Details Written by John Grimaldi and David Bruce Smith Washington, DC - History Matters: A biweekly feature courtesy of The Grateful American Book Prize Showing our children that their past is prelude to their future. May 16 to May 31 The Lincoln-Douglas debates pushed the possibility of a Lincoln presidency into inevitability. Positioned against Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois in a sequence of debates during re-election year, Douglas insisted the legality of slavery should be determined by the states and territories. Lincoln argued for its abolition. Douglas kept his seat and Lincoln lost the argument, but his rhetoric raised his profile—and that of the unshaped Republican party.