office? Harold Holzer: Not much of one, really. Certainly the 1830 Webster-Hayne debates over the tariff had long been famous nationwide, but these took place on the floor of the U. S. Senate in Washington, between two public officials, […]
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