On Saturday we saw the crowds come in by every form of transportation. Lincoln came by railroad and Douglas by carriage in order to meet together in the public square.
“At two o’clock the multitude gathered in the public square, the sun shining down with great intensity, and the few trees affording but little shade. It would seem that the most exposed part of the city was selected for the speaking .” –Chicago Press and Tribune, August 23, 1858
Douglas said in his first hour and half of the debate, “That we believe this truth to be self-evident, that when parties become subversive of the ends for which they are established, or incapable of restoring the government to the true principles of the constitution, it is the right and duty of the people to dissolve the political bands by which they may have been connected therewith, and to organize new parties upon such principles and with such views as the circumstances and exigencies of the nation may demand.”Douglas had to reach a common ground with his audience that was vastly represented by Republicans.
Stephen Douglas had a well developed strategy for the debate, making Lincoln come across as an extremist. Towards the end Douglas sets Lincoln up by stating rhetorical questions over and over. As Douglas concluded, the Republicans hung their heads as the audience gave Douglas a roar of applause. When Lincoln approached his audience, he was generously welcomed by his supporters. In order to rebuttal the extremist strategy that Douglass used against him, he went off topic from his original intended speech and spent a large sum of time reading from his 1854 speeches. Douglass had used the argument previously that “I desire to know whether Mr. Lincoln today stands as he did in 1854, in favor of the unconditional repeal of the fugitive slave law.”The vivid headlines ran in the Chicago Times as “Lincoln’s Heart Fails Him! Lincoln’s Legs Fail Him! Lincoln’s Tongue Fails Him!”
Lincoln’s strategy for debate was not well developed and as a result, came across as being very defensive . He didn’t come across well trying to exchange arguments and counter-arguments respectively towards Douglass.The Chicago Times made a stab on Lincoln’s dialectic “his acquaintance with dialectics is quite equal to his knowledge of logic. And his rhetoric is worse than either.”
