Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 17, 1994 TAG: 9408250069
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MATTHEW FORDAHL ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: OTTAWA, ILL. LENGTH: Medium
Crowds strained to hear every word - perhaps knowing they were listening to the makings of history.
Now, 136 years after Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas traveled across Illinois arguing about slavery as they campaigned for the U.S. Senate, their debates are to be re-enacted on the medium that reshaped 20th-century politics - television.
The public affairs network C-SPAN celebrates its 15th anniversary beginning Saturday by showing live re-enactments of the historic Lincoln-Douglas debates from the Illinois towns where they occurred.
Don't expect television that will keep you perched on the edge of your seat. The debates held in Ottawa and six other Illinois towns in the summer and fall of 1858 weren't about womanizing, Supreme Court nominations or abortion.
``These were long, tedious and especially hard to understand,'' said Brian Lamb, C-SPAN's chairman. ``But we'll have a lot of fun with call-in shows, showing historical costumes and showcasing these small towns.''
The candidates spoke for a total of 21 hours in the seven cities, and the topic was always the same: The expansion of slavery into newly acquired western territories.
``Longer speakers were much more conventional at that time. People's attention spans were trained,'' said David Zarefsky, a Lincoln-Douglas expert from Northwestern University.
``At the same time, I'm sure not everyone in the audience paid attention at all times. They brought picnics, their kids, all things going on that would be distracting.''
C-SPAN won't help create the debates - that's up the towns, each of which found funding for the re-enactments. C-SPAN will only send camera crews to the various sites as it would any modern political event.
Even if the debates might seem tedious to 20th century audiences, the long, formal rhetorical jousts were compelling for the 19th century listeners, in part because of the fierce emotion surrounding the debate over slavery.
``It must have been just incredible,'' said Jim Gayan, a lifelong Ottawa resident and schoolteacher who's playing Stephen Douglas in the Ottawa re-enactment.
``I can't imagine what it would be like. Maybe if we found out tomorrow that the O.J. Simpson trial was starting in Ottawa. Maybe that would be something like it,'' he said.
The debates had national significance; reporters for Illinois newspapers telegraphed their accounts across the country. It was a philosophical contest between the Democrats, represented by Douglas, and the newly formed Republican Party, championed by Lincoln. It also was a contest between North and South, foreshadowing the Civil War to come.
``They clashed right here like two bulls,'' said Leonard Lock, chairman of the historic preservation commission in Ottawa, where the first of the seven debates took place.
``In a sense, I know the Civil War started at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, but the political war started right here.''
But the people also showed up because their livelihoods were at stake. Although most non-slaveowners didn't care for slavery, wage-earners didn't want their pay to fall because of an influx of freed slaves.
The debates also grabbed attention for the same reason as any ancient or modern debate: The event was peppered with crowd-pleasing techniques and strategies beyond the substance.
Douglas, an 11-year incumbent considering a presidential bid, had everything to lose by debating Lincoln. He agreed only because it was considered cowardly to decline.
The challenger sacrificed little more than a law practice when he left political semi-retirement to enter the race, mostly because of the senator he now sought to oust.
Name-calling also wasn't beyond Honest Abe and the Little Giant. Lincoln, for instance, always referred to Douglas as ``Judge Douglas.'' That was a jab because most everyone in the audience knew Douglas got a judicial seat early in his career through political connections.
Douglas returned the attack by taking Lincoln's words and twisting them. Douglas took Lincoln's famous ``House Divided'' speech and argued that disunion was inevitable under Lincoln. After all, Douglas said, the Founding Fathers created the nation ``half slave and half free.''
Both candidates also tried to connect with their audience using drama and humor to paint the other man as a dangerous extremist.
In the opening volley of the Ottawa debate, Douglas said Lincoln was an abolitionist and supporter of equal rights for blacks.
The crowd reacted to verbal punches with applause, laughter and chants of ``Get him again.''
Lincoln lost his senatorial bid, but it paved the way for his election to the presidency two years later. Douglas died before the end of his new term.
by CNB