The Lincoln–Douglas Debates (1994 reenactments)
They featured historical reenactors presenting, in their entireties, the series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas that took place during the 1858 U.S. Senate campaign in Illinois.The inspiration for the series came from the book The Lincoln–Douglas Debates: The First Complete, Unexpurgated Text, edited by Harold Holzer.[2] In 1993, C-SPAN staff approached the mayors of the seven cities in Illinois where the 1858 debates had been held (Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and Alton) and arranged with each city to recreate the debates using their own local resources.Subsequently, C-SPAN spent over $300,000 on the promotion and coverage of the debates and on the creation of related educational materials.Prof. John Splaine of the University of Maryland, College Park, was a consultant to C-SPAN and provided commentary on each of the debates.