As intellectuals, the transcendentalists were probably the first group in America to establish a substantial cultural presence without church or state sponsorship. Although some, like Emerson and George Ripley, began as Unitarian ministers, by the transcendental heyday of the 1840s most had left that calling for lecturing, publishing, freelance teaching and writing, or subsistence pursuits that left time free for philosophizing and writing.

Lincoln and the Republicans promised to stop the expansion of slavery and to allow slavery in ithe South to die a 'natural death.' The alternative was to allow slavery to expand  'til it shall become alike lawful in all states, old as well as new, North as well as South.' Douglas did not believe that slavery was a crucial issue. The best way to protect the Union, he thought, was to let each state rather than Congress make a decision about slavrey.

The opponents seemed a study in contrasts. Lincoln, who had been born in a log cabin in Kentucky, retained a folksy manner. He slept in a homemade flannel undershirt, and he often told jokes to make a point. Beneath the folksy manner, however, there was a shrewd politician.

Douglas entered the 1858 Senate race in Illinois. Concerned with national unity, he wanted to find a compromise between proslavers and free-soilers. He also wanted a solid reelection victory, for he hoped to win the presidential election in 1860. Douglas's opponent was Republican Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was an Illinois lawyer with little political experience. He had served one term in the House of Representatives. In 1858 Lincoln did not seem to be a rising politician.

Although barred by the Constitution from doing anything about slavery where it already existed, Lincoln said that since Republicans believed slavery to be wrong, 'we propose a course of policy that shall deal with it as wrong'

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.

Lincoln, however, differed from most contemporaries in his deep commitment to the humane principles of equality and essential diginity of all human beings, including blacks. Douglas, by contrast, arguing against race mixing in a blatant bid for votes, continually made racial slurs.

Athough far from a radical abolitionist, in these debates Lincoln skillfully staked out a moral position not only in advance of Douglas but well ahead of his time. Lincoln was also very much part of his time. He believed that whites were superior to blacks and opposed granting specific equal rights to free blacks.

Probably the angriest person in the United States was Walker, who found all his plans thwarted.  He told Calhoun plainly that if the scheme were carried through he should oppose it with all his power.  Calhoun replied that Buchanan himself favored the idea, whereas Walker in a passion retorted:  "I consider such a submission of the question a vile fraud, a base counterfeit, and a wretched device to keep people from voting...I will not support it, but I will denounce it, no matter whether the administration sustains it or not."  When the convention adjourned, leaving th