Abraham Lincoln

Before becoming president, Abraham Lincoln served one term as a congressman from Illinois and in 1858 challenged incumbent Stephen A. Douglas for a seat in the U.S. Senate. Lincoln launched his election campaign with the June 16 speech reprinted below, in which he challenged Douglas on the issue of “popular sovereignty”—the idea that local settlers of the new territories should decide whether to legalize slavery or not. Douglas was a vocal supporter of popular sovereignty, while Lincoln felt that the decision to legalize or outlaw slavery had to be made on a national level.

Lincoln summarizes the recent developments in the slavery debate—notably the Compromise of 1850 and the 1854 Kansas- Nebraska Act, which supported the concept of popular sovereignty, and the 1857 Dred Scott decision, which invalidated previous congressional laws limiting slavery in...