to accept most of Lincoln's challenge and debate him seven times. Douglas wrote Lincoln from Bement on the morning of July 30, suggesting that the two men debate in Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and Alton, Illinois. Lincoln accepted these terms in a letter dated July 31. Abraham Lincoln At the time of the Lincoln-Douglas challenge of July 1858, Stephen A. Douglas was an experienced, incumbent U.S. Senator; Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer in private practice with little successful office-holding experience. Illinois Republicans had nominated him to face Douglas because of his skill at making speeches and his ability to frame the issue of slavery in a manner that conveyed visceral opposition to the institution without antagonizing racist American voters. Douglas had every reason to avoid Lincoln's challenge to debate. As the incumbent, he had an advantage in terms of name recognition. The senator chose to voluntarily debate his challenger because he agreed with Lincoln that slavery was a growing crisis and because he had faith that his own doctrine of popular sovereignty would create a solution to the dilemma. At first, Douglas appeared to be the winner in this challenge. His legislative candidates defeated the Republicans in November 1858, thereby assuring Douglas's re-election as U.S. senator. However, Lincoln and Douglas re-visited the issue of slavery in the U.S. presidential election of 1860. And in this final contest between the two men, Lincoln was the victor. Local folklore After the deaths of both Douglas and Lincoln, the Bryant family came to believe that the two men had met in person in the parlor of the Bryant Cottage to negotiate the details of their debates. It is clear that Douglas made the key decision, that of accepting Lincoln's challenge, in the Bryant Cottage, but the surviving letters between the two men appear to indicate that they negotiated on paper after their face-to-face roadside meeting of July 29, 1858. In a Spring 1998 Lincoln Herald article, Jim Fay investigated the claim. Fay argues that there is some evidence to suggest the meeting in the Bryant parlor took place, but that the mystery surrounding it speaks to the wit and secrecy of the candidates. Current status In response to state budget cuts, the state of Illinois temporarily closed the Bryant Cottage State Historic Site from October 2008 until April 2009. The site reopened to the public on April 23, 2009. In September