Call For Lincoln and Douglas-style Political Debate

April 29, 2008 - PRLog -- Senator Clinton called for one more debate without any moderator. According to the CNN report, Obama’s spokesman, David Axlerod, indicated enough time had been spent debating Clinton, and he didn’t feel the public was clamoring for more debates.

If Clinton and Obama truly adopted the style of Lincoln and Douglas, a great clamor could result. Abraham Lincoln was running against Stephen Douglas in 1858 to become a U.S. senator from Illinois. His campaign created a furor from coast to coast. Lincoln and Douglas held a series of seven debates. They did not take questions from a moderator but used the time to attack each other, refute the other’s position and demand answers to political, legal, social and moral questions.

The Lincoln-Douglas debates unfolded in cliff-hanging installments. The first candidate spoke for 60 minutes, the second one spoke for 90, then the first returned with a 30-minute rejoinder. Douglas gave the opening speech at four meetings, and Lincoln opened three times. Questions asked at one debate were avoided until a future meeting. If the candidates could get away with silence, they ignored each other. Voters had many concerns: financial panic, immigration issues, infrastructure needs, but the candidates limited the discussion to personal attacks and the subject of slavery. Ordinary Americans, farm boys as well as people with good educations, flocked to the debates and listened to three hours of complicated speeches, filled with political, legal and historical arguments. Newspapers printed full-text transcriptions with a few days. People reacted passionately because Lincoln and Douglas framed the issue with eloquence, wit and confidence.

What did the candidates gain by appearing on stage together without a moderator? When the election results were tallied, Lincoln won the majority of the popular vote, but unfair apportionment gave Douglas enough votes to retain his seat in the U.S. Senate. Douglas had tapped voters’ anxieties and managed to hold on. When he returned to Washington, however, Douglas lost his powerful position as Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Territories. In contrast, although he started out as a relative unknown, Lincoln’s campaign led to national prominence. He spoke for the ages, and his clear speeches helped divergent political factions understand their common interest.

Georgiann Baldino’s new book Following Lincoln as He Followed Douglas captures public reaction to Lincoln's dramatic 1858 campaign. The book recounts how constituents reacted to the campaign tactics used by Lincoln and Douglas. The ways citizens participated in self-government 150 years ago provides lessons for today.

Editor Chas Ridley says of Baldino’s book, “My concerns in this election year are their concerns of 150 years ago — truth, strength, kindness, good sense, family and community, plus wondering how to encourage our government to truly be ‘for the people.’ This book celebrates the past within the context of the present. History has seldom felt so personal or so inspiring.”

Website: home.comcast.net/~gbaldino/index.htm