The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858

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Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in Hardin County, Kentucky. He was not well educated, but somehow he could read, write, and cipher. He learned while he worked hard as a rail splitter and store keeper in New Salem, Illinois. He was a captain in the Black Hawk War, and worked in the Illinois Legislature for eight years. He was married to Mary Todd, and they had four sons.

Lincoln ran for senate in 1858, but lost to Democrat Stephen A. Douglas. In 1860 Lincoln was nominated to be the Republican candidate for the 1860 presidential election. He believed in minority rights, meaning that he though that the minority group in the U.S. should have the same or similar rights as the majority. He became the sixteenth president of The United States of America. President Abraham Lincoln is well known for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation that declared slaves free forever, on January 1, 1863.

Abraham Lincoln won re-election in 1864 after gaining the support of northern democrats. On April 14, 1865, the sixteenth president of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln, was assassinated at Ford's Theatre in Washington by John Wilkes Booth.

Senator Stephen A. Douglas was born in Brandon, Vermont. Unlike Abraham Lincoln, he did not have to work as hard to get an education. In 1833, he began to study law under a local lawyer, but quit and moved to Jacksonville, Illinois 6 months later. In 1834 he was admitted to the Illinois Bar.

Douglas was a leader in the Illinois Democratic Party. Shortly before he turned 22 he was elected to be the state's attorney. In 1836 Douglas he was elected to the House of Representatives, and in 1840 he became the Illinois Secretary of State. In 1846 he served three consecutive terms...