Illinois's 1858 contest for United States senator pitted nationally renowned Democrat Stephen A. Douglas against the relatively unknown Republican Abraham Lincoln. The candidates met in seven joint debates, clashing on the issue of allowing slavery into new territories. Douglas argued that slavery expansion was a political question to be decided by voters at the local level, while Lincoln viewed it as a moral question to be settled by the national government. Douglas won a third Senate term, but his position that localities could exclude slavery caused great anger in the South. When, in 1860, Douglas and Lincoln battled for the presidency, Douglas's position on local control of slavery cost him support in the South and split the Democratic party, helping to elect Lincoln president.
