LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE LIVES ON & ON IN OTTAWA, IL

Life is so full of ironies. 
 
Whenever I try too hard to fit in, I just end up sticking out.  I’m forever one step behind  my Zumba instructor and everyone else in the class.   

Which reminds me; why is my Zumba instructor overweight?  She’s not overweight by much; just  packing the same twenty pounds I’ve been hauling around for the last twenty years.  Well, her twenty pounds are not the exact same twenty pounds, but I know love handles when I see them.  
 
Did you know, if you have a phobia of long words, you have to tell people you have hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia?   Personally, my phobias aren’t for public consumption, so mums the word; a very short and sweet word, by the way.  

In a related twist, I had no idea the dictionary definition for the word  “short” is really, really long.  How ironic is that? 

I also wasn’t much of a history buff as a student either; now it seems to be all I talk about.  I'm inclined to think life (okay, my life) may just be one big irony.

Travel does put a new spin on all that history.  Field trips are certainly the way to go!   Our latest was chocked full of history.   

All it took was the hint of a spring day for Jimmy and I to head for Starved Rock, Illinois’ number one attraction when it comes to state parks (more to come on Starved Rock soon). We stopped in Ottawa for lunch, a small town of 18,000 approximately 60 miles southwest of Chicago where the Fox and Illinois Rivers converge.  

I doubt you can read the sign on the lampposts; it says: Ottawa, Serious Fun! Rock on, Abe!

Completion of the manmade Illinois and Michigan Canal in 1848, connecting the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River, put this riverside community on the map.  Segments of the original 96 mile I&M Canal between Lockport and LaSalle-Peru were designated (the first designation of its kind) a National Historic Corridor by the US Congress in 1984. 

If God is in the details, history comes in a close second.

Seventeen locks and four aqueducts were originally built to handle the 140-ft height difference between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River.  No, that has nothing to do with the locks on Salzburg's Makartsteg Bridge in Austria, but given that's one of my most popular posts month after month, you can follow the crowds via this link to see what those locks are all about. 

Whatever floats your boat, right?

Jimmy and I did go through a few locks (as in I&M type locks) getting to Salzburg via the Danube River.  Here's a link of one of those locks very up close and personal.  But back to Ottawa.  I know, Ottawa isn't quite as glamorous as Salzburg,  but it's got lots of history, too. 

You remember the Lincoln-Douglas debates, right?  Right!  I know; the facts are there; retrieval is the problem.  Voila; field trip!  

Who knew Douglas was such a shrimp!

They were still going at it one-hundred and fifty five years later; Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln and Democrat incumbent Steven Douglas,  right there in the middle of Washington Square, duking it out for a seat in the U.S. Senate.   A seat neither actually won by popular vote.  

No worries, Lincoln. You won the big debate!

The 17th Amendment had yet to secure popular vote as the means for electing Senators; at the time voters cast their ballots for state legislature; state legislatures then cast their ballots for state Senators.   The Democrats won the race, and so the issue of popular sovereignty, but Lincoln the abolitionist won the hearts and minds of the people, who elected him president  two years later.  Remember, this is a history lesson disguised as a field trip.

Minus the original ten thousands onlookers to share in the historic moment, Jimmy and I had no problem seeing the two orators.  I had a bit more trouble though getting the gist of the debate.  Fortunately Ottawa had cheat sheets set up in strategic locations to help those of us (that would be me!) that are historically challenged.

Talk about cheat sheets! Can you tell I stitched two images together to get one complete image?

I bet you had little recollection (along with me) that the talk of the town the day after the debate was as much about Lincoln’s references to his famous “a house divided cannot stand” speech and Douglas’ position that the constitution “left each state perfectly free to do as it pleased” when it came to owning slaves as it was about the disparity between the “short, broad and red-faced” Douglas with “a deep, bass voice” and the “lanky six feet five  inches” Lincoln with the “high tenor voice.” Thank you Ottawa historians!    

Ottawa was very much into history, particularly as it pertained to Ottawa; a common theme I might add for most of us, history that touches moi.  Their “brush with history” was larger than life, proudly and colorfully displayed on buildings throughout the downtown area.  
 
A re-enactment of the Lincoln-Douglas debate at the southwest corner of Washington Park left little doubt this event was both historic and well attended.

That van was parked there for two hours. Had to go with this picture!

I had no idea Ottawa was famous for its sand, silica sand from local quarries that’s recognized in glass-making and abrasives for its uniform granularity and characteristics.  Who knew? 

Well, for starters, Tiffany knew; and so did Peltier Glass Company.  No time to incorporate these three images into one grand dame. Besides, the whole thing would be smaller than a postage stamp.  You know; that little rectangular piece of paper, sticky on one side, the price ever increasing, soon to be obsolete, that’s been used for procuring snail mail delivery since 1840.

No, Frenchman Victor Peltier did not lose his marbles; he manufactured glass marbles.

Peltier glass went into Tiffany Lamps & windows in the local St. Patrick's Church.

Peltier glass went into windshields; Tiffany glass domes at Chicago's Cultural Center boast Peltier glass.

The pictorial history went all the way back to the Native Americans who originally inhabited Illinois and the rest of North America;

Buffalo burgers, coming right up.

A Civil War hero took a very prominent spot along Ottawa’s main street;

Union soldier William Wallace is portrayed with other Ottawa soldiers as well as his wife and daughter.

The I&M Canal took its rightful place in the town’s history in another of the larger murals,

If this mural is any indication, the I&M Canal was a BIG piece of Ottawa history.

as did prominent citizens over the years, as depicted in the mural celebrating the 1950’s.   Mayor Phil Bailey is the gentleman doffing his black hat, and State’s Attorney Harland Warren can be seen waving to the crowd of onlookers, all familiar looking locals.  How cute! 

Hello, Ottawa! Nice parade.

It’s not Chicago, but somehow I think these residents are very happy (and proud) of their small town charm and character.  Jimmy and I found the folks to be friendly and obviously very colorful. 
 
I was reminded of our visit to Pontiac, Illinois, another small town that celebrates in a similar fashion with a handful of murals depicting their unique history.  Their claim to fame is the Route 66 Museum, and of course a history that also includes Abraham Lincoln.  
 
This is, after all, the Land of Lincoln, steeped in enough history to make a believer out of even me. History harbors a wealthy of unseen beauty beneath the rubble of dates and people and events that shaped their lives, and ultimately mine. 
 
I guess the joke’s on me.  So is the next field trip.  

No debate about it; before we know it, we'll all be history. Let's make it count!