Debates' Structure

Debates' Structure. Lincoln-Douglas Debate Square. , In 1858, the Democratic Party was the majority party in Illinois and Douglas was by far the most popular member of this party. Lincoln was not well known because his party, the newly formed Republicans, were still trying to create an organization. As a result, Lincoln had trouble drawing crowds as he canvassed the state in his bid to unseat Douglas. , Finally, Lincoln suggested to Douglas that the two of them share a platform and divide their speaking time. Douglas had nothing to gain by agreeing with Lincoln, but loving a good political brawl, Douglas agreed to Lincoln's proposal. , Seven debates were scheduled in each of the congressional districts in which the two had not already appeared in close proximity. They had already spoken in Chicago and Springfield. , The format of the "debates" was to be as follows: First speaker was allowed one hour, the second speaker was allowed an hour and a half, and then the first speaker was allowed a half-hour "rejoinder." The order of who spoke first was to change at each meeting so that Douglas spoke first in four of the debates while Lincoln was first in three. , Newspapers were openly for one party or another, and there was not effort to separate editorial opinion from news stories. The two samples from Freeport newspapers in the weeks before the Freeport Debate clearly show the bias in the news stories carried by each paper. , With the national scope of the issues about which Lincoln and Douglas were debating, as well as the interest expressed across the nation, stenographers were employed by major newspapers in an attempt to accurately record the words of the debates. This was the first instance of such efforts being made to produce an exact record of political speeches. , Analysis by historian Harold Holzer later showed that the texts published by the various newspapers were edited for the candidate which they supported while they printed the texts of the opposition candidate just as they were taken down.