On September 18, 1858, Illinois Senators Abraham Lincoln and Stephan A. Douglas participated in their fourth debate together in Charleston, Ill. where the Coles County Fairgrounds are today.

In order to commemorate the event, the university later named two residence halls after the senators, Lincoln Hall and Douglas Hall.

Now, English professor Christopher Hanlon has started a debate about the idea of renaming Douglas Hall to Douglass Hall, after Frederick Douglass.

Hanlon’s reasoning sets within the legislation Douglas publicly endorsed- he ran on a platform that would extend slavery into the west.

When this issue came up, questions came up across campus. Is this building commemorating the debate that took place or the individual man, Stephan A. Douglas, who advocated for the extension of slavery?

On Nov. 1, a debate took place that focused on the man- Stephen A. Douglas. Hanlon and Michael Loudon were opposed to Douglas while Mark Hubbard and Martin Hardemon were unopposed.

Hanlon said no one has said a positive thing about Steven Douglas, who, has had dishonorable public service, while Hardemon has said by renaming the building the university would be “purifying history.”

Hardemon and Hubbard said Stephan A. Douglas’ primary goals were to maintain the Union and make concessions with the South.

Conversely, Lincoln also wanted to maintain the Union, without having to uphold slavery views.

“Some historians have maintained that Lincoln truly believed Africans to be an inferior race unworthy of full membership in the community of citizens,” said Jonathan Coit, a history professor. “Other historians have noted that, in the speeches to which you refer, Lincoln appears to have carefully used the conditional tense for his verbs.”

Lincoln also believed that whites are superior just as the framers of the Constitution had viewed, Coit said. At that point, the framers saw slavery as a dying institution and allowed it to live out its life in order to maintain the Union.

Douglas had advocated popular sovereignty-which the states would choose to be a slave state or free state.

“By taking this position Douglas could be all things to all people,” Coit said.

Obviously, there is controversy over who Douglas and Lincoln were and truly believed.

At the University of Texas in Austin, a similar issue arose last summer. There was a residence hall named Simkins Hall. William Stewart Simkins was a member of the Ku Klux Klan as well as a former UT professor.

The man that had proposed this renaming was a former professor who had submitted a paper ten years earlier. He argued that Simkins was essentially a criminal.

The university went through a similar debate as Eastern sees now and the university formed a committee and the renaming went through. Simkins Residence Hall became Creekside Residence Hall.

Now should Eastern take this step as well??

Charleston has some other markers commemorating the Charleston debate. There is the Lincoln-Douglas Debate Museum, located at 126 E St., a marker on the square, and a mural painted at the fairgrounds.

Eastern is also not the only one who has a residence hall named after Stephan A. Douglas. Northern Illinois University also has a Lincoln and Douglas Hall.

Northern has not faced any such dilemma, yet.

The next step for the team to rename the building is to gain more support. On Tuesday the faculty senate gave their backing and the student government will give its opinion on Wednesday. If enough feedback is gathered Bob Martin, the Vice President for University Advancement would appoint a naming committee.

This naming committee would review the proposal and view a list of six guidelines in order to make a judgment.

If the proposal passes, the committee will pass the proposal to the president. If approved, President William Perry would pass the proposal to the Board of Trustees before anything is finalized.

Jacob Swanson can be reached at 581-7942 or [email protected]