Quincy will commemorate former resident Douglas

A symposium titled “Stephen A. Douglas: From Quincy to Congress” will be conducted Saturday, April 19, by the Quincy Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

Part of a series of events to commemorate the October 1858 Lincoln-Douglas Debate in Quincy, the symposium will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the North Campus auditorium of Quincy University.

Keynote speaker will be James L. Huston, author of “Stephen A. Douglas and the Dilemmas of Democratic Equality” and history professor at Oklahoma State University.

Speakers include Quincy University emeritus professor David Costigan, on Douglas’ national role; retired judge Robert Hunter, on his 50 years of research about Douglas, and Reg Ankrom, on Douglas’ arrival in Quincy.

George Buss, who frequently portrays Lincoln, and Gary DeClue, who re-enacted the Douglas role in a 1994 C-SPAN program about the debate, also will speak.

Both Lincoln and Douglas had ties to Quincy, said commission chair Chuck Scholz. Douglas began a six-year residence there in 1841, living in the Quincy House at Fourth and Main before moving into his own home at Third and Jersey.

“Douglas’ Quincy-area neighbors launched his national political career when in 1843 they elected him to Congress,” Scholz said.

“He kept his official residence here for two years after the legislature appointed him to the U.S. Senate. Within a decade he became the nation’s most powerful politician.”

Scholz added that Quincy is proud of sending to Congress “the man who fashioned the laws and compromises that held the Union together for more than a decade before President Lincoln’s arrival in Washington in 1860.”

There is no charge to attend the symposium, which will include a light lunch, but reservations should be made by calling (217) 228-4515.

More information about the symposium and other bicentennial programs may be found at www.lincolndouglassquincydebate.com.

Among them is re-enactment of the Quincy debate during events that will take place Oct. 10 to 13. George Buss, as Lincoln, and Tim Connor, as Douglas, will square off in what has been called “the nastiest debate of the campaign.”

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