A Functional Analysis of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Abstract

The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 are watershed events in America's political development. At that point, Senators were selected by state legislatures-citizens could not vote directly for their Senators. Still, these debates were well attended public events. Existing analyses (e.g., Jaffa, 1982; Zarefsky, 1990) have examined the issues (e.g., slavery and federalism); this essay has a more modest goal of comparing these messages with more recent Senate debates. Douglas, the incumbent, attacked more and acclaimed less than Lincoln, the challenger. Lincoln (who was the target of more attacks) produced more defenses than Douglas. The candidates' discourse was divided about evenly between policy and character. When discussing policy, they most frequently used general goals, followed by past deeds and then future plans. Character utterances were comprised of those about personal qualities, followed by ideals and, rarely, leadership ability. Comparisons revealed the Lincoln-Douglas debates to be more negative, with more emphasis on character (and less on policy) than recent Senate debates.

Key Words:

• Lincoln-Douglas debates
• functional analysis