Lincoln-Douglas Debates - Essay Example

The sharpest contrast between the views of these candidates lies in the rights of African Americans. Douglas has expressed his desire for “citizenship for whites only”; meanwhile, Lincoln insisted on the equal rights of every living man-including African American-for life, fruits of their labor, and liberty (as cited in Hakim, 2007, p. 158). He further argued that the struggle against slavery reflects an internal turmoil of distinguishing right from wrong throughout the world.

Lincoln supported the “Fugitive State Law”; however, he strongly opposed the interference with slavery in certain states where it has already existed (as cited in Hakim, 2007, p. 158). Douglas and Lincoln have participated in seven debates in front of approximately 15,000 individuals and traveled for estimated 10,000 miles for their campaigns (as cited in Hakim, 2007, p. 158). The immediate result of these debates was deemed inconclusive. However, in the long run, the debates became fatal to Douglas and favorable to Lincoln.

Lincoln has managed to gain national stature from performance in the debate. He was later regarded as a serious presidential contender. In contrast, Douglas has split the Democratic Party and diminished his chance of becoming a U.S. president (“Results,” 1987). ReferencesHakim, J. (2007). A history of US: Sourcebook and index. USA: Oxford University Press.Results of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. (1987). The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/13/opinion/l-results-of-the-lincoln-douglas-debates-200187.

HTML question 2. Both Grant and Sherman pursued a new type of warfare. Explain the change in strategy these men employed. Note a battle or campaign in which each man used this new strategy. Finally, was this strategy effective? Why or why not? Grant and Sherman introduced a “new type of warfare,” which has defeated the south (as cited in House, 2008, p.53). The increased lethality of weapons has impelled armies to disperse in order to survive. Battlefield expansion has doomed the concentration at one particular point.

The distribution of forces led to the distributed operations. Campaigns began to consist of various actions (House, 2008, p. 53). It contained numerous operations with several maneuvers and battles. This type of warfare is commonly termed operational art. Grant and Sherman became the first practitioners of the operational art of war. They applied operational art in the American civil war whereby conduct of war involved succession of operations distributed in space and time in order to attain a certain goal (House, 2008, p. 53). Grant and Sherman sought opportunities to boreholes to the enemy’s lines and destroy them with flank attacks.

They then focused on the raiding strategy. They constantly kept their attention to their prey to prevent initiatives from confederates. In addition, they ensured that the enemies can’t send reinforcement elsewhere (Glaathar, 1998, p. 235). The difference between operation art and classical warfare lies in its operations. Operational art necessitates distributed operations while classical warfare focused its operations at a single point (House, 2008, p. 53). The former can be considered as effective as it is the type of warfare utilized to defeat the south.

Grant and Sherman prosecuted their enemies with savage efficiency through this type of warfare. They seized every opportunity to attack the enemy. In addition, they strategically conducted their operations in such a manner that would fatally weaken and wound the enemy (Hassell & Breslin, 2011).