John Nicolay and John Hay, two of Lincoln's secretaries while president, compiled available Lincoln writings for an 1894 publication, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. These works included texts from the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, and are available from this website. Since the debates themselves were not written down by Lincoln and Douglas, Nicolay and Hay relied on newspaper accounts. Other newspaper accounts of the debates are available under Debate Texts from Newspapers.

Click on a city to link to the Nicolay and Hay version of that debate:

• Ottawa — August 21, 1858.
• Freeport — August 27, 1858.
• Jonesboro — September 15, 1858.
• Charleston — September 18, 1858.
• Galesburg — October 7, 1858.
• Quincy — October 13, 1858.
• Alton — October 15, 1858.

Click on an article to read other materials from the campaign published by Nicolay and Hay:

• Speech Delivered at Bloomington, Ill., by Senator S. A. Douglas (7/16/1858)
• Speech Delivered at Springfield, Ill, by Senator S. A. Douglas (7/17/1858)
• Preliminary Correspondence to the Joint Debates (7/29/1858, 7/30/1858, 7/31/1858)
• Fragment: Notes for Speeches (10/1/1858, 7/10/1858)
• Speech at Chicago, Illinois, July 10, 1858 (7/10/1858)