The question is, of course, “Where is the only existing building connected to a Lincoln-Douglas debate?” Their fifth debate for the Illinois Senate seat took place on the east side of Old Main on the Knox College campus from 2:30 – 5:30 p.m. on October 7, 1858. The crowd was estimated at between 15,000 and 20,000 people.
Photo by Chi Zhang, Courtesy of Knox College
Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate, and Stephen Douglas, the Democratic candidate, both made an interesting entrance to the debate. R. Lance Factor, in his book Chapel in the Sky, explained, “A hastily constructed platform blocked the east door and both Lincoln and Douglas had to use a window as a door to reach the debate platform. The obstacle of a window as a door prompted Lincoln’s (possibly apocryphal) remark, ‘Now I can say I have gone through College.'”
The six other debate sites were in Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Quincy, and Alton. Lincoln lost the election and Douglas won the Senate position. Lincoln, however, was awarded an honorary degree by Knox College in 1860, the same year he was nominated by the Republican party as its candidate for President of the United States.
In 1994, C-Span reenacted the debates and those reenactments can be viewed on the internet. The new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum* in Springfield, Illinois, which opened in 2005, has an exhibit that is a replica of the debate scene. The debate has been reenacted several times at Knox College, and the picture above is of one of the more recent Lincoln impersonators coming out of the door of Old Main.**
* If you think you visited this museum in the 1960s with your parents as you traversed the country in a station wagon, you’re wrong. This is a fabulous new museum that deserves a visit. You will not be disappointed.
**And if you just said to yourself, “This is a blog about fraternity history – why isn’t this post about fraternity history?” just click on Knox College on the right column and you will find several posts about Knox and fraternity history. It’s home to Delta Delta Delta’s third chapter, it’s linked to Alpha Xi Delta’s history, and two national presidents who were a married couple graduated from Knox. And yes, two of my offspring are alumni. When I spied the above picture in a calendar that was in a pile of mail, I knew I wanted to use it in a post.
© Fran Becque www.fraternityhistory.com All rights reserved.
