NUMBER 1919 FALL 2018 Upcoming Events
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NUMBER 1919 FALL 2018 Upcoming Events LINCOLN LORE IS A PUBLICATION OF THE THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE WARS FRIENDS OF THE LINCOLN COLLECTION OF OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN INDIANA 23rd Annual Lincoln Forum Symposium CONTRIBUTORS HAROLD HOLZER Featuring: Edward K. Ayers, David W. Blight, Andrew Delbanco, Harold Holzer, FRANK J. WILLIAMS John F. Marszalek, Craig L. Symonds, JANE GASTINEAU Frank J. Williams NERIDA F. ELLERTON And Special Guest Novelist George M. A. (KEN) CLEMENTS Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo RICHARD HART ED BREEN November 16-18, 2018 ACPL Wyndham Gettysburg Hotel JANE GASTINEAU Gettysburg, Pennsylvania EMILY RAPOZA [email protected] For more information, visit www.TheLincolnForum.org FRIENDS OF THE LINCOLN COLLECTION SARA GABBARD, EDITOR POST OFFICE ADDRESS CIVIL WAR CHRISTMASES BOX 11083 Presented by Jane Gastineau FORT WAYNE, INDIANA 46855 [email protected] November 11, 2018 WWW.ACPL.INFO Meeting Room A WWW.LINCOLNCOLLECTION.ORG WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/LINCOLNCOLLECTION Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana LINCOLN LORE® ISSN 0162-8615 Free and Open to the Public UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED, ALL IMAGES ARE HELD BY THE LINCOLN FINANCIAL FOUNDATION COLLECTION (LFFC). For more information, visit www.LincolnCollection.org LINCOLN ON THE WEB MEMBER DISCOUNT Want more Lincoln? 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(LFA-0091 Tad Lincoln, LFA-0484 Willie Lincoln, LFA- 3 FOUNDATION.FALL 2018 0486 Robert Lincoln). HAROLD HOLZER The Debate over the Debates How Lincoln and Douglas Waged a Campaign for History Harold Holzer As most readers of nineteenth-century while Democrats read pro-Democrat- ly Times, respectively.1 For a century history know, the 1858 Lincoln-Doug- ic journals. And the politically slant- and a half, most readers have relied las debates sparked an explosion of ed debate coverage each published on, accepted, and cited these “offi- public interest in Abraham Lincoln, differed so markedly they seemed cial” party transcriptions even though Stephen A. Douglas, and the sport of to be reporting entirely different they were undoubtedly burnished political debating itself. The encoun- events. The reprinted debate tran- before their initial appearance in ters not only riveted the tens of thou- scripts varied dramatically as well, re- newsprints.2 How they came to be sands of eyewitnesses who packed corded on the spot, but with entirely permanently enshrined in book form Illinois town squares and fairgrounds different results, by separate stenog- constitutes a compelling story in itself. to hear them, but also captivated the raphers hired by Chicago’s pro-Re- hundreds of thousands more around publican and pro-Democratic dailies. The actual debates proved unre- the country who devoured every word strained, highly entertaining, if not of their arguments in the newspapers. The debates have been republished always eloquent free-for-alls. They many times since 1858. But follow- seem even more so in their origi- Often forgotten, however, is that what ing their initial appearance in book nal, unedited, unvarnished, and sel- these readers got to examine in 1858 form in 1860, they have almost always dom-reissued form—that is, the way depended very much on the political featured the Republican newspaper opposition stenographers recorded party with which they (and their favor- versions of Lincoln’s remarks, and them on the scene—sans editorial ite newspapers) were affiliated. And the Democratic reprints of Douglas’s, amelioration—even if it might reason- what Democrats and Republicans just as they were first transcribed for, ably be argued that a Republican ste- saw was quite different. In the age edited by, and issued in, the pro-Re- nographer might as easily misreport a of Lincoln and Douglas, Republicans publican Chicago Press and Tribune Democratic speech as a loyal Demo- read Republican-affiliated papers, and the pro-Democratic Chicago Dai- crat might mangle a Republican one. LINCOLN LORE . NUMBER 1919 4 THE DEBATE ON THE DEBATES Even as the debates progressed, a book binder to paste the speeches in making inquiries to secure its safe secondary debate erupted over these consecutive order,” obtained two sets return, he intrigued a local Repub- partisan transcripts. The Republican of the complete run of transcripts lican leader who thought it might press charged that Democratic re- from both the Tribune and Times (in impress the Columbus publishers prints garbled Lincoln’s utterances case some transcripts appeared on Follett, Foster & Co. It did. The book and refined Douglas’s. The Democrat- back-to-back pages), and in short or- appeared under their imprint just ic press unleashed similar attacks on der began cutting them out and neatly before the 1860 race for president Republican iterations. By way of exam- gluing them in his new “Scrap-book.”5 got underway. And it became so suc- ple, the Chicago Times insisted that the It was Lincoln who determined to use cessful that it served almost to cam- the Republican versions of his tran- paign nationally in Lincoln’s behalf scripts, and the Democratic record of in an age in which presidential can- his opponent’s. Adopting these au- didates did no campaigning on their thorized, party-sanctioned printings, own.7 The book sold 30,000 copies he reasoned, “would represent each in the spring and summer of 1860. of us, as reported by his own friends, and thus be mutual, and fair.” But Douglas was not grateful. As far as he did proceed to make minor cor- his camp was concerned, the repub- rections to his own remarks, offering lication of the transcripts only rein- Douglas the opportunity to correct vigorated the 1858 debate over their typographical errors in his, if he so accuracy, a matter he clearly felt re- desired. Twisting the knife a bit, Lin- mained unresolved. Moreover, Doug- coln left no doubt that he believed he las may well have feared that a new had more of a right to make editorial edition could remind Southern voters changes than did his rival, explaining that, during the debates, Lincoln had somewhat dubiously: “I had no re- cornered him into conceding the right porter of my own, but depended on of a local jurisdiction to ban, as well as a very excellent one sent by the Press welcome, slavery. Choosing to cast & Tribune, but who never waited to doubts about the book before it ap- show me his notes or manuscripts.”6 peared, the Democratic press charged Even a pro-Lincoln man would have that Lincoln had unfairly re-edited his been forced to admit that Douglas “manuscripts” while denying the same had enjoyed no more time to review privilege to his once and current foe. Political Debates, 1860 and amend his speeches immediately after their delivery than had Lincoln. James W. Sheahan, editor of the Tribune was guilty not only of shame- pro-Douglas Chicago Times, wrote lessly marring “The Little Giant’s” Still, it was Lincoln who seized the provocatively to Lincoln in late Jan- debate speeches, but of “re-writing initiative to republish the debates; uary 1860: “I see it stated that you and polishing the speeches of…poor Lincoln who cannily realized that they have furnished some gentlemen of Lincoln,” who, it taunted, “requires might yet help him in future endeav- your party in Ohio with revised cop- some such advantage.” The Tribune ors by further circulating his verbal ies of your speeches [emphasis add- countered that Times mutilations left battles with a national figure as prom- ed].” To this sly insult Sheahan added Lincoln’s actual words so “shamefully inent as Senator Douglas. At first, Lin- a long-overlooked, veiled threat to and outrageously…emasculated” that coln elicited no interest in the project outrace Lincoln for their reissue. “I if doctoring prose became a crime, from publish- am about publishing a “the scamp whom Douglas hires to ers, but during report Lincoln’s speeches would be a barnstorming a ripe subject for the Penitentiary.”3 tour through Ohio in 1859, he The still-relevant issue—the accuracy found a buyer of the debate transcripts we general- through a fortu- ly accept—remains unresolved to this itous accident. day. But it was Lincoln, loser of the Apparently he campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1858, had taken the who subsequently won the campaign bulky scrap- over how posterity remembers them. book along with Stung as he was by his defeat—and him (no doubt with it, the implicit rejection of his hoping to at- debate arguments—Lincoln within tract interest weeks grew “desirous of preserving in along the way), some permanent form, the late joint then careless- discussions between Douglas and ly left it behind myself.”4 With no private secretary to one day in his help him, he proceeded to purchase “a hotel room. In Political Debates, Given to E. L. Baker from A.