Detailed account of Lincoln-Douglas slavery debate is found
After word spread around campus that St. Xavier University associate professor Graham Peck had discovered an unknown sliver of history, a student proclaimed Peck himself part of history. Colleagues were stopping to pat him on the back.
The response surprised him because Peck's historic discovery amounted to noticing a newspaper article. But he was keen enough to recognize that the article is a doozy.
Published Oct. 6, 1854, in the Missouri Republican, it is a staggering, 10,015-word account of a public exchange between Abraham Lincoln and U.S. Sen. Stephen Douglas on what some consider the key legislation that turned the United States against itself.
Although historians were aware of the Lincoln-Douglas exchange, they were unaware the article existed. Peck came across a reference to it in a footnote in a 100-year-old book he was reading while researching the origins of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He ordered a microfilm version of the newspaper clip.
Read entire article at Chicago Tribune
The response surprised him because Peck's historic discovery amounted to noticing a newspaper article. But he was keen enough to recognize that the article is a doozy.
Published Oct. 6, 1854, in the Missouri Republican, it is a staggering, 10,015-word account of a public exchange between Abraham Lincoln and U.S. Sen. Stephen Douglas on what some consider the key legislation that turned the United States against itself.
Although historians were aware of the Lincoln-Douglas exchange, they were unaware the article existed. Peck came across a reference to it in a footnote in a 100-year-old book he was reading while researching the origins of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He ordered a microfilm version of the newspaper clip.