Setting the Stage for the Great Debate

Setting the Stage for the Great Debate. . The Franklin House hotel served as Lincoln's debate headquarters and reception area during the final debate., In 1858, great debates were staged for the public with carnival-like appeal. People came from across Illinois and nearby states to witness the last debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. Farmers began to arrive in the city early in the morning. By noon, boats from St. Louis and trains from the North were beginning to arrive., Both Lincoln and Stephen Douglas came to Alton from Quincy by steamboat early in the morning. Mary Todd Lincoln came by train from Springfield to support her husband with their eldest son Robert, who was a fourth corporal in the Springfield Cadets. , "I always assume my audiences are wiser than I am, and I say the most sensible thing I can to them and I never found that they did not understand me." - Abraham Lincoln , (photo captions:), ·The Lincoln family: Mary Todd, William, Robert, Thomas, and Abraham Lincoln. Robert was the only one of Lincoln's children to reach maturity. , ·Many newspapers published transcriptions of each debate. At the time, newspapers were very partisan, and editors and transcribers often improved the speeches of their favorite candidates. , ·Located in the oldest stretch of the original town, the Franklin House (shown here in 1912) was one of Alton's largest and finest hotels in the 1840s and 1850s, ·Mary Todd Lincoln was a bridesmaid in the wedding of a prominent Alton resident, Lyman Trumbull, whose wife helped write the anonymous letter that sparked the duel between Lincoln and Shields. Learn more about the Trumbulls at the exhibit in Haskell Park.