4c Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas plate proof

Bureau of Engraving and Printing · August 20, 1958

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth in 1809, the U.S. Post Office Department issued a set of four stamps over a nine-month period in 1958 and '59. This was the first stamp issued in that, a 4¢ sepia featuring an historical illustration of the first Lincoln-Douglas Debate by Americana artist Joseph Boggs Beale. In 1858, Republican Abraham Lincoln challenged incumbent Democrat Stephen A. Douglas for one of Illinois' two seats in the U.S. Senate. Although Lincoln lost the election, he rose to national prominence during the series of seven debates with Douglas, most of which focused on the candidates' views on slavery. The stamp was issued at Freeport, Illinois, site of the second Lincoln-Douglas Debate.