Excerpt from Lincoln-Douglas DebateAmerican history, reveals human nature deal= ing with momentous problems, and illuminates the methods by which the great art of public speech is used to influence public conduct in a great epoch.Because Lincoln and Douglas, in the course of the debate, each made references to their past records, it is necessary to have in mind the brief sketch, here given, of the life history of each. And because the debate was on the questions of slavery, and referred so frequently to the history of that question, it is necessary to here give first a very brief review of at least those facts, in the history of slavery, to which the speakers refer. The speakers inferred that their hearers had fresh in memory the recent history of slavery agitation and legislation, and, accordingly, we here offer a narration of such facts as are necessary to understand the mean ing of the debate, before giving the debate it self.Therefore, this volume presents, first, a brief sketch of each debater, just sufficient to under stand the references in the debate, second, just enough of the history of the slavery question to comprehend the allusions of the speakers, third, the circumstances attending the debate along with the chief arguments and replies of each speaker, fourth, the major and important portions of the speeches of Lincoln and of Doug las are given in the exact words of the speaker.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.