1958 4c Lincoln-Douglas Debates

U.S. #1115
1958-59 4¢ Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Issue Date: August 27, 1958
City:  Freeport, Illinois
Quantity: 114,860,200
Printed by: Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Printing Method:  Rotary Press
Perforations: 11 x 10 ½ 
Color:  Sepia

This stamp was issued on August 27, 1958, in Freeport, Illinois, as the third stamp in a series marking the sesquicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. It commemorated the series of seven debates held in 1858 between Lincoln and incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, who were competing for a United States Senate seat representing Illinois. At the time, senators were chosen by state legislatures rather than by popular vote, so the two men were actually campaigning to win support among members of the Illinois General Assembly, who would cast the deciding votes.

The debates covered the pressing political issue of the era, the expansion of slavery into new territories, and drew large crowds across Illinois as Lincoln and Douglas traveled from town to town to make their case. Freeport hosted the second debate in the series, held on August 27, 1858, exactly one hundred years before this stamp was issued there. Though Douglas won the Senate race that followed, the debates gave Lincoln national exposure and helped establish him as a leading figure within the Republican Party.

The stamp's design draws from a painting depicting Lincoln and Douglas on the debate platform, surrounded by the large crowds that gathered to hear them speak. Two years after losing the Senate race, Lincoln would go on to defeat Douglas in the 1860 presidential election, making the Freeport debate and its five companions an important early chapter in the story of his rise to the presidency.