In the final Lincoln-Douglas debate, Lincoln claimed that the issues over which the two
candidates had sparred, were not just issues of his time, rather, Lincoln believed that these
debates were small battles in the larger war between individual rights and the divine right
of kings.
Seventh and Last Debate with Stephen A. Douglas
Alton, Illinois
October 15, 1858
That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues
of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two
principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have
stood
face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the
common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in
whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, "You work and toil and earn
bread, and I'll eat it." No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who
seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race
of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.
(III, 315)
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