The Debates, Past and Present

Part 1
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas had to completely different ideas on slavery. Douglas believed in popular sovereignty while Lincoln wanted slavery to be abolished completely but did not believe in equal rights for blacks and whites. A quote from Douglas tries to explain that if slavery is to be abolished it should have been abolished when the constitution was written. “Uniformity in the local laws and institutions of the different States is neither possible nor desirable. If uniformity had been adopted when the Government was established, it must inevitably have been the uniformity of slavery everywhere, or else the uniformity of Negro citizenship and Negro equality everywhere.”

Douglas thought the Nebraska Act will allow people to pick if they anted slavery in there territory or not but this would lead to them becoming slave territories because of the polls that were giving to him showed that more people would vote for slavery rather than against it. This quote is Douglas talking about what the Nebraska Act will do. "It is the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any State or Territory, or to exclude it there from, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the federal constitution." While Abraham believed that it should be the federal government that steps in and solves this problem, more people at that time believed in slavery even in the north so the public favored Douglas over Lincoln.

Part 2
The Democrats and the Republicans have very similar ideas in most areas but some places they differ at are foreign affairs and our economy. Both have different plans to make our country better but we will not be able to see if they will work till they are in office and implement the plans they are talking about. After watching the presidential and reading about the vice presidential debates, it has shown me that you understand more of what’s happening and both sides of the argument if you actually watch it rather than reading sources that may be bias and wont give all of the information but just the information that lets the person they want to win to seem like they did amazing while they make the other person look like he lost which in maybe another source it may be switched because he is bias as well just for the opposite person.