To Master Heppler's excellent post on the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, and Professor Schaff's learned reply, I would add this: it is wonderful that the U.S. had such a perfect campaign, and it will be even more wonderful if we never have one again. The Civil War did not follow the Lincoln-Douglas debates by accident. The forces that were tearing the Union apart made the debates possible. Without those forces, we would never has suspected the greatness of Lincoln or Douglas, or even the greatness of our own Republic. Moreover I concur in part and dissent in part with regard to this from Master Heppler's post:
The outcome, in the long term, couldn't have been any better. True, the election of Lincoln was all the South could withstand and they left the Union, leading to the Civil War. But secession had been in the works long before his election. In the long term no one can deny that Lincoln was the perfect choice.
Lincoln was indeed the perfect choice, but precisely because secession was not necessarily "in the works." President Douglas might well have avoided it, by surrendering the most fundamental principles of the Republic. The Lincoln-Douglas debates, the Dred Scott decision, and Lincoln's subsequent election as President, caused secession and secession caused the war.
To get a perfect campaign you need a perfect storm of political forces in which the very survival of the Republic is at stake. That is something that no one should wish for. Give me wishy-washy candidates and muddled issues every time. I am reminded of the shrewd Chinese curse: "may you live in interesting times."
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