October 31, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 5 Area Groups stage replay of Lincoln-McClellan debate by John Koster Abraham Lincoln, who lost two elections in New Jersey, took on George McClellan, who carried the state in 1864 and later served as New Jersey’s governor, at the Brick House in Wyckoff for a replay of the 1864 campaign debate. McClellan, portrayed by Ken Hall, was up against more than an election contest. Not only was Lincoln a higher profile in American political and sentimental history than McClellan, even in New Jersey, but Hall was up against Robert Costello, who has been portraying Lincoln for longer than Lincoln was president. Against staggering odds, Hall put up a great fight with an ample knowledge of McClellan’s life and a sensitive and sympathetic understanding of his motives and beliefs. The debate, which followed lunch, went on for about 90 minutes. Two-thirds of the debate consisted of questions from the audience. While nobody was voting for a winner or a loser, the audience acknowledged that Hall was an extremely capable impersonator. Costello’s Lincoln remained indestructible but nobody who heard the debate would ever again write off McClellan as a lightweight. Little Mac and Honest Abe both impressed the audience. Each candidate introduced himself and then fielded questions from the audience. Joseph Truglio of the North Jersey Civil War Round Table was one of the first to ask a question. “At the end of the war, will the two Virginias be reunited?” Truglio asked. “No,” Abraham Lincoln said bluntly. Lincoln said West Virginians decided to leave the Old Dominion state when most of Virginia seceded, and that (continued on page 13) Vickie Hall as Ellen McClellan, Ken Hall as General George McClellan, Jean Hildebrandt as the introductory speaker, and Robert Costello as President Abraham Lincoln.