Lincoln and the Election of 1860: Let's debate!

Back in 1860, Lincoln was elected president with all Southern states opposing him - this was largely due to the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

Lincoln and Douglas were competing for the Illinois senate - they engaged in seven debates in 1858, and while Lincoln lost the election, these debates helped to win him the presidency in 1860. 

In the first debate, Douglas argued that the Whig and Democratic parties differed in minimal matters of economy - tariffs, for example. He made a very strong point that these two parties had agreed on the Compromise of 1850, which had prohibited slavery north of the 36 30 latitude line in the Louisiana Territory, however, admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. This idea alarmed Thomas Jefferson, who thought it would spell the end of the Union (of the states).  

Lincoln, on slaves and slavery, from the first debate: 

When Southern people tell us they are no more responsible for the origin of slavery than we, I acknowledge the fact. When it is said that the institution exists, and that it is very difficult to get rid of it in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying. I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do myself. If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to do as to the existing institution. My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia - to their own native land. But a moment's reflection would convince me that whatever of high hope (as I think there is) there may be in this in the long run, its sudden execution is impossible. If they were all landed there in a day, they would all perish in the next ten days; and there are not surplus shipping and surplus money enough in the world to carry them there in many times ten days. What then? Free them all, and keep them among us as underlings? Is it quite certain that this betters their condition? I think I would not hold one in slavery at any rate; yet the point is not clear enough to me to denounce people upon. What next? Free them, and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this; and if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of white people will not. Whether this feeling accords with justice and sound judgment is not the sole question,

if indeed, it is any part of it. A universal feeling, whether well or ill-founded, cannot be safely disregarded. We cannot make them equals. It does seem to me that systems of gradual emancipation might be adopted; but for their tardiness in this, I will not undertake to judge our brethren of the South. (1)

It is apparent then, how even a self-assured gentleman like Lincoln had no idea how the slavery issue should be decided.  He certainly lays no blame on the slaveowners in the South, and he certainly makes no statement that he believes the slaves can be free and equal it the United States in the 1860s.  He says he realizes they cannot be freed and sent to Africa, as he believes they would not be able to survive there. There was already a colony in Africa - Liberia.  It was created as an alternative to emancipation in the United States, and its history is just as interesting.  For more information, see The African-American Mosaic from the Library of Congress.  

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Resources: 

1. Lincoln, Abraham; Douglas, Stephen; Nicolay, John G., ed; Hay, John, ed. 'First Joint Debate at Ottawa, August 21, 1858' in 'The Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, v. 3' . New York: Francis D. Tandy Company, 1894, 1858. [format: book], [genre: speech]. Permission: Northern Illinois University
Persistent link to this document: http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/file.php?file=Nh358s.html