The Lincoln-Douglas debates took place in 1858, Illinois. Abraham Lincoln challenged Stephen Douglas for a seat in the senate from Illinois. Douglas, nicknamed "The Little Giant," was a Democrat and Senator at the time since elected in 1847. He was a significant force behind the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act; both which included the idea of "popular sovereignty." Douglas was a strong believer in this doctrine, which said that the people of the territories should choose whether they wanted slavery or not. On the other side was Abraham Lincoln; a Republican who was unknown nationally until these debates. Lincoln was opposed to the expansion of slavery; he believed it should be restricted and not permitted in the new territories. He felt slavery was morally incorrect, and in his "house-divided" speech explained that the union could not survive forever as half free and half slave. Lincoln hoped for a nation without slavery eventually. Their clear, clashing viewpoints on slavery caused it to be the main issue throughout the debates. The debates took place between August and October, 1858, in seven different cities in Illinois: Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and Alton.