Stephen Douglas opened the first debate by attacking Lincoln with the formation of the Republican Party.  Douglas outlines a small history of the Whig Party, stating that they were able to compromise with the Democrats when the issue was slavery.  Douglas painted the Republican Party as Abolitionists, and outlined a number of beliefs of that party.  He also critiqued Lincoln’s “house divided” speech, saying that the country had been divided into slave and free states since the founding.  Since the founding.  Douglas branded Lincoln as a divider, someone pushing for Civil War.  Now, remember that Ottawa sits in the northern section of Illinois; so anti-slavery sentiment ran higher than other areas of the state.  Douglas was very crafty.  Very crafty.  He wanted to get Lincoln to tie himself to an abolitionist stance so that it would affect him when they debated in the southern part of the state.  Besides going on the offense, Douglas touted his view of “popular sovereignty” as a solution to the issue of slavery.

When Lincoln’s chance to speak came, he approached with caution.  A lot of caution.  Lincoln did not directly answer the charges that Douglas had hurled his way.  He made a blanket denial of being an abolitionist, but reserved the right to address the charges more specifically at a later debate.  Lincoln wanted to be sure of his answers.  However, this delay in answering was a definite victory for Douglas.

The main point to come from this debate was the two different views on slavery: Lincoln thought it was wrong while Douglas did not.  Lincoln thought slavery was wrong for the country as well as morally.  Douglas was indifferent to the moral question of slavery.  The moral question.  He was satisfied as long as “popular sovereignty” led the issue.

The entire debate text is linked here thanks to Bartleby.