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[The contest now waging in Illinois]

About This Item

  • Title: [The contest now waging in Illinois]
  • Date: 26 August 1858
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.01041
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 26 August 1858: 2. Our transcription is based on a digital image of a microfilm scan of the original issue. Microfilm of original issue held at Pennsylvania State University Libraries. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the journalism, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: This piece is unsigned, as was the case for most of Whitman's journalism. However, this editorial is part of a series of texts that deal with a coherent theme that has been identified by the Whitman Archive journalism team as likely authored by Whitman. This decision is based on a combination of historical and (auto)biographical accounts, similarity to contemporary Whitman writings, a history of scholarly attribution, extant clippings retained by Whitman, computational stylometric analysis, and, in some cases, manuscript evidence in Whitman’s hand.
  • Contributors to digital file: Kaylen Michaelis Thara Michaelis Brandi Faulkner Stefan Schöberlein Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "[The contest now waging in Illinois]." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 17 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.01041.xml (TEI)
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☞The contest now waging in Illinois, with Senator Douglas,s1 the Administration, and the Republicans, headed by Lincoln2 and Trumbull3 as the combatants, is exciting great interest. Of the two, Mr. Lincoln seems to have had the advantage thus far in the war of words. This method of debate in politics, where the antagonists have, each of them, their say before the same audience, is a good one, and ought to be more frequently adopted.

Notes:

1. Stephen Arnold Douglas (1813–1861), nicknamed the "Little Giant," was a U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1847 to 1861. Douglas promoted the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 and ran for President against Abraham Lincoln in 1860. He was a well-known proponent of "Popular Sovereignty," the idea that the question of slavery should be left for voters of a given state to decide. For more information, see T. Gregory Garvey, "Douglas, Stephen Arnold (1813–1861)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]

2. Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) was the 16th President of the United States. Before he became President, Lincoln was a Whig Representative from Illinois, later switching to the Republican party. He is most notable for abolishing slavery. [back]

3. Lyman Trumbell (1813–1896) was a lawyer and an Illinois Senator. Although he was a strong Lincoln supporter and opposed slavery, he switched political parties many times throughout his political career. Trumbell helped write the 13th Amendment, which formally abolished slavery. [back]

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