During the past few month we have seen round after round of political debates, with presidential candidates positioning themselves to appeal to voters. But are debates today more show than substance? How do they rate when compared to some of the great political debates of the past?

The Lincoln-Douglas debates, pivotal in focusing a nation's attention on the most important issues of the time, took place in a horse and buggy era. What would the Lincoln-Douglas debates be like today if they were held on the Fox News Channel or CNN? Of course, Lincoln would need to improve his appearance and hairstyle for this century's televised debates. But someone who reads the Lincoln-Douglas debates may be surprised to find that some of the themes still reverberate in politics today.

It was in a climate of intense divisiveness that Lincoln took the podium as a Republican senate candidate in Illinois for a debate with his Democratic opponent, Stephen Douglas. There were seven debates between the two held in seven towns in Illinois. At the time, U.S. senators were selected by state legislatures, so Lincoln and Douglas were campaigning for their respective parties to win control of the legislature.

The debates were covered by many newspapers, which sent stenographers to record each debate. The debates drew huge crowds as the issues of states' rights and slavery were of great importance to citizens around the country. Each candidate was allowed to speak for an hour, with half hour rejoinders. Lincoln's combination of eloquence and a folksy manner in the debates gave him national recognition, which eventually led to his election as president. Ironically, he lost the senate race.

The main issue in the debates was the right of states and territories to choose to be free from slavery, or to allow it. Lincoln argued that the Declaration of Independence, which stated that all men are created equal, overrode the right of any state to allow slavery. He said that the authors "defined with tolerable distinctness in what they did consider all men created equal: equal in certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Of slavery, he said, "I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican examples of its just influence in the world; enables the enemies of free institution, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity; and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty - criticizing the Declaration of Independence and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest."

Lincoln believed that the issue of slavery was dividing the nation and that a crisis was inevitable before a solution was possible. "In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free."

This led to Douglas' retort that Lincoln was an abolitionist and was trying to disguise it by reading from the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln and his party, he said, were trying to "excite a sectional war between the free states and the slave states, in order that one or the other be driven to the wall."

Douglas also accused Lincoln of not supporting the troops during the Mexican War of 1846. Lincoln, who later became a war president, had opposed the Mexican War as a congressman. In the debate he argued his stand: "... whenever the Democratic party tried to get me to vote that the war had been righteously begun by the president, I would not do it. But when he, by a general charge, conveys the idea that I withheld supplies from the soldiers who were fighting in the Mexican War, or did anything else to hinder the soldiers, he is, to say the least, grossly and altogether mistaken, as a consultation of the records will prove to him."

The debates were not without personal attacks which often drew responses from the audience. In one instance, Douglas says of Lincoln that "he makes one speech north and another south." After shouts from the crowd, Douglas admonishes, "Gentlemen, I ask you to remember that Mr. Lincoln was listened to respectfully, and I have the right to insist that I shall not be interrupted during my reply." Lincoln added, "I hope that silence will be preserved."

Perhaps the most enduring lesson for Americans from the Lincoln-Douglas debates is the importance of a genuine exchange of ideas that are based on firm principles and beliefs. Lincoln never deviated from his belief that slavery was wrong. He had no polls, no campaign staff, no commercials to spin his message. But he led and inspired a torn nation by his words and principles in one of its most perilous times.