First Lincoln-Douglas Debate

First Lincoln-Douglas Debate. Looking for Lincoln. , First Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Abraham Lincoln's first heated exchanged with Stephen A. Douglas on Aug 21, 1858 in Ottawa was received coolly by his advisors. They insisted Lincoln had treated Douglas entirely too "tenderly." Lincoln, however, wrote a friend: "The fire flew some and I am glad to know I am yet still alive." The population of this canal town, industrial center, and county seat more than doubled as 14,000 people poured into Washington Square to watch the U.S. Senate campaign's first formal joint appearance. Onlookers crowded the imposing steps of the just-completed Reddick Mansion across Lafayette Street for a dramatic view of the shadeless square. Fifty years later, witnesses recalled how difference the contenders looked even more than what they had said. Douglas was "short, broad and red-faced ... [and] had a deep bass voice," recalled Charles Dickey, then sixteen, and Lincoln was a "lanky six feet five inches [with a] high tenor voice." Hannah Patterson of Ottawa remembered how the crow'd "holiday air ... seemed out of placce. Those were serious questions that Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas were debating.", In the mid-nineteenth century, you could tell a man's political leanings by what newspaper he carried under his arm. The Weekly Free Trader was unabashedly a Democratic organ and chronicled Stephen Douglas's movements, but for news of Abraham Lincoln, readers had to turn to the Weekly Republican. The two papers boisterously sniped at one another. As the record of Douglas's appearances shows, neither candidate limited his speaking engagements to the seven joint appearances. Each man also spent countless hours stumping in nearby communities., (sidebar) , When necessity trumpeted, George Fuchs dropped his cornet and "shouldered" the crisis. As Abraham Lincoln stepped from the speaker's platform after the historic debate, local supporters gathered to carry him off in triumph. Lincoln's lanky frame didn't fold easily for transport. The bull-like Herman Meyers "got between Lincoln's legs so as to take Lincoln on his shoulders, but he was unable to straighten up." Fuchs threw his instrument under the stand and grabbed Lincoln by the hips and lifted him..." Lincoln held "frantically onto the heads of his supporters" while his legs dangled and "his pantaloons pulled up so as to expose his underwear almost to his knees," one reporter recalled. Lincoln managed to free himself, shook his bearers' hands, and continued to the home of Mayor J.O. Glover, where he spent the night.