Life-size bronze sculptures of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in debate were unveiled on August 27, 1992, the 134th anniversary of their 1858 debate. At the time, this was the only sculpture depicting the two political giants in one of their famous debates. Mickey Bauch Martin coordinated the sculpture project and served as moderator for the ceremony, where Congressman John Cox was the guest speaker. After the dedication, Cox and his Republican challenger, Don Manzullo, held a political debate, and later that evening a dinner at the Stephenson Hotel featured Lincoln scholar Ralph Neuman as guest speaker. The Ferd Bauch Family, descendants of early settlers in Stephenson County, provided seed money for the project and commissioned artist Lily Tolpo to create a painting of the debate in Freeport. The debaters shown in her painting, The Freeport Doctrine, inspired the sculptures. The original four-foot by six-foot oil-on-canvas painting hangs outside the library on the campus of Highland Community College in Freeport, and signed and numbered prints were later sold by the Lincoln-Douglas Society to raise additional funds. A grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs helped bring about the statue. Lily Tolpo, a Chicago native born in 1917 and died in 2016, studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts; besides bronze sculptures, her work included bas relief, oil painting, and steel sculpture, and in 2009 she received the Order of Lincoln.