Lincoln's tragic pragmatism: Lincoln, Douglas, and moral conflict

Introduction : implicitness and moral conflict. Negative capability ; Liberalism and moral conflict

Lincoln's Peoria Speech of 1854. The debate over the Kansas-Nebraska Act ; Making and breaking deals in 1850 and in 1854 ; Lincoln's chief arguments ; The irony of American history

Lincoln's conspiracy charge. The "house divided" metaphor ; The unfolding of the Bleeding Kansas War ; Douglas and the Lecompton Constitution ; Lincoln's evidence ; Dred Scott II ; A living dog is better than a dead lion

Douglas's conspiracy charge. Lincoln and the founding of the Republican Party ; The reorganization of parties ; From Whig to Republican ; Anti-Nebraska and Anti-Lecompton Democrats ; The 1854 platforms ; Conspiracies across party lines ; Sectional and ideological parties ; Conclusion

Douglas's fanaticism charge. Hostility to New England ; The apodictic style and reasonableness ; Appeals to the divine will ; Implicitness and situatedness ; Transformation of conceptions ; Limits of persuasive engagement

Douglas's racial equality charge. Lincoln's nonextension position and anti-slavery ; Douglas on abolition and black citizenship ; From nonextension to emancipation ; From emancipation to citizenship ; Racism and freedom

The Dred Scott Case. Legal background of the case ; The Dred Scott Case in court ; Lincoln's response ; Douglas's response ; Conclusion

Aftershocks of the debates. Southern responses to the Freeport Doctrine ; Douglas's "Dividing Line" Doctrine ; The pamphlet war with Jeremiah Black ; The 1859 Ohio "Lincoln-Douglas Debates" ; The Cooper Union Speech ; The First Inaugural Address

Coda : and the war came. The Gettysburg Address ; The will of God prevails ; The Second Inaugural Address.