ing immediate and full civil rights on
African Americans, a move he warned
would “cover our prairies with [black] set-
tlements and turn this beautiful state into
a free Negro colony.” Douglas accused
Lincoln of believing that black men were
“his equal, and hence his brother. I do not
regard the Negro as my equal, and posi-
tively deny that he is my brother or any
kin to me whatever.”
Thrown off balance by Douglass’s
aggressive opening gambit, Lincoln offered
a weak rebuttal, denying that he had con-
spired to form a new abolitionist party in
Illinois and reading a long, boring excerpt
from his old speech in Peoria. Douglas, he
charged, was attempting to twist Lincoln’s
beliefs into “a specious and fantastic
arrangement of words, by which a man can
prove a horse chestnut to be a chestnut
horse.” As for the charge that Lincoln
believed in racial equality, Lincoln frankly
asserted; “I have no disposition to intro-
duce political and social equality between
the white and the black races. There is a
physical difference between the two, which
in my judgment will probably forever for-
bid their living together on terms of respect,
social and political equality.”
Besides their pronounced political differ-
ences, the candidates presented diametri-
cally opposite public faces. Douglas was all
clenched fists and high dudgeon, shouting
out accusations in his surprisingly deep,
mellow voice. Lincoln, although much
taller, had a comparatively higher, shriller
voice and presented a much less polished
stage presence, fumbling with his glasses—
-“I am no longer a young man”—and bend-
ing awkwardly at the knees before suddenly
springing upward in an ungainly but com-
pelling gesture of emphasis. Three times
during Douglas’s speech Lincoln attempted
to interrupt him, causing fellow Republican
committeemen on stage to hiss: “What are
you making such a fuss for? Douglas didn’t
interrupt you, and can’t you see the people
don’t like it?” With some difficulty, Lincoln
managed to rein in his temper.
After the debate, supporters carried Lin-
coln off on their shoulders, his long under-
wear comically showing beneath his pulled-up pant legs. The partisan press judged the
outcome along predictable party lines. The
Democratic-leaning Chicago Timesjudged
Douglas’s “excoriation of Lincoln” to have
been “so severe that the Republicans hung
their heads in shame,” while Republican
newspapers thought Lincoln had appeared
“high toned” and “powerful” in the face of
the senator’s “boorish” assaults. Prominent
New York editor Horace Greeley anointed
the debate nothing less than “a contest for
the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of
Satan.” A well-known founder of the
Republican Party, he left no doubt about
which kingdom Lincoln belonged to.
Lincoln was sufficiently worried about
his performance in Ottawa to convene a
meeting of his brain trust in Chicago a fewdays later. While pronouncing himself rea-
sonably satisfied with the outcome of the
debate—“The fire flew some, and I am glad
to know I am yet alive”—he invited sug-
gestions on how he could improve his per-
formance. Chicago Tribuneeditor Joseph
Medill, a longtime supporter, urged Lincoln
to be more aggressive. “Don’t act on the
defensive at all,” Medill advised. Instead,
“Hold Doug up as a traitor and conspira-
tor and a pro-slavery bamboozling dema-
gogue.” Medill told Lincoln to “put a few
ugly questions” of his own to Douglas, not-ing, perhaps unnecessarily, “You are deal-
ing with a bold, brazen, lying rascal and
you must fight the devil with fire. Give him
hell.” Another supporter, Charles Ray,
urged, “Charge, Chester! Charge! Do not
keep on the defensive. We must not be par-
rying all the while. We want the deadliest
thrusts. Let us see blood follow any time
[Douglas] closes a sentence.”
The second debate took place on August
27 at Freeport, six hours by train from
Chicago and a few miles from the Illinois-
Wisconsin border. The candidates arrived
to the already standard salvos of cannon fire
and shouting supporters. It was a damp,
overcast day, but 15,000 spectators—twice
the town’s population—flocked into a
vacant lot near the banks of the PecatonicaRiver, where another crude wooden plat-
form had been erected between two trees.
Lincoln again arrived first, sitting atop a
Conestoga wagon accompanied by an
honor guard of humble farmers to empha-
size his rural roots. Douglas walked over
the square from his room at the Brewster
House hotel. Along the way a watermelon
rind arced through the crowd and struck
Douglas on the shoulder as he mounted the
stage. He threatened to leave at once.
Lincoln, going first, said he wanted to
respond to Douglas’s “seven distinct inter-Private Collection / Peter Newark American Pictures / Bridgeman ImagesCWQ-Sum16 Lincoln Douglas_Layout 1 4/20/16 4:03 PM Page 29