The Rivalry
by Norman Corwin

THE STORY: The Lincoln/Douglas debates took place in seven Congressional districts and totaled thirty-hours in length.

They were conducted in a fever of partisanship as the nation listened.

Brass bands played, the press vilified or glorified the opponents, depending on which side they took.

Douglas, cocky and brisk, fought for the rights of the separate states to make their own choice on the question of slavery; Abraham Lincoln, modest, yet as brisk, fought for equality of human beings and the conviction that the nation could not endure half slave, half free.

Mrs. Douglas, who accompanied her husband on the tour, serves as both performer and narrator of the play.

It is she who puts the whole in perspective.

There are some charming encounters between Mrs. Douglas and Lincoln, as she begins to lose her distrust for her husband's opponent, and throughout the play the personal issues, as well as the political ones, are magnificently developed.