With two rival governments in place, conflict was inevitable. Proslavery raiders from Missouri attacked antislavery Kansas settlers, and in May 1856 a proslavery mob of some 700 burned the town of Lawrence, Kansas. In revenge, a group led by abolitionist John Brown attacked a proslavery settlement along Pottawatomie Creek. They dragged five men from their beds and brutally murdered them. The Pottawatomie Massacre enraged southerners, shocked northerners, and sparked more violence in what newspapers began calling "Bleeding Kansas."

By 1855 Kansas had two rival capitals. There was an antislavery capital at Topeka and a proslavery capital at Lecompton. The following year, tensions escalated into open violence, with murderous raids and counterraids throughout Kansas. The violence woon the territory the grim nickname of "Bleeding Kansas."

Neither man scored a clear victory in argument, and the senatorial election itself settled no major issues. Douglas's supporters captured a majority of the seats in the state legislature, which at the time was responsible for electing U.S. senators. But despite the racist leanings of most Illinois voters, Republican candidates for the state legislature won a slightly larger share of the popular vote than did their Democratic rivals.

Both sides resorted to violence. In early 1856 a band of proslavery supporters rode into Lawarence, threw printing presses into the river, set the hotel on fire, and killed one man. Three nights later, John Brown, an antislavery activist, led a small band into a proslavery area. They dragged from their homes five men who had had nothing to do with the attack on Lawrence and hacked them to death. The fighting between proslavery and antislavery groups raged for weeks, at the cost of more than 200 lives.

Despite the acclaim he gained in the North for his stand against the Lecompton constitution, Douglas faced a stiff challenge in Illinois for reelection to the United States Senate. Of his Republican opponent, Abraham Lincoln, Dougals said: "I shall have my hands full. He is the strong man of his party - full of wit, facts, dates - and the best stump speaker with his droll ways and dry jokes, in the West.' Physically as well as ideologically, the two men formed a striking contrast.

In the debate at Freeport, Illinois, Lincoln challenged Douglas to explain how popular sovereignty - the method the Kansas-Nebraska Act had used to settle the slavery issue in the new territories - was still workable in the wake of Dred Scott.

Seeking statewide exposure, Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of seven debates between August and October 1858. Douglas accepted the challenge but acknowledged that Lincoln was 'the best stump speaker in the West.' Throngs of people turned out in seven Illinois towns to hear the two men debate the issues of the day.

Finally, confrontation began to slip into conflict. In May 1856 a proslavery mob entered the free-state twon of Lawrence and destroyed newspaper presses, set fire to the free-state governor's private home, stole property that was not nailed down, and trained five cannon on the Free State Hotel, demolishing it. The "sack of Lawrence" resulted in just one casualty, but the excitement aroused a fanatical Free-Soiler named John Brown, who had a history of instability.

Although these debates illustrated the deep differences between Republican and Democratic attitudes toward slavery, they also reflected Republican ambivalence toward racial equality and the contradictions inherent in Lincoln's commitment to both 'ultimate emancipation and the indefinite continuation of slavery where it already existed. Douglas's insistence that the Republicans could not have it both ways hit uncomfortably close to the mark. But in 1858 this was the only way for Republicans to mediate the tension between the competing values of antislavery and union.

The fanatical figure of John Brown now stalked upon the Kansas battlefield. Spare, gray-bearded, iron-willed, and narrowly ignorant, he was dedicated to the abolitionist cause. The power of his glittering gray eyes was such, so he claimed, that his stare could force a dog or cat to slink out of a room. Becoming involved in dubious dealings, including horse stealing, he moved to Kansas from Ohio with a part of his large family. Brooding the recent attack on Lawrence, Old Brown of Osawatomie led a band of his followers to Pottawatomie Creek, in May 1856.