nto the territories.In July, Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series offace-to-face debates and Douglas accepted. It was arrangedthat seven debates would be held in seven different citiesbetween August and October. In the debates, bothcandidates respected each other and kept to the issues. The basis of discussion was the morality of slavery.“Although the Republicans carried the state ticket andoutvoted the Democrats, the Illinois legislature re-electedDouglas to the Senate”(Oates 73). The campaign, widelyreported in the newspapers, had an importance far beyondthe fate of the candidates. It demonstrated to the Souththat the Republican Party was steadily growing in strengthand that it would oppose the extension of slavery by everypossible means. The campaign also showed Douglas to be anunreliable ally to the South. He had said repeatedly inthe debates that he did not care whether slavery was votedup or down. In addition, Lincoln, previously known onlylocally, gained a national reputation even in defeat.One year later, John Brown made his famous raid onHarpers Ferry, Virginia. John Brown was already an outlawfrom a previous incident in which him and his five sonsbecame active participants in the fight against proslaveryterrorists from Missouri, whose activities led to themurder of a number of abolitionists at Lawrence, Kansas. Brown and his sons avenged this crime, in May of 1856 atPottawatomie Creek, by killing five proslavery followers. This act, along with his success in withstanding a largegroup of attacking Missourians at Osawatomie in August,made him nationally famous as an hostile foe of slavery. “Now, aided by increased financial support fromabolitionists in the northeastern states, Brown began in1857 to formulate a plan to free the slaves by armedforce”(Oates 87). “He secretly recruited a small band ofsupporters for this project, which included a refuge forfugitive slaves in the mountains of V...
