Douglas Lacks an Answer to Lincoln's Morality Argument

In the last debate at Alton, Douglas takes the stand that slavery is a matter of economics. If slavery produced a profit then it was reasonable: if it exhausted the economy, Douglas was opposed. He stated his views in a very matter-of-fact way.

On the other hand Lincoln stated his view that the prohibition of the African slave trade was a moral conviction. Douglas undervalued the moral importance that was being place on this issue. Douglas took scripture from the book of Genesis and attempted to the moral aspect our of slavery by trying to focus on who had the right to determine whether something is moral.
Douglas used jurisdiction as part of the issue. With each stop Douglas continued to explain the need for states to stay diversified and the threat that uniformity might have on the states. His interest was bureaucratic and wanted to say within procedural correctness.

Lovejoy had written Lincoln during the debates making the observation that if slavery was like economic interest then why do these economics not put a society into chaos. The moral argument could easily put Douglas into argument against himself. Douglas was taking the position of not caring about the morality of slavery.

Lincoln uses his position of not caring about the issue for opportunity to use a logic argument against Douglas. Lincoln states, “Any many can say that who does not see a wrong in it; because no man can logically say he don’t care whether a wrong is voted up or voted down, but he must logically have a choice between a right thing and a wrong thing.”

By bringing up attacks towards Douglas for moral indifference, the Republicans had found the weakness of their opponent. Lincoln made the effort to promote his moral argument against slavery as long as he could. Lincoln hadn’t developed all of his views on the issue until their last debate in Alton. The reader, however, was clearly able to tell that the morality of slavery was one of Lincoln’s most fundamental desires.

Douglass didn’t have an answer to the questions being asked by Lincoln regarding the immorality of slavery. Although he did not make an attempt to rebuke the arguments that Lincoln made, he benefited himself by gaining insight into his opponents campaign.