The Old State Capitol opened in 1839 as the fifth Illinois state house. Here, longtime political rivals, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, battled over slavery's future, freedom's meaning, and America's destiny. The decades-long struggle between the two men for power and prestige continued with the sectional conflict, and debate over slavery that led to the Civil War's outbreak in 1861.
This is where Lincoln launched his 1858 Senate campaign against Douglas with his famous 'house divided' speech, where Lincoln established his political headquarters in the crucial months before and after his election as president in 1860, where after Lincoln's inauguration in 1861, Stephen Douglas urged a cheering nonpartisan crowd in Representatives Hall to put aside political differences to save the union, and where Lincoln's body laid, as a crowd of 75,000 mourners filed past to pay their last respects.
Watch the beginnings of the historic Old State Capital, through Lincoln's time, it's reconstruction, and beyond. Learn how one building was the background to events that changed our nation's history in Illinois Old State Capitol: A Witness to History.
Narrated by television journalist, producer, narrator, and anchor Bill Kurtis, known as host of Investigative Reports, American Justice, and Cold Case Files.
Produced by the university of Illinois Springfield Office of Electronic Media (2013)