Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Introduction: Implicitness and Moral Conflict -- 1.1 Negative Cap -- 1.2 Liberalism and Moral Conflict -- 2. Lincoln's Peoria Speech of 1854 -- 2.1 The Debate over the Kansas - Nebraska Act -- 2.2 Making and Breaking Deals in 1850 and in 1854 -- 2.3 Lincoln's Chief Arguments -- 2.4 The Irony of American History -- 3. Lincoln's Conspiracy Charge -- 3.1 The "House Divided" Metaphor -- 3.2 The Unfolding of the Bleeding Kansas War -- 3.3 Douglas and the Lecompton Constitution -- 3.4 Lincoln's Evidence -- 3.5 Dred Scott II -- 3.6 A Living Dog Is Better than a Dead Lion -- 4. Douglas's Conspiracy Charge -- 4.1 Lincoln and the Founding of the Republican Party -- 4.2 The Reorganization of Parties -- 4.3 From Whig to Republic -- 4.4 Anti-Nebraska and Anti-Lecompton Democrats -- 4.5 The 1854 Platforms -- 4.6 Conspiracies across Party Lines -- 4.7 Sectional and Ideological Parties -- 4.8 Conclusion -- 5. Douglas's Fanaticism Charge -- 5.1 Hostility to New England -- 5.2 The Apodictic Style and Reasonableness -- 5.3 Appeals to the Divine Will -- 5.4 Implicitness and Situatedness -- 5.5 Transformation of Conceptions -- 5.6 Limits of Persuasive Engagement -- 6. Douglas's Racial Equality Charge -- 6.1 Lincoln's Nonextension Position and Anti-slavery -- 6.2 Douglas on Abolition and Black Citizenship -- 6.3 From Nonextension to Emancipation -- 6.4 From Emancipation to Citizenship -- 6.5 Racism and Freedom -- 7. The Dred Scott Case -- 7.1 Legal Background of the Case -- 7.2 The Dred Scott Case in Court -- 7.3 Lincoln's Response -- 7.4 Douglas's Response -- 7.5 Conclusion -- 8. Aftershocks of the Debates -- 8.1 Southern Responses to the Freeport Doctrine -- 8.2 Douglas's "Dividing Line" Doctrine -- 8.3 The Pamphlet War with Jeremiah Black -- 8.4 The 1859 Ohio "Lincoln-Douglas Debates" -- 8.5 The Cooper Union Speech.

8.6 The First Inaugural Address -- 9. Coda: And the War Came -- 9.1 The Gettysburg Address -- 9.2 The Will of God Prevails -- 9.3 The Second Inaugural Address -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index.