. >> stephen a. douglasas among the most ruthless politicians of the day. >> more importantly, probably the most powerful democratic politician in the united states. >> i would call it david and goliath, but it's worse than that. it's david and goliath if david didn't even have a slingshot. >> he doesn't open on the issue of slavery. instead he plays to the crowd. >> ladies and gentlemen, i do not question mr. lincoln's conscientious belief that the negro is his equal, but i do not regard the negro as my equal. >> douglas was not one to talk about legalizing slavery in the territories so much as he wants to paint lincoln as a pro-negro politician. he is, in other words, playing the race card and playing it in the most shameless fashion imaginable. >> but the prairie lawyer is not going to be deflected from his mission to see the end of slavery in america. >> lincoln had always said that if slavery isn't wrong, then nothing is wrong. that slavery was horrendous. >> and i think it was because he hated the way

in his debate with stephen douglas, lincoln attacked the concept that stephen douglas believed in so fervently. popular sovereignty. douglas' notion that people in a territory should define for themselves whether they wanted slavery. lincoln asked a hypothetical question, whether douglas would apply popular sovereignty to mexico where the inhabitants were nonwhite. when we shall get mexico, lincoln asserted, i do not know whether judge douglas will be in favor of the mexican people because we know the judge has a great horror for mongrels and i understand that the people of mexico are most decidedly a race of mongrels. lincoln continued by explaining -- i understand that there is not more than one person there out of eight who is pure white. i suppose from the judge's declaration that when we get mexico or a considerable portion of that, he will be in favor of the mongrels, settling the question. that would bring him somewhat in collision with his horror of an inferior race. even if you make allowance for the fact that some of these comments occurred by abraham lincoln in a hotly cont

canaan, the underground railroad and the battle for the soul of america," and "henry clay and stephen douglas and the compromise that preserved the union, which won the los angeles times the price in history. on a newrently working book focusing on the role of congress during the civil war, and tonight, is going to join us to speak about his first book, the first congress, how james madison, george washington, and a group of extraordinary men invented big government. please join me in welcoming bordewich. [applause] . fergus: hi, everyone. i've seen you can hear me clearly in the back? not too bad? thank you all for being here. i'm going to allow as much time as i can for questions afterward, because i know this is going to be both a well-informed and provocative group of people. not every group i speak to is. occasionally, i find myself saying, there were two houses of congress. fortunately, i am not worried about that tonight. and, naturally, i want to thank mount vernon for having me here and for providing such a wonderful venue for this talk. this new book of mine, "the first congress," w

in his debate with steven douglas at galesburg, illinois, lincoln astade the concept that stephen it douglas believed in. he asked a hypothetical question, as to whether douglas would apply the doctrine of pop are lay sovereignty, like where theible habitants were non-white. when we shall get mexico, i don't know whether judge douglas will be in favor of the mexican people, because we know that the judge has a great horror for mongrels, and i understand that the people of mexico are most decidedly a race of mongrels, unquote. livenen continued by explaining, i understand there's not more than one person there out of eight who is pure white. i suppose from the judge's declaration that when we get mexico or any considerable portion of it, that he will be in favor of mess mongrels settles the question? that would bring him somewhat in collision with his horror of an inferior race, unquote. even if you make allowance for the fact that some of these comments occurred by abraham linking in a hotly contested debate in which there was a great deal of race baiting, lincoln still used derogator

the event was the work of another man from illinois, senator stephen a douglas. the vin was 1854's enactment of the kansas-nebraska act. it is not too much to say that a great question posed by that act continues to reverberate in the nation's life and certainly in my professional life. it reverberate in the nation's life, not just because the civil war is the hinge of american history and the kansas-nebraska act which repealed the missouri compromise of 1820 was unquestionably the spark that lit the fuse that led to war. if the civil war was not an irrepressible conflict before 1854, it certainly was after that. the missouri compromise had been the work of henry clay. lincoln, in the first of his seven 1858 debates with steven douglas called by idea of a statesman. the compromise somewhat diffused the slavery issue and sectional animosities for three decades. it did so by forbidding slavery in the louisiana territory north of the line that included the kansas and nebraska territories. the kansas-nebraska act introduced by senator douglas empowered the residents