Lincoln-Douglas Debate Site

A small monument near the corner of Broadway and Market Street marks the approximate site of the final Lincoln-Douglas debate, held on 15 October 1858. The original building is long gone, but the location is marked and a bronze plaque summarises the significance of the event.

The seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas were the defining political contest of the 1850s, centring on the question of slavery's expansion into new territories. The Alton debate was notable for Douglas's position on popular sovereignty and Lincoln's moral argument against slavery's extension. If you're following the full Lincoln Trail through Illinois, Alton is the logical endpoint. The riverfront nearby offers good views of the Mississippi.

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The seventh and final Lincoln-Douglas debate took place at the now-demolished City Hall in Alton on 15 October 1858 before a crowd of around 5,000 people. Douglas won the Senate seat that year, but the debates made Lincoln nationally known. Two years later, Lincoln defeated Douglas in the presidential election — and Alton, which had produced the final debate, found itself in a border state at the beginning of the Civil War.