Stephen douglas biography video

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Images Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape Donate Ellipses icon An illustration of text ellipses. Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape "Donate to the archive" User icon An illustration of a person's head and chest. Douglas played a key role in shaping mids American politics, especially when it came to slavery. In New York, Douglas clerked at a law firm, then moved to Cleveland, where he continued to study law before moving to Illinois inat age 20, where he worked as a schoolmaster before earning a law license in and setting up a law practice in Jacksonville, about 35 miles west of the state Capitol.

Did you know? After moving to Illinois in the s, Stephen A. Douglas briefly courted Mary Todd, who went on to marry his future rival, Abraham Lincoln. He was appointed Illinois secretary of state during the legislative session and elected to serve as a judge on the Illinois Supreme Court in Under the doctrine of popular sovereigntythe citizens of each territory would determine the status of slavery.

Douglas also reluctantly agreed to an amendment that would provide for the formal repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Douglas' proposal, which would come to be known as the Kansas—Nebraska Actprovoked a strong reaction in the North, where the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was unpopular. Douglas argued that the Compromise of had already superseded the Missouri Compromise, and argued that the citizens of the territories should have the right to determine the status of slavery.

Opponents of popular sovereignty attacked its supposed fairness; Abraham Lincoln claimed that Douglas "has no very vivid impression that the Negro is human; and consequently has no idea that there can be any moral question in legislating about him". Nonetheless, the Kansas—Nebraska Act won passage in both houses of Congress, albeit narrowly in the House of Representatives.

He later remembered, "I could travel from Boston to Chicago by the light of my own effigy. Democrats suffered major losses in the electionswhich saw the emergence of the nativist Know Nothing movement and the anti-slavery Republican Party. A series of violent clashes, known as Bleeding Kansasbroke out between anti-slavery and pro-slavery forces in the territory, and the two sides established competing governments.

Anti-slavery activists like Charles Sumner attacked Douglas for the report; one Northern paper wrote, "Douglas has brains, but so has the Devilso had Judas and Benedict Arnold. In early Douglas inserted himself and the debate surrounding the Kansas—Nebraska Act into the Chicago mayoral electionwhere Douglas strongly backed pro-Nebraska Democrat Thomas Dyer.

Dyer ultimately won the election. Bleeding Kansas badly damaged Pierce's standing among the Democratic Party leaders, and Pierce, Douglas, and Buchanan competed for the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention. Buchanan's greatest advantage over his rivals was that he had been in Britain for most of Pierce's presidency, and thereby had avoided becoming involved in the debate over the Kansas—Nebraska Act.

After Buchanan led the first fourteen ballots of the convention, Pierce dropped out of the race and endorsed Douglas. After he was unable to pull into the lead on the sixteenth ballot, Douglas withdrew from the race, and the convention nominated Buchanan. As inDouglas accepted defeat and campaigned for the Democratic nominee. Douglas and Buchanan had a long-standing enmity, but Douglas hoped that his efforts for Buchanan in the election would be rewarded with influence in the new administration.

However, as had been the case in the Pierce administration, Buchanan largely ignored Douglas in making appointments. Though the ruling was unpopular with many in the North, Douglas urged Americans to respect it, saying "whoever resists the final decision of the highest judicial tribunal aims a deadly blow at our whole republican system of government.

In latethe pro-slavery state legislature in Lecompton, Kansas organized a constitutional referendum on the future of slavery. Anti-slavery forces boycotted the referendum because both options presented required that slaves already in the state remain slaves regardless of the outcome of the vote. Territorial Governor Robert J. Walker denounced the referendum as a "vile fraud," and many Northern Democrats joined with Republicans in opposing the stephen douglas biography video. Nonetheless, the state legislature presented the Lecompton Constitution to President Buchanan, who endorsed the constitution and called on Congress to ratify it.

Buchanan stated, "Kansas is therefore at this moment as much a slave state as Georgia and South Carolina. Despite Douglas' efforts, the Buchanan administration won congressional approval to admit Kansas as a slave state. Frustrating Buchanan's plans, the newly elected, anti-slavery Kansas legislature rejected admission as a slave state in April In the South, Douglas received much of the blame for Kansas' rejection of admission; one paper wrote that Douglas had severed "the ties which have hitherto bound this able statesman and the people of the South together in such a cordial alliance".

After his defeat by Lyman Trumbull in the Senate election, Abraham Lincoln began planning to run against Douglas in the Senate election. Lincoln strongly rejected proposals to cooperate with Douglas against Buchanan, and he won the Republican nomination to oppose Douglas. Accepting the nomination, Lincoln delivered his House Divided Speechsaying "A house divided against itself cannot stand.

I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the House to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Lincoln and his entourage began following Douglas around the state, campaigning in the senator's wake.

Eventually, Douglas agreed to debate Lincoln in seven different venues across the state. Douglas favored popular sovereignty and emphasized the concept of self-government, though his vision of self-government only encompassed whites. Lincoln, meanwhile, emphasized human equality and economic opportunity for all. In the second debate, Douglas articulated the Freeport Doctrineholding that the people in federal territories had "the lawful means to introduce [slavery] or exclude it as they please, for the reason that slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere, unless it is supported by local police regulations.

Those police regulations can only be established by the local legislature; and if the people are opposed to slavery, they will elect representatives to that body who will by unfriendly legislation effectually prevent the introduction of it into their midst. He said, "this government was made by our fathers on the white basis For his part, Lincoln criticized Douglas for his moral indifference to slavery, but denied any intention of interference with slavery in the South.

He suggested that, despite the public break between Douglas and Buchanan over Kansas, the two Democrats had worked together to extend and perpetuate slavery. There is the difference between Judge Douglas and his friends and the Republican Party. Following the final debate, Illinois voters headed to the polls for Election Day. In an election that saw higher turnout than that of the presidential election, Democrats won 54 of the seats in the state legislature.

Despite the split with Buchanan and the strong challenge from Lincoln, the state legislature elected Senator Douglas to a third term in January Following the elections, Douglas toured the South. He warned against sectionalism and secession, telling one crowd, "if you deem it treason for abolitionists to appeal to the passions and prejudices of the North, how much less treason is it, my friends, for southern men to appeal to the passions with the same end?

According to the Springfield Republicanin Douglas "was, next to General Cassthe richest man in public life"; by the end ofafter extravagant political spending and disappointing investments, he was near bankrupt. Douglas' re-election solidified his standing as a leading contender for the Democratic nomination in the presidential election. His support was concentrated in the North, especially the Midwest, though some unionist Southerners, stephen douglas biography video Alexander H.

Stephenswere sympathetic to his cause. Douglas helped defeat an attempt to pass a federal slave code, but saw his own bill to establish agricultural land-grant colleges vetoed by Buchanan. Newspapers in the city attacked Douglas as the "Demagogue of Illinois," but Douglas was determined to uphold his doctrine of popular sovereignty, telling one supporter "I do not intend to make peace with my enemies, nor to make a concession of one iota of principle.

The remaining delegates were split into two broad factions: allies of Buchanan, led by a quartet of senators, and the Fire-Eatersan extremist group of Southern delegates led by William Lowndes Yancey. The convention subsequently held several rounds of presidential balloting, and while Douglas received by far the most support of any of the candidates, he fell well short of the necessary two-thirds majority of delegates.

After nearly sixty ballots failed to produce a nominee, delegates agreed to adjourn the convention and reconvene in Baltimore in June. In the weeks leading up to second Democratic convention, a group of former Whigs and Know Nothings formed the Constitutional Union Party and nominated John Bell for president. The party initially offered the vice presidential nomination to Benjamin Fitzpatrickbut after Fitzpatrick declined, Herschel Vespasian Johnson of Georgia agreed to serve as Douglas' running mate.

Breckinridge for president. Breckinridge himself did not openly support secession, but he received the support of Fire-Eaters like Jefferson Davis. Douglas rejected efforts to cooperate with Breckinridge, arguing that "any compromise with the secessionists would Douglas broke with the precedent that presidential candidates did not campaign, and he gave speeches across the Northeastern United States after he won the stephen douglas biography video. President," Douglas replied, "permit me to remind you that General Jackson is dead.

The split in Pennsylvania between supporters of Douglas and supporters of Buchanan helped deliver that state to Lincoln, and Republicans also won Ohio and Indiana. Each of those states held elections for state offices in October, one month ahead of the nationwide presidential election, and these results were taken as predictive of the mood of the electorate in the lower North.

Douglas recognized that victory in the election was impossible without those states. Lincoln is the president", he stated, "We must try to save the Union. I will go South. Louis, he told the audience, "I am not here tonight to ask for your votes for the presidency. I am here to make an appeal to you for the Union and the peace of the country.

Ultimately, Missouri was the only state Douglas carried, though he also won three of the seven electoral votes in New Jersey. Though Douglas finished in last place in the electoral vote, he won the second-highest popular vote total and was the lone candidate to win electoral votes from both a free state and a slave state. Following Lincoln's victory, many in the South began making plans for secession.

One Douglas associate in the South wrote to him, "with your defeat, the cause of the Union was lost. After the election, Douglas returned to the Senate, where he sought to prevent a break-up of the United States. He joined a special committee of thirteen senators, led by John J. Crittendenwhich sought a legislative solution to the growing sectional tensions between the North and South.

He supported the Crittenden Compromisewhich called for a series of constitutional amendments that would enshrine the Missouri Compromise line in the constitution, but the Crittenden Compromise was defeated in committee by a combination of Republicans and Southern extremists.

Stephen douglas biography video: Stephen Douglas: Douglas was

As late as ChristmasDouglas wrote to Alexander H. Stephens and offered to support the annexation of Mexico as slave territory to avert secession. Douglas unsuccessfully sought President-elect Lincoln's support for the Peace Conference ofanother attempt to head off secession. Lincoln was unwilling to support the conference, although Douglas described his meeting with Lincoln as "peculiarly pleasant".

After the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in AprilLincoln decided to proclaim a state of rebellion and call for 75, troops to suppress it. Douglas met privately with Lincoln, looked over the proclamation before it was issued and endorsed it. He suggested only one change: Lincoln should call fortroops, not just 75, in fact, Lincoln at the time was limited to calling out 75, by law.

Lincoln a longer time than you have, or than the country has. He'll come out all right, and we will all stand by him. Douglas was struck by illness in May and was confined to his bed. Though his supporters initially expected a quick recovery, Douglas contracted typhoid fever and suffered from several other afflictions see above. He died on June 3, coincidentally on the same day as the Battle of Philippithe first skirmish of the American Civil War.

He was 48 years old. The next day, on June 4, Secretary of War Simon Cameron issued a circular to Union armies, announcing "the death of a great statesman For a century and a half, historians have debated whether Douglas opposed slavery, [ 98 ] and whether he was a compromiser or a devotee of principles. He denounced as sacrilegious petitions signed by thousands of clergymen inwho said the Kansas—Nebraska Act offended God's will.

He disagreed with the Supreme Court 's Dred Scott decision that Congress had no ability to regulate slavery in the territories. When Buchanan supported the Lecompton Constitution and admitting Kansas as a slave state see Bleeding KansasDouglas fought him in a long battle that gained Douglas the Democratic nomination but ripped his party apart.

Graham Peck finds that while several scholars have said that Douglas was personally opposed to slavery despite owning a plantation in Mississippi, none has presented "extensive arguments to justify their conclusion".

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He concludes that Douglas was the "ideological [and] practical head of the northern opposition to the antislavery movement" and questions whether Douglas "opposed black slavery for any reason, including economics". Jaffa thought Douglas was tricking the South with popular sovereignty—telling Southerners it would protect slavery but believing the people would vote against it.

According to biographer Roy Morris Jr. Morris adds, however, that "for the better part of two decades, Douglas was the most famous and controversial politician in the United States. Douglas was preeminently a Jacksonian, and his adherence to the tenets of what became known as Jacksonian democracy grew as his own career developed. Popular rule, or what he would later call popular sovereignty, lay at the base of his political structure.

Like most Jacksonians, Douglas believed that the people spoke through the majority, that the majority will was the expression of the popular will. Douglas endowed land on which a group of Baptists built the Old University of Chicago.

Stephen douglas biography video: Historian Matthew Pinkser explains the

Douglas' gravesite was bought by the state, which commissioned Leonard Volk for an imposing monument with a statue that was erected over his grave. Douglas' birthplace in Brandon, Vermonthas been memorialized as a museum and visitor center. Ina large park in Chicago was named Douglas Park in honor of the senator. Douglas has been portrayed in several works of popular culture.

InE. Richard Dreyfuss portrayed Stephen A. Douglas in a Lincoln—Douglas debate audiobook. In the alternate history short story "Lincoln's Charge" by Bill Fawcett published in Alternate PresidentsDouglas wins the election ofa change which only postpones the outbreak of war by one year. Douglas is a significant character in the mash-up novel Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunterand also appears in the film adaptation of that book.

InGeorge W. Hewitt wrote a piano piece entitled " Douglas' Funeral March " with a picture of Stephen Douglas on the cover. A funereal poem, "Bury Me in the Morning", is attributed to Douglas by some sources [ 1 ] but not by others.