Debates

My debate was the one in Freeport Illinois. Both Lincoln and Douglas were talking about the fugitive slave act, admissions of slave states and interstate slave trade. Lincoln was basically saying that the country needed to come up with a plan that would affect the whole country instead of having pure democracy. Douglas on the other hand believed that popular sovereignty was the only way that the slave states could be treated. He believed that the states should have the power to say whether or not they wanted to have slaves, if they didn't, they could ban it, and if they did want slavery, they could have it.
Lincoln believed that Douglas was just trying to cover up the fact that he supported slave states. He believed that Douglas wanted to hide behind popular sovereignty and wanted to hide the fact that he was pro slavery. Douglas came back by saying that Lincoln wanted political equality for blacks, not just the abolition of slavery.

I believe that now and days debates are much shorter and more for entertainment. They are trying to put as much information as fast as possible. They are a little bit more less formal and they take less thinking. Even though they are more entertaining and take less thinking, I think that I'd rather watch the debates now then the debates back then.

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