Stephen Arnold Douglas
| Stephen A. Douglas | |
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United States Senator from Illinois |
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In office March 4, 1847 – June 3, 1861 |
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| Preceded by | James Semple |
| Succeeded by | Orville H. Browning |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 5th district |
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In office March 4, 1843 – March 3, 1847 |
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| Succeeded by | William A. Richardson |
| Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois | |
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In office February 15, 1841 – June 28, 1843 |
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| Preceded by | None |
| Succeeded by | Jesse B. Thomas, Jr. |
| 7th Secretary of State of Illinois | |
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In office 1840–1841 |
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| Governor | Thomas Carlin |
| Preceded by | Alexander Pope Field |
| Succeeded by | Lyman Trumbull |
| Register of the United States General Land Office for Illinois | |
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In office 1837–1840 |
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| Preceded by | George Forquer |
| Succeeded by | Marvellous Eastham |
| Member of the Illinois House of Representatives | |
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In office 1836–1837 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
Stephen Arnold Douglas April 23, 1813 Brandon, Vermont, U.S. |
| Died | June 3, 1861 (aged 48) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) |
Martha Martin (m. 1847–53); her death Adele Cutts (m. 1856–61); his death |
| Children | Robert Martin (1849–1917) |
| Education | Canandaigua Academy |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| Signature |  |
Stephen Arnold Douglas (April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861) was an American politician from Illinois and the designer of the Kansas–Nebraska Act. He was a U.S. representative, a U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party nominee for president in the 1860 election, losing to Republican Abraham Lincoln. Douglas had previously defeated Lincoln in a Senate contest, noted for the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. He was nicknamed the "Little Giant" because he was short in physical stature, but a forceful and dominant figure in politics. (His height is given in various sources as being in the range of 5 feet (1.5 m) to 5 feet 4 inches (1.63 m); five feet four is reported most often.)
Douglas was well known as a resourceful party leader, and an adroit, ready, skillful tactician in debate and passage of legislation. He was a champion of the Young America movement which sought to modernize politics and replace the agrarian and strict constructionist orthodoxies of the past. Douglas was a leading proponent of democracy, and believed in the principle of popular sovereignty: that the majority of citizens should decide contentious issues such as slavery and territorial expansion. As chairman of the Committee on Territories, Douglas dominated the Senate in the 1850s. He was largely responsible for the Compromise of 1850 that apparently settled slavery issues; however, in 1854 he reopened the slavery question with the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which opened some previously prohibited territories to slavery under popular sovereignty. Opposition to this led to the formation of the Republican Party.
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