State Representative Wayne Rosenthal (IL) | Representative Wayne A Rosenthal (R) 108th District
State Representative Wayne Rosenthal (IL) | Representative Wayne A Rosenthal (R) 108th District
On August 21, 1858, the Lincoln-Douglas debates began in Ottawa, Illinois. These landmark debates were among the first political events designed to garner media attention and publicity.
From August to October of 1858, Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Illinois, took on the incumbent Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas in a series of seven debates. Thousands of spectators and newspaper reporters from around the country watched as the two men debated over the primary issue facing the nation at that time: slavery and its extension into new territories.
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