1. ON THE ROAD TO THE SPRINGFIELD SPEECH. Lincoln and Douglas: the early years -- Helping Congressman Yates -- Preparation to fight Kansas-Nebraska -- Senator Douglas returns to Illinois -- Speeches and debates -- Campaigning for free-soil -- 2. SPRINGFIELD, PEORIA, AND BEYOND. On to Peoria -- Peoria speech -- The end of the 1854 debates -- The end of the campaign -- 3. THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT: THE CONTEXT. Douglas's motives -- Insertion of "inoperative and void" -- The Chase appeal -- The opposition -- The Whigs -- Pushing passage -- Protesting passage -- 4. THE PEORIA SPEECH: THE IDEAS AND ARGUMENTS. The Founders and the Declaration of Independence -- National expansion and compromise -- The Compromise of 1850 -- Popular sovereignty and slavery -- Race and prejudice -- Nationhood and Union -- Principle and policy -- 5. THE ROAD FROM PEORIA. Unintended consequences of Kansa-Nebraska -- Election results and realignment in Illinois -- The 1854-1855 Senate campaign -- Realignment and the Republican Party -- Bleeding Kansas -- The 1856 Bloomington Convention -- 6. CHALLENGING "DRED SCOTT", THE SUPREME COURT, AND DOUGLAS -- The Republican reaction -- The 1858 senate campaign -- The Lincoln-Douglas debates -- The Presidential campaign -- 7. PEORIA CHARACTERIZES THE LINCOLN PRESIDENCY. Declaration of Independence and the Constitution -- Preserving the Union -- Slavery and equality -- Union, morality, and reality -- The South -- Douglas and Lincoln -- The Bible and the world -- 8. CODA -- 9. THE PEORIA, SPEECH, AND THE HISTORIANS' RECORD -- Full text of speech at Peoria, Illinois -- Milestones in the lives of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas