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Lincoln Douglas Debates
03-22-2016, 11:19 AM (This post was last modified: 03-22-2016 11:21 AM by Gene C.)
Post: #1
Lincoln Douglas Debates
This story from "The Prairie President". I don't recall reading this before, so it may not be a true story.

One instance of Lincoln's drollery is on record in connection
with the Alton debate. Douglas had the opening speech there
and according to Horace White, the reporter
for the Chicago Press and Tribune, Lincoln was occupying
a seat in the rear of the platform. His next neighbor was
a young lady with whom he had been engaged in conversation
before the debate began. When Douglas had finished
his opening speech, Lincoln rose and handed his
travel-stained linen duster to the young lady and said in
a low tone: "Now hold my coat while I stone Stephen."

(For those of you who may have missed the joke, it is a reference to an event in the Bible as told in Acts 7: 54-58, the stoning of Stephen.

So when is this "Old Enough To Know Better" supposed to kick in?
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03-22-2016, 01:56 PM
Post: #2
RE: Lincoln Douglas Debates
Never heard that stiry before- nice one.

Bill Nash
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12-26-2017, 02:29 PM
Post: #3
RE: Lincoln Douglas Debates
I have been doing some reading on the Lincoln-Douglas debates of late and have come across this anecdote a number of times. So far I have seen it attached variably to Ottawa, Freeport, Galesburg, and Alton. Accounts also vary as to who he hands his “duster” to. Those described include: “Judge Trumbull”, a “young lady with whom he had been having a conversation”, “the chairman of the first debate”, “Judge T. Lyle Dickey”, a more non-descript “young woman”, and also “a bystander”. In some accounts Lincoln says his line about stoning Stephen in quiet tones to the person to whom he handed his duster, in others he says the line out loud to the crowd and elicits laughter.

Though this is an interesting little anecdote, its variations are all over the board. I have yet to find an account I find particularly credible.
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