In 1858, two candidates for the Senate from Illinois, Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln, held a series of debates for the seat (History). During these debates, which were attended by large amounts of public spectators, Lincoln and Douglas formulated their political ideals and platforms. Famously, Lincoln asked Douglas if he supported popular sovereignty in the new states over the issue of slavery, or if he would hold to the Dred Scott decision, which would potentially allow slavery anywhere in the United States. Douglas's reply, the Freeport Doctrine, maintained his belief that popular sovereignty should rein supreme. Such loaded questions, exposing divisive issues of the time, memorialized these debates, known as Lincoln-Douglas debates due to the participants.
Today, speech and debate remains in many aspects of life: politics, business, not to mention general conversation. Many high schools even have a speech and debate class or club, where students can try to become more eloquent orators. One of the debate events offered is named Lincoln-Douglas. LD for short, this event is based on a one versus one format, where competitors debate about a topic based on morality.
LD when viewed today seems highly divergent from the measured reasoning of Lincoln and Douglas's time. Many debaters, particularly on the national circuit level, employ a tactic known as "spreading". Spreading consists of rapidly reading sources, or "cards", at a speed that inexperienced listeners most likely will find incomprehensible. Debaters apply a variety of different and sometimes even obscure moral frameworks, hidden clauses, and ways with which to consider impacts of arguments in order to win the debate round, and spreading aids them by throwing out many arguments to overwhelm opponents. What similarities does the LD of today relate to the debates of Lincoln and Douglas?
John Prager, a former debate coach of a Michigan school, defines the main similarity as a "value debate". He writes, "In 1976, high schools throughout the United States began a series of Bicentennial Youth
Debates to celebrate the two-hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. This
program comprised both the customary team-oriented policy debates and also 'Lincoln-Douglas' debates: one-on-one competition focusing on philosophical issues rather than government policy. This was the first nationwide instance of non-team value debate throughout
America. The name 'Lincoln-Douglas debate' was chosen to reflect the continuity of style from
the original Senatorial contests to the present day".
LD emerged out of complaints about policy debate, a format where each team of two debated the merit of a certain policy. By shifting the focus, LD encouraged a trove a research into the subtleties of value debates. (Prager)
Another similarity is the time structure. LD keeps a similar theme as traditional political debates: with one affirming and one negating, there are periods for cross-examination or question and answer, as well as the affirmative both starting and ending the debate with speeches.
Using similar moral standpoints as Lincoln and Douglas had on slavery, high schoolers today can debate the merits of such topics as "In the United States criminal justice system, jury nullification ought to be used in the face of perceived injustice" or "A just society ought to presume consent for organ procurement from the deceased". The background of the original Lincoln-Douglas Debates stands even today as a way for students to challenge their morals and learn about philosophy.
Sources:
http://www.ushistory.org/us/32b.asp
http://www.boone.kyschools.us/userfiles/781/Classes/52280/intro-ld_2007.pdf?id=558370
One thing to add: ironically, LD has almost turned into the event it sought to replace. Another reason LD came into existence was to stop the prevalence of spreading, and even when debaters aren't running plan texts (specific advocacies of a policy that the government should pass), they still tend to talk really fast.
ReplyDeleteThis blog post is very interesting because it shows the influence of the times on today's activities. No other debates had explored politics and morality to the lasting extent that the Lincoln Douglass did ones did. It would be interesting to see that the Europeans have their own styles of debate that vary from our own.
ReplyDeleteFor example, European Square Debate
http://www.fb-connections.org/debating/square-debate/
I really like how you not only tell us about an interesting topic in American history, but you also give us a way in which we can possibly apply the lessons to our own lives. Furthermore, I think we can also try to relate this topic to events in recent history. For example, you could compare the debate between Lincoln and Douglas to the most recent presidential debates between Obama and Romney. Another famous debate was the one between Nixon and Kennedy. It is interesting to see who each politician used different tactic to corner the other one and win the debate.
ReplyDeleteLink: http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/kennedy-nixon-debates