Series of seven debates between Republican candidate
Stephen A. Douglas in the 1858 Illinois senatorial campaign. They focused on slavery and its extension into the western territories. Lincoln criticized Douglas for his support of {{link=popular sovereignty">popular sovereignty and the Kansas-Nebraska Act , while Douglas accused Lincoln of advocating racial equality and disruption of the Union. Douglas won reelection, but Lincoln's antislavery position and oratorical brilliance made him a national figure in the young Republican Party .