The Great Debate (Part I)

In his later years, Alonzo Wheeler Jerome, creator of the Jerome Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+) served as a guide at the statehouse in Springfield, Illinois (see "The Man, The Myth, The Legend...").

Thanks to the tireless research efforts of Jerome Gambit Gemeinde member blackburne, we now have a copy of a souvenir booklet that Jerome wrote for those he escorted through the capitol. Titled The Great Debate (1899), it expounds on A Platform Scene in the Seven Joint Discussions between Lincoln and Douglas. One of the Relief Pictures in the Dome of the State Capitol at Springfield, Illinois.

A veteran of the American Civil War (26th Infantry, United States Colored Troops), Jerome was greatly impressed by the efforts of Abraham Lincoln, in is series of debates with Stephen A. Douglas.

In this picture, so entitled by all who remember, and all who are familiar with the written history of the discussion of the question as to the restriction or extension of Slavery, in the territories of the United States, the most conspicuous advocate of the restriction policy, is standing by a table with one hand resting thereon, while the other is held in the well known position of argumentative gesture, slightly raised from the side, with the palm turned outward, seeming to say "Is not that right, and true, and reasonable?"

Lincoln, it is said, used but that one gesture when speaking, and that movement and position of the hand was as natural when making an argument, founded on reason, as the movement of the tongue itself. Certain it is, that in none of the speeches deliver3ed by this great reasoner, was there any deliberate attempt made at oratory merely for applause, but all of the eloquent periods came from a full and sympathetic heart. He made no effort to heighten effect by the aid of swinging arms and clapping hands; by shaking of the head and trembling voice. Calmness, earnestness, sincerity, appeals to reason and to justice, constituted his power to bring others to his view of the question. And let it be said, to the credit of a majority of the people of Illinois, that they were capable of being influenced by right and reason, rather than by subtlety and brilliant oratory.

Lincoln's opponent is seated at the opposite side of the table (looking the physical dwarf and mental giant that he was) full of attention to what his great rival is saying, and, no doubt, endeavoring to frame replies for use when his turn shall have come to address the multitude.

Douglas' friends are grouped on his side of the table, and, while it is clearly manifest that all the faces, save one, as well as those on the Lincoln side, are intended for portraits, the writer has been unable to secure with certainty, the identity of but few of the men there seen, and all attempt to name the others is only conjecture.

The key to the whole series of pictures, or Relief Plaques, as they may be called, cannot be found, and its loss is greatly deplored by all who appreciate the art and the history, which are shown in this beautiful work, not only as to this Lincoln-Douglas plaque, but as to each and every one of the series, ten in number.

At the extreme right of the picture, looking out from under a draped doorway or cabinet, is the face of a colored man, who is standing in an easy position, with one hand placed on the left hip, the other stretched above his head, and resting against the door post. Why is this negro on the Douglas side, instead of on the side of his friend Lincoln?

The key would doubtless explain why. In its absence it may be surmised that, inasmuch as a then recent opinion from Chief Justice Taney, of the Supreme Court of the United States, was being used by Douglas as one of his arguments, one of his friends in these debates, perhaps the artist, placed the woolly head and thick lips there, as an allegorical "Dred Scott" decision, or it may be that the figure with the curtain, is intended to represent the proverbial "woodpile." At least, few visitors notice him, unless their attention is called to him.

A recent visitor, a bright lady from Warsaw, Hancock County, after hearing the above guess as to the reason for the apparent mislocation of the colored man, suggested with a mischievous smile, "Perhaps he is waiting for an order."

Two visitors at the Statehouse who said they knew Judge Anthony Thornton of Shelbyville, expressed the opinion, that the figure seated at the right end of the picture, was intended to represent that great friend of the "Little Giant."

It is well worth while to give this figure careful attention, the pose being that of a man who is forgetting everything else in the deep absorption of following the speaker's argument. he has his left arm resting on the back of the chair, the left foot drawn back under it, and his head held in a listening attitude, the face, the form, and the attitude, being most natural and lifelike. But this is almost equally true of the entire work, there being scarcely an exception.

The faces of the two men who are standing on this, the douglas side of the picture, are fine and strong, with such marked and distinguishing features, that they should be easily recognized b y people who saw and heard the debates. One of them is thought to resemble Wm. A. Richardson, who filled out the unexpired term of Mr. Douglas as United States Senator, excepting the short time that O. H. Browning held the position by appointment.

graphic by Jeff Bucchino, "The Wizard of Draws"