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Stephen Douglas

Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen A Douglas - headshot.jpg
United States Senator
from Illinois
In office
March 4, 1847 – June 3, 1861
Preceded by James Semple
Succeeded by Orville H. Browning
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from 's Illinois' 5th congressional district district
In office
March 4, 1843 – March 3, 1847
Succeeded by William A. Richardson
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois
In office
February 15, 1841 – June 28, 1843
Preceded by None
Succeeded by Jesse B. Thomas, Jr.
7th Secretary of State of Illinois
In office
1840–1841
Governor Thomas Carlin
Preceded by Alexander Pope Field
Succeeded by Lyman Trumbull
Register of the United States General Land Office for Illinois
In office
1837–1840
Preceded by George Forquer
Succeeded by Marvellous Eastham
Member of the Illinois House of Representatives
In office
1836–1837
Personal details
Born Stephen Arnold Douglas
April 23, 1813
Brandon, Vermont, U.S.
Died June 3, 1861(1861-06-03) (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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