Ah, are they in a specific debate? maybe a well known one?
Don't think it suppose to be a specific one or if it is I am unaware of it.It just that the image of an outdoor scene with them like that talking to a crowd is the popular one for those debates I think.You actually got me interested in being sure I had all the facts right and went to wikepedia lol.
Had forgotten Stephens was also who lincoln beat for presidency 2 years later.Some good stuff on Lincoln at wik which explains how impressive Lincoln even though usually poorly dressed lol could be and how very well he could speak,which of course he is pretty famous for.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_Lincoln
Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858
Main article: Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858
The 1858 campaign featured the Lincoln-Douglas debates, a famous contest on slavery. Lincoln warned that "The Slave Power" was threatening the values of republicanism, while Stephen Douglas emphasized the supremacy of democracy, as set forth in his Freeport Doctrine, which said that local settlers should be free to choose whether to allow slavery or not and could overrule judicial rulings. Though the Republican legislative candidates won more popular votes, the Democrats won more seats, and the legislature reelected Douglas to the Senate. Nevertheless, Lincoln's speeches on the issue transformed him into a national political star. New York party leaders invited him to give a speech at Cooper Union in February 1860 to an elite audience that was startled by the poorly dressed, ugly man from the West. He stunned the audience with the most brilliant political speech they had ever heard. Lincoln was emerging as the intellectual leader of the Republican party, and its best speaker.[27
