The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) was the sixteenth president of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He led the US through its greatest constitutional, military, and moral crises—the American Civil War—preserving the Union, abolishing slavery, strengthening the national government, and modernizing the economy. Reared in a poor family in rural Indiana, he was a self-educated man. In the 1830s he became a country lawyer, a Whig Party leader, and Illinois state legislator. He later served as a one-term member of the House of Representatives during the 1840s.

Stephen Douglas (1813–1861) was a US Representative, Senator, and Democratic Party presidential nominee from Illinois. He lost the election to Abraham Lincoln.

Allen C. Guelzo has written many acclaimed nonfiction books about the Civil War and early nineteenth-century American history. He is a three-time recipient of the Lincoln Prize and many other honors, including the Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize for Military History and Wall Street Journal Best Books of the Year. He is a senior research scholar in the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University and is the director of the Initiative on Politics and Statesmanship for Princeton’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. Learn more at AllenGuelzo.com.

David Strathairn was nominated for an Oscar for his 2005 performance as famed CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow in Good Night and Good Luck. He is well-known for memorable performances in stage and screen roles.

Richard Dreyfuss is an Academy Award–winning actor who has appeared in such blockbuster films as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jaws. In 1977 he became the youngest man to win the Oscar for Best Actor, which he won for his performance in The Goodbye Girl. He also appeared in Stand by Me, What about Bob?, The American President, and Mr. Holland’s Opus, among many other films.