Reference no: EM133310681

Assignment:

Imagine you are a citizen in the state of Illinois during the Senate race of 1858. (Remember: at this time, representatives to Congress were not chosen by a direct popular election the way they are today. Eligible voters elected representatives to the Illinois state legislature. The state legislature in turn, voted to elect Illinois' Senators.) There are two major candidates running to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate, Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Stephen A. Douglas. Based on what you have been learning about the events leading up to the Civil War, what are some of the key issues that you as an Illinois citizen in 1858 might be concerned about?:

1. Does the candidate support the Dred Scott decision?

2. Should African-Americans have the same rights as whites?

3. Does the candidate support the idea of popular sovereignty? (As it relates to the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Lecompton Constitution.)

Now that we have our list of key issues, we need to discover the candidates' position on each issue. In 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas met for debates in the towns of Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and Alton. "These meetings became known as "The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858." The debates held at Ottawa, Galesburg, Quincy and Alton, are the best sources, with the majority of the discussion focused on platform issues, rather than mudslinging or party accusations. You only need to pick the debate in one city. You can choose the city.