making speeches was entertainment. >> the super tall abraham lincoln verses the little joint, steven a. douglas the races with 16 minutes . their style could not be more different. lincoln was laid back, he stood in one spot and he rarely moved. steven douglas prance along the stage like a lion and he gestures widely. he spits and shouts and he tears at his hair. the first debate, lincoln starts off some what technical and douglas challenges lincoln saying you are a radical republican and you are apart of an abolition party. a lot of time in our contemporary discourse and in the past, radical ideas are demonized. the idea of abolition is demonized because abolishing slavery was a radical idea. he basically had to defend himself against from being abolition. lincoln did not succeed. douglas is a master of twisting facts of lying so quickly that people have forgotten it is a lie when the second one comes. lincoln comes out of the first debate feeling defeated much to mary's dismay. mary is always lincoln's biggest booster. she sat up in the gallery with her notebook, who was for against lincoln a

steven a. douglas. >> he was this tremendously institutionalized figure. las was the author of the kansas-nebraska act. >> everybody thought lincoln was the sack official lamb in that race. >> douglas spent a fortune in the campaign. >> douglas has his own campaign train. the back of the train has a cannon on it. every time the train gets into a town, they set off the cannon, as if to announce the great man has arrived. douglas is drawing big crowds. wherever he campaigns. so lincoln begins to show up at douglas speeches and rallies. he's getting bigger crowds than ever by campaigning in steven douglas' wake. >> the democratic press mocks lincoln for appropriating the crowds. so he comes up with an alternative. >> he writes a letter that will change his career, and really change politics. >> he challenges douglas to debates. >> here was a one-time congressman, abraham lincoln, he was going to take on steven a. douglas? oh, my goodness, you could hear the laughter. (naj) at fisher investments, we do things differently and other money managers don't understan

he lost as a wig, he lost in his race against steven a. douglas. back then it was done as -- indirectly you chose your state legislators, house and senate representatives who would meet in a general assembly and have the official vote usually in the winter after the november election. know in november of 1959 lincoln officially lost that senate race by a vote of 54-46. what a lot of people don't realize is his bid for the presidency began the very next day, informally. he gets together with a group of prominent republicans who were there for the general assembly, either to witness it or be a part of i. a lot of his lawyer friends in illinois. and the republican party in illinois had just gone through the ringer because he had just lost, they are in debt. and they are meeting in the basement of the state capital which now is the old state capital which you can visit as tourist. in the base men was the state library. they use the state library on a snowy thursday. and they get down there and they are talking about the state of the party. and they are

to start pressing through that to all these other kinds of rights, and in that perverse way, steven a. douglas the future, but it was a future that lincoln believed had to come because it was going to be based on what the declaration of independence said. so all those things were going to come. now, would they come right away? no, but lincoln said what you read in the good book, it says be ye perfect as your father in heaven is perfect. now, does that mean that we're all going to be perfect just like that? no, it means we aspire more and more and more towards that kind of spiritual perfection. well, like wise, lincoln said. this is what we're doing as a people. our government, our people, we are an experiment he said. that's a word george washington used too. we are an experiment. we are exploring. we are boldly going where people have never gone before politically, and we are on the verge of equality, and we are finding out what that equality means. do we realize it all at once, no, but we are headed in that direction. douglas saw that lincoln was going there, and the civil war took us a good

steven douglas latest describes blinken as a man -- predominately a man of the atmosphere around him. which douglas knew him most of his life. i think that meant he was there in the moment, he knew what was going on and they would he be able to figure out what may be the path forward from this point? so throughout his life, one of the things i think i might have identified or at least found interesting is there is a pattern blinken goes back to you. it's not so much their more important than anyone else they each have influence and their influence throughout his life. she mentioned andrew jackson, one of the founders of the democrat party. henry clay one of the founders of the whig party. also, zachary taylor the winning a general in the mexican war blinken supports over clay for the presidential nomination in the late 1840s. clay and taylor are in many respects the two most prominent kentuckians and blinken's lifetime. so if blinken is looking on the state were he's born thinking who might there be that would be prominent and become president for my state, they are clay and taylor. h

believe the first man was chief justice carney in the dred scott decision and the next to him was steven a. douglass become a catchword of the entire party. when this new proposition that no human being was brought forward i look at that as having an evil tendency and not an evil design end quote. a year and a half later lincoln systematically dismantled this argument type placing the votes of everyone at the american founders who assisted in post-slavery. he had ambiguously back under that their vision was a nation of free men and women of all races and religions together if you want the blessings of liberty and their the able protection of law. that measure was put in place by martin luther king that we should be judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin. it is the equal protection of the law and division of the american founders and abraham lincoln and martin luther king of a colorblind society that isy directly under attack. i can imagine the morgue to visit polarizing or unjust measure than one that would by government force require to people to give reparations to t

. >> there's a reason steven douglas' greatest political rival literally held his hat at his first inaugurationhat's a lesson. john, terrific. good luck on the book. >> it's a great documentary. looking ford it. >> you can all watch the new cnn original series "lin "lincoln: divided we stand." it premieres sunday at 10:00 p.m. only on cnn. >>> lincoln freed the slaves. >> it's more complicated than that. ♪ >> a new president. a prairie lawyer. with no experience trying to hold together the american experiment. ♪ i'm only human ♪ >> the stakes were extremely high. ♪ don't put your blame on me ♪ >> this election is an earthquake. >> the biggest misconception of lincoln is that he was perfect. ♪ i'm only human make mistakes ♪ ♪ i'm only human that's all it takes don't put the blame on me ♪ >> the man who found a way to make democracy safe. >> "lincoln: divided we stand" premieres sunday night at 10:00. introducing fidelity income planning. we look at what you've saved, what you'll need, and help you build a flexible plan for cash flow that lasts, even when you're not working, so you can go from sa

a bill to strip him of some of the powers given to him during the pandemic. tomorrow night on cnn, you can see how abraham lincoln's debates with steven douglas over the expansionm on to a national stage and helped to pave the way to his president is i. cnn's original series lincoln, divided we stand, continues sunday night at 10:00 eastern. i mean, who doesn't love obsessing over network security? cnn's original series lincoln, divided we stand, continues sunday night at 10:00 eastern. c. cnn's original series lincoln, divided we stand, continues sunday night at 10:00 eastern. i. cnn's original series lincoln, divided we stand, continues sunday night at 10:00 eastern. s. cnn's original series lincoln, divided we stand, continues sunday night at 10:00 eastern. . cnn's original series lincoln, divided we stand, continues sunday night at 10:00 eastern. i. cnn's original series lincoln, divided we stand, continues sunday night at 10:00 eastern. . cnn's original series lincoln, divided we stand, continues sunday night at 10:00 eastern. with at&t business, you do the things you love. our people and network will help do the things you don't. let's take care of busine