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　　听力材料：

　　In the summer of 1858, Stephen Douglas andAbraham Lincoln campaigned for a Senate seat fromthe state of Illinois. But their debates had nationalimportance, too.

　　In the Lincoln-Douglas debates, the two mendiscussed party politics and the future of the nation. But everything the two men debated wastied to one issue: slavery.

　　Douglas was a short, heavy man. One reporter said he looked like a fierce bulldog. Douglas'sfriends and supporters called him “the little giant.”

　　Lincoln was just the opposite. He was very tall and thin, with long arms and legs. His clothes didnot fit well. And he had a plain face, one which many thought was ugly. He looked more like asimple farmer than a candidate for the United States Senate.

　　Lincoln had said that the United States could not continue to permit slavery in some areaswhile banning it in others. He said the Union could not stand so divided. It must either permitslavery everywhere -- or nowhere.

　　Douglas did not agree. He noted that the country had been half-slave and half-free for 70years. Why then, he asked, should it not continue to exist that way? The United States was abig country. What was best for one part might not be best for another.

　　Stephen Douglas also questioned Lincoln's statement on the Supreme Court's Dred Scottdecision. Lincoln had said he opposed the decision because it did not permit black people therights of citizenship.

　　Douglas said he believed the decision was correct. He said it was clear that the governmenthad been made by white men, for white men. Douglas said each state, not the federalgovernment, should decide what rights black people had.

　　And, Douglas said, the Democratic Party supported his view.

　　Lincoln answered that the Republican Party was not trying to force the South to end slavery.Nor, he said, did he want political and social equality between whites and blacks. But Lincolnsaid they both had the natural rights listed in the Declaration of Independence: the rights tolife, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

　　Slavery could be left alone in the South until it slowly died, Lincoln said. That way, he believed,would be best for everyone.

　　On election day, Lincoln won the popular vote by 4000 ballots. But because of the wayelection areas had been organized, the Douglas Democrats won a majority of seats in thelegislature. The newly elected legislature chose him to be their senator.

　　Lincoln was sad that he had not won. Many people, however, did not think Abraham Lincolnwould be forgotten. His campaign speeches had been published everywhere in the East. Hisname was becoming widely known. People began to speak of him as a presidential candidate inthe election of 1860.