Lincoln-Douglas Debates (Nash, 1994)

Unlike Douglas, Lincoln hated slavery. At Galesburg, he said, 'I contemplate slavery as a moral, social and and political evil.' In Quincy, he said that the difference between a Republican and a Democrat was quite simply whether one thought slavery wrong or right. Douglas was more equivocal and dodged the issue in Freeport by pointing out that slavery would not exist if favorable local legislation did not support it. Douglas's moral indifference to slavery was clear in his admission that he did not care if a territorial legislature voted it 'up or down.' A white supremacist, Douglas was democratic enough to want white poeple to be able to create whatever type of society they wanted. Republicans did care, Lincoln affirmed, sounding a warning that by stopping the expansion of slavery, the course toward 'ultimate extinction had begun.'