Stephen Douglas was one of the most powerful politicians in the United States in the years leading up to the American Civil War. He served as a senator from Illinois for over a decade and was one of the most famous public speakers of his time. He is best remembered for the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which helped push the country toward civil war, and for his famous series of debates with Abraham Lincoln in 1858.
Stephen Douglas’s Early Life
Stephen Arnold Douglas was born on April 23rd, 1813 CE in Brandon, Vermont. His father was a doctor who died when Stephen was just a baby. His mother moved the family to a farm owned by her brother, and later to western New York, where Stephen grew up. As a teenager he worked as a cabinetmaker’s apprentice but was deeply interested in politics. He was a strong supporter of President Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party from a young age. When he was twenty years old, he moved west to Illinois to start a new life. He studied law on his own, passed the bar exam, which is the test required to become a lawyer, and quickly built a career in Illinois politics. He was a naturally gifted speaker and debater and rose through the ranks of the Illinois Democratic Party with great speed.
By 1836 CE he had been elected to the Illinois state legislature. By 1841 CE he was serving as a judge on the Illinois Supreme Court. In 1843 CE he was elected to the United States House of Representatives. He was one of the youngest members of Congress at the time. By 1847 CE he had moved to the United States Senate, where he would serve until his death. He was short in height, standing only about five feet four inches tall, but his powerful voice and forceful personality made him one of the biggest figures in the country. People called him the Little Giant. As such, Douglas went from a poor farm boy in Vermont to one of the most powerful men in the United States in less than twenty years.
Stephen Douglas and the Compromise of 1850
By the late 1840s and early 1850s CE, the question of slavery in new American territories was tearing the country apart. As the United States gained vast new lands after the Mexican-American War, the question of whether slavery would be allowed in those new territories became the most explosive political issue in the country. Many in the North wanted to keep slavery out of the new territories. Many in the South insisted on their right to bring enslaved people wherever they went.
In 1850 CE, the famous Kentucky senator Henry Clay proposed a large package of laws to settle these disagreements, known as the Compromise of 1850. The package was struggling to pass Congress because so many different groups objected to different parts of it. Douglas came up with a clever solution. He broke the big package apart into separate smaller bills and built a different group of supporters for each one. By doing this he got all the parts passed one by one when they could not pass together. The Compromise of 1850 held the country together for a few more years. It was one of Douglas’s greatest political achievements. As such, his skill at finding practical solutions to difficult problems made him one of the most respected figures in Congress.
Stephen Douglas and the Kansas-Nebraska Act
The most important and controversial law that Douglas ever supported was the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 CE. At the time, the United States was organizing two large new territories west of the Mississippi River called Kansas and Nebraska. The question of whether slavery would be allowed in these territories had to be answered. Under the Missouri Compromise of 1820 CE, slavery had been banned in both of these areas because they lay north of a line drawn across the country. Douglas wanted to change this.
Douglas believed strongly in an idea called popular sovereignty. Popular sovereignty means that the people living in a territory should get to vote on whether they want slavery or not, rather than having the federal government make that decision for them. He argued this was the fairest and most democratic approach. He pushed the Kansas-Nebraska Act through Congress. The act overturned the Missouri Compromise and gave the settlers of Kansas and Nebraska the right to vote on slavery themselves.
The results were disastrous. Both pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers rushed into Kansas and began fighting over control of the territory. Elections were held dishonestly and violence broke out. The situation became so bad that people called it Bleeding Kansas. The Kansas-Nebraska Act also helped create the new Republican Party, which was formed by people across the North who were furious at the idea of slavery spreading further. In this way, Douglas’s attempt to calm the debate over slavery actually made it much worse. As such, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was the single most important event in setting the country on the road to civil war.
Stephen Douglas and the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
In 1858 CE, Douglas ran for re-election to his Senate seat in Illinois. The Republican Party chose a relatively unknown local lawyer named Abraham Lincoln to run against him. Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of public debates, and Douglas agreed. The two men debated seven times across Illinois between August and October of 1858 CE, drawing enormous crowds and newspaper coverage from across the country.
The debates were mostly about slavery and whether it should be allowed to spread into new territories. Douglas argued for popular sovereignty, saying that each territory should decide for itself. Lincoln argued that slavery was morally wrong and should not be allowed to spread any further. The debates were very closely followed and helped make Lincoln famous across the North for the first time. Douglas won the Senate election, but Lincoln had made such a strong impression that he was chosen as the Republican candidate for president two years later. As such, the Lincoln-Douglas debates were one of the most important events in American political history because they helped launch Abraham Lincoln onto the national stage.
Stephen Douglas and the 1860 Election
By 1860 CE, the Democratic Party was splitting apart over the issue of slavery. The Northern wing of the party chose Douglas as their presidential candidate. The Southern wing, who felt Douglas had betrayed them over the Kansas issue, broke away and chose a separate candidate. This split in the Democratic Party meant that neither candidate could win enough votes to defeat Lincoln. Lincoln won the election with only Northern votes. Douglas came second in the popular vote but won very few electoral votes.
After Lincoln’s election, Southern states began leaving the United States. Douglas was heartbroken. Despite their long rivalry, he met with Lincoln personally and promised his full support for keeping the Union together. He traveled through the South and the border states making speeches urging people not to support secession. He worked himself nearly to death doing this. In the spring of 1861 CE, just weeks after the Civil War began, Douglas fell seriously ill. He died on June 3rd, 1861 CE in Chicago at the age of forty-eight. He was one of the most important figures of the entire era and had spent his final months trying to prevent the war that his own legislation had helped bring about.
Stephen Douglas’s Legacy
Stephen Douglas is remembered as one of the most talented and complicated politicians in American history. He was a brilliant speaker and a skilled lawmaker who genuinely believed that popular sovereignty was the fairest way to handle the slavery question. With that said, the Kansas-Nebraska Act helped destroy the peace between North and South and pushed the country toward civil war. For instance, the United States Senate has described Douglas as a man whose legislation both helped hold the Union together and helped pull it apart. Regardless, his debates with Lincoln and his key role in the events leading to the Civil War make him one of the most important figures of the entire period.
