Stephen A. Douglas was an astute politician from Illinois, who was largely responsible for the passage of the Compromise of 1850 by the U.S. Congress. Douglas served in the House of Representatives, as a U.S. Senator, and as the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States in 1860. He lost to Republican Abraham Lincoln, whom he had defeated in a legislative election some years earlier. Douglas was a champion of popular sovereignty, believing that the people should decide issues related to territorial expansion, and he served as chairman of the Committee on Territories. Douglas is perhaps best remembered for opposing Lincoln during the 1858 legislative campaign in Illinois and engaging in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates and for renewing the debate on the slavery question with the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. He was nicknamed the “Little Giant” and died of typhoid fever in Chicago in 1861 at the age of 48.
•August 31, 2018 • Be the First to Comment
In just one year following Abraham Lincoln’s victory over Stephen Douglas in the election of 1860, America would be on the brink of a bloody Civil War. More »
•August 31, 2018 • Be the First to Comment
The demise of the Whig Party resulted in the development of a brand new political platform led by Stephen Douglas’s bitter adversary: Senator Abraham Lincoln. More »
•March 7, 2018 • Be the First to Comment
Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln had been personal and political opponents for 20 years when they clashed for the Illinois Senate seat in 1858. More »
•August 14, 2017 • Be the First to Comment
From a wealthy Ohio family, William Haines Lytle was destined for fame in politics and on the battlefield. He found the latter at a tragic cost. More »
•February 13, 2017 • Be the First to Comment
All the horrors of prison life were experienced by hundreds of thousands of captives, Union and Confederate, during the Civil War. More »
