Scholarship
David Zarefsky, Lincoln, Douglas, and Slavery: In the Crucible of Public Debate (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990), 47.
Douglas delivered his opening campaign speech from the balcony of the Tremont House in Chicago on July 9. Lincoln was present since he was in Chicago for the opening session of the U.S. District Court. Douglas defended his role in the Lecompton imbroglio, explained the Dred Scott decision, and expounded popular sovereignty as sacred principle. He attacked the Danites for attempting an unholy alliance with the Republicans, but his strongest fire was saved for connecting Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech with radical abolitionism. A Republican might write that Douglas’s speech was “just a piece of pettifogging as we might expect from him,” but the speech was generally well received.