Cyclopædia of Political Science, Political Economy, and the Political History of the United States

DOUGLAS

DOUGLAS, Stephen Arnold, was born at Brandon, Vt., April 23, 1813, and died at Chicago, III., June 3, 1861. He was admitted to the bar in Jacksonville, III., in 1834, and in 1841 was chosen judge of the state supreme court, for which reason he was usually known afterward in Illinois as Judge Douglas. He was a representative in congress 1843-7, and United States senator from 1847 until his death, Abraham Lincoln being his opponent in 1859. From 1850 until 1860 he was the principal leader of the northern democratic party, from which the ultra southern wing gradually drew further away on the question of the extension of slavery to the territories, until, in 1860, the party split into two parts. (See KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL; POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY; ELECTORAL VOTES; DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICAN PARTY, V.) His small stature and great ability gave Douglas his popular name, The Little Giant.

—See Sheahan's Life of Douglas; Savage's Living Representative Men; Addresses in Congress on the Death of S. A. Douglas; 8 Atlantic Monthly; 103 North American Review; Warden's Voter's Version of the Life of Douglas; 1 Wheeler's History of Congress, 60.

ALEXANDER JOHNSTON.