Lincoln & Douglass Debate 1. Douglass explains how Lincoln said that the government cannot permanently stay in the same condition made by industry and farmers, its either a free state or a slave state. He says that we can?t turn it back to when the founding fathers established a government. Laws and regulations weren?t deemed much attention by plantations, therefore, provided that each State should retain its own legislature. Douglass responds by saying why can?t the country be divided into slave or free state. 2. Lincoln is opposed by the Dred Scott decision because it deprives the black people?s rights and privileges of citizenship. If you desire citizenship for the black community, if