American Legends: The Life of Stephen Douglas

*Explains the central issues of the 1850s, including the Missouri Compromise, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, popular sovereignty and the Dred Scott Decision,

*Includes pictures of Douglas and other important people, places, and events in his life. . 

*Includes a Bibliography for further reading.

*Includes a Table of Contents.


“Now, I hold that Illinois had a right to abolish and prohibit slavery as she did, and I hold that Kentucky has the same right to continue and protect slavery that Illinois had to abolish it. I hold that New York had as much right to abolish slavery as Virginia has to continue it, and that each and every State of this Union is a sovereign power, with the right to do as it pleases upon this question of slavery, and upon all its domestic institutions. ... And why can we not adhere to the great principle of self-government, upon which our institutions were originally based.” – Stephen Douglas


The most famous debates in American history were held over 150 years ago, and today they are remembered and celebrated mostly because they included future President Abraham Lincoln, one of the nation’s most revered men. But in the Fall of 1858, Lincoln was just a one-term Congressman who had to all but beg his U.S. Senate opponent to debate him. That’s because his opponent, incumbent U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas, was one of the most famous national politicians of the era. 


Though Douglas is remembered today almost entirely for his association with Lincoln, in 1858 he was “The Little Giant” of American politics and a leader of the Democratic Party. In particular, it was Douglas who had championed the idea of “popular sovereignty”, advocating that the settlers of federal territory should vote on whether their state would become a free state or a slave state. When Congress created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska in 1854, it followed this model, and Douglas believed it was a moderate position that would hold the Union together. But many in the North considered popular sovereignty a deliberate attempt to circumvent the Missouri Compromise, which was supposed to have banned slavery in any state above the parallel 36°30′ north. As a result, the Lincoln-Douglas debates would be almost entirely about issues pertaining to slavery. 


Douglas would go on to win reelection in 1858, but Lincoln would win the war, literally and figuratively. In the presidential election of 1860, Lincoln would win the Republican nomination and the presidency in large part because Douglas had fractured the national Democratic Party with some of his stated policies during the 1858 debates. When the Democrats ran a Northern Democrat (Douglas) and a Southern Democrat (Breckenridge) in 1860, they split the vote and handed the election to Lincoln.


American Legends: The Life of Stephen Douglas profiles the life and politics of the Little Giant, his seminal debates with Lincoln, and his lasting legacy. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Stephen Douglas like you never have before, in no time at all.