"Stephen Douglas" redirects here. For other people, see Stephen Douglas (disambiguation).
Stephen A. Douglas
Portrait by Julian Vannerson, 1859
In office March 4, 1847 – June 3, 1861
Preceded by
James Semple
Succeeded by
Orville H. Browning
In office March 4, 1843 – March 3, 1847
Preceded by
Constituency established
Succeeded by
William Richardson
In office February 15, 1841 – June 28, 1843
Preceded by
Seat established
Succeeded by
James Shields
In office November 30, 1840 – February 15, 1841
Governor
Thomas Carlin
Preceded by
Alexander P. Field
Succeeded by
Lyman Trumbull
Born
Stephen Arnold Douglass
(1813-04-23)April 23, 1813 Brandon, Vermont, U.S.
Died
June 3, 1861(1861-06-03) (aged 48) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Resting place
Stephen A. Douglas Tomb, Chicago
Political party
Democratic
Spouses
Martha Martin
(m. 1847; died 1853) •
More than most other antebellum politicians, Stephen Douglas is closely linked with “Bleeding Kansas” and the Missouri-Kansas “Border War.” A complex man, strongly partisan but committed to the Constitution as the ultimate law of the land, Douglas sponsored both the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Unintentionally, while trying to prevent secession by pacifying the Southerners, Douglas’s compromises stoked more violence and helped push the United States over the brink and into Civil War.
The facts surrounding Douglas’s early years are foggy, due in part to the various versions of his childhood he issued himself. He was born in Brandon, Vermont, on April 23, 1813. His father was Stephen Arnold Douglass (The younger Stephen dropped the second “s” in his name in 1846). His mother was Sara “Sally” Fisk Douglass. Stephen’s father was a physician but died in 1815 when Stephen was three months old. Sara Douglas moved to her brother Edward’s farm, where Stephen lived for the next 17 years. Douglas described his uncle alternately as a hard man who refused to allow h
•
Stephen Douglas
Although a complex statesman, Stephen Douglas stood as one of the leading political figures in the coming of the American Civil War.
Stephen Douglas was born in the midst of the War of 1812, on April 23, 1813, in Brandon, Vermont and grew up on his uncle’s farm in the state. Douglas studied law in New York before leaving the northeast in 1833—settling in Jacksonville, Illinois. While in Illinois, Douglas became involved with state and local politics before he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1842. Douglas served as a Congressman for two terms until he joined the Senate in 1847—a position he held until his death in 1861. While serving in Congress, Douglas earned the nickname “the Little Giant” because at 5’4” Douglas was short in stature, heavyset, with a quick temper, yet he was a gifted orator. Douglas admired President Andrew Jackson, who greatly influenced the Little Giant’s politics. Douglas was a member of the Young Americans, a group of politically ambitious young Democrats who wanted to revitalize the party with the Jacksonian spirit of aggre