Encounters
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No records of Rutledge’s debating club survive, but those of some nearby clubs have been preserved. Those organizations usually met once a month, had rules about such things as orderly behavior and strictures against invoking God in argument, and often required that members participate in debate, declamation, composition, criticism, and lecturing. Anonymous papers were solicited and read aloud at meetings, though the bylaws of the Rock Creek Lyceum stipulated that an “anonymous reader shall examine the contents of his box, and on finding any obscene documents by this act be empowered to burn them without further ceremony.” Order did not always prevail. At least one of these clubs, the Rock Creek Lyceum, had its meeting broken up by roughnecks. Fittingly, at the time they were debating the question, “Which is the greatest evil which the human family is infested with?” Because of the disruption, however, they adjourned before reaching a verdict. Debate topics from this period in Illinois included what should be done with free blacks if slavery were abolished and whether or not slavery had been beneficial. There were also debates on public works, temperance, banking, public land policy, marriage, and woman’s voting and education. During his political career, Lincoln would address many of these issues.
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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