From VOA Learning English, this is The Making of a Nation.I'm Katherine Cole.And I'm Jonathan Evans.In the summer of 1858, Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln campaigned for a Senate seat from the state of Illinois.But their debates had national importance, too.In the Lincoln-Douglas debates, the two men discussed party politics and the future of the nation.But everything the two men debated was tied to one issue: slavery.Douglas was a short, heavy man. One reporter said he looked like a fierce bulldog.Douglas's friends and supporters called him "the little giant."Lincoln was just the opposite. He was very tall and thin, with long arms and legs. His clothes did not fit well.And he had a plain face, one which many thought was ugly.He looked more like a simple farmer than a candidate for the United States Senate.Lincoln had said that the United States could not continue to permit slavery in some areas while banning it in others.
