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Appendix Lincoln vs. Douglas: How the State Voted NEITHER ABRAHAM LINcoLN nor Stephen A. Douglas "won" a popular election for the Senate in 1858. Neither oftheir names appeared on the ballot, and thus, citizens could not vote for either candidate directly. Under the rules governing Senate elections in nineteenth-century America, voters cast their ballots for local legislative nominees who in turn were empowered to choose senators, parliamentary-style. Douglas 's party won more legislative seats than Lincoln's that year, and the Senator was thus returned to office, "defeating" Lincoln. But at the same time, Lincoln's Republicans fared better than Douglas 's Democrats in the key statewide popular vote held in 1858: the race for state treasurer. Republican candidates amassed more total votes in the state's nine congressional contests as well. One question that has never been answered, however, is whether Lincoln or Douglas men did better among voters in counties in which their seven debates were staged. The statistics are presented here for the first time. The totals provide a clue, however imperfect, to the impact 372 • APPENDIX • the debates had on the voting audiences who actually witnessed them. And what the numbers show is that Republican candidates did fare better--although only slightly so-in these areas. They amassed somewhat higher percentages ofthe popular vote in debate counties in both treasurer and congressional elections than they did in counties in which debates were not held. It is risky, of course, to draw major conclusions from these statistics. For one thing, each debate attracted not only onlookers from the vicinity, but substantial out-of-county crowds as well. Besides, the strongest statement that any debate eyewitness could make at the ballot box, however inspired by a Senate candidate's performance, was an indirect vote for legislator, or a sympathetic one for treasurer or congressman . Nonetheless, the numbers do lend credence to the prevailing assumption that Lincoln would have been elected to the Senate that year in a head-to-head popular vote, under twentieth-century rules. More to the point, Republican candidates' ability to run slightly ahead of state averages in those counties in which Lincoln met Douglas publicly, face-to-face, suggests the further, more intriguing possibility that he might have prevailed even under 1858 rules had Douglas agreed-as Lincoln originally proposed-that they debate dozens of times that season, and not just on seven occasions. Do the statistics suggest, too, that Lincoln "won" the 1858 debates? Too many intangibles bar such an assumption. But ifLincoln men ran better in counties in which the candidates were seen and heard-and not just read-face-to-face, the results do tend to validate more than ever the crucial importance of the printed transcripts that offered the rest of the state's counties their sole access to the confrontations. The real winner ofthe 1858 race may have been the newspapermen, whose edited and embellished transcripts brought Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas to voters in every region ofIllinois-however imprecisely . Following are statistical totals for the 1858 elections for state treasurer and Congress, comparing statewide votes to votes in those counties in which Lincoln and Douglas met in debate. All the records are from the 1859 Tribune Almanac. ...

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