Lincoln at Peoria: the turning point : getting right with the Declaration of Independence

1. ON THE ROAD TO THE SPRINGFIELD SPEECH. Lincoln and Douglas: the early years

Helping Congressman Yates

Preparation to fight Kansas-Nebraska

Senator Douglas returns to Illinois

Speeches and debates

Campaigning for free-soil

2. SPRINGFIELD, PEORIA, AND BEYOND. On to Peoria

Peoria speech

The end of the 1854 debates

The end of the campaign

3. THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT: THE CONTEXT. Douglas's motives

Insertion of "inoperative and void"

The Chase appeal

The opposition

The Whigs

Pushing passage

Protesting passage

4. THE PEORIA SPEECH: THE IDEAS AND ARGUMENTS. The Founders and the Declaration of Independence

National expansion and compromise

The Compromise of 1850

Popular sovereignty and slavery

Race and prejudice

Nationhood and Union

Principle and policy

5. THE ROAD FROM PEORIA. Unintended consequences of Kansas-Nebraska

Election results and realignment in Illinois

The 1854-1855 Senate campaign

Realignment and the Republican Party

Bleeding Kansas

The 1856 Bloomington Convention

6. CHALLENGING "DRED SCOTT", THE SUPREME COURT, AND DOUGLAS

The Republican reaction

The 1858 senate campaign

The Lincoln-Douglas debates

The Presidential campaign

7. PEORIA CHARACTERIZES THE LINCOLN PRESIDENCY. Declaration of Independence and the Constitution

Preserving the Union

Slavery and equality

Union, morality, and reality

The South

Douglas and Lincoln

The Bible and the world

8. CODA

9. THE PEORIA SPEECH AND THE HISTORIANS' RECORD

Full text of speech at Peoria, Illinois

Milestones in the lives of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas.