author has added two inches] Lincoln towered over the Little
Giant. He wore a formal black suit, usually rumpled and always
too short for his long arms and legs. Douglas was what we
would call a flashy dresser. He wore shirts with ruffles, fancy
embroidered vests, a broad felt hat. He had a rapid-fire way of
speaking that contrasted with Lincoln’s slow, deliberate style....
Lincoln’s voice was high pitched, Douglas’s deep. Both had
to have powerful lungs to make themselves heard over street
noises and the bustle of the crowds. They had no public address
systems to help them.
So we learn that Douglas was a flashy dresser and spoke powerfully—but
where are his ideas? What did he say? All twelve textbooks in my original
sample provided just three sentence fragments from Douglas himself. Here is
every word of his they provided: “forever divided into free and slave states,
as our fathers made it,” “thinks the Negro is his brother,” and “for a day or an
hour.” Just twenty-four words in twelve books! While celebrating the “Little
Giant” for his “powerful speech” or “splendid oratory,” nine textbooks
silenced him completely.
Two of the six new textbooks supply at least a longer sentence fragment by
Douglas: “Slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere, unless it is
supported by local police regulations”—Douglas’s so-called Freeport
doctrine. Holt American Nation provides a longer quotation. While Pathways
to the Present doesn’t quote a word, it does summarize: “Douglas supported
popular sovereignty on issues including slavery.” Thus four recent textbooks
do tell that the debates had something to do with slavery. They need to go
further. Douglas’s position was not so vague. The debates were largely about
race and the position African Americans should eventually hold in our society.
That is why Paul Angle chose the title Created Equal? for his centennial
edition of the debates.^60 On July 9, 1858, in Chicago, Douglas made his
position clear, as he did repeatedly throughout that summer:
In my opinion this government of ours is founded on the white
basis. It was made by the white man, for the benefit of the white
man, to be administered by white men....
I am opposed to taking any step that recognizes the Negro