
Image by Leonhard_Niederwimmer on Pixabay · Pixabay License
Stephen A. Douglas
Sign in to saveAlso known as Little Giant, Stephen Douglas
American politician and lawyer (1813–1861)
Person · Open Library
- Born
- 1857
- Works
- 6
Top works
- Looters of the Public Domain
- Looters of the Public Domain
- Looters of the Public Domain
- Looters of the Public Domain; Embracing a Complete Exposure of the Fraudulent System of Acquiring Titles to the Public Lands of the United States
- Looters of the public domain, embracing a complete exposure of the fraudulent system of acquiring titles to the public lands of the United States ..
via Open Library + Wikidata
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- Basic local alignment search tool
· 1990 · cited 80,825x
- Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using
<b>lme4</b>
· 2015 · cited 75,873x
- Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement
· 2009 · cited 58,724x
- Hallmarks of Cancer: The Next Generation
· 2011 · cited 56,523x
- Measuring inconsistency in meta-analyses
· 2003 · cited 52,658x
via Crossref · CC0
Quotes
- “Abolitionism proposes to destroy the right and extinguish the principle of self-government for which our forefathers waged a seven years' bloody war, and upon which our system of free government is founded.”
- “If there is any one principle dearer and more sacred than all others in free governments, it is that which asserts the exclusive right of a free people to form and adopt their own fundamental law, and to manage and regulate their own internal affairs and domestic institutions.”
- “The framers of the Constitution well understood that each locality, having separate and distinct interests, required separate and distinct laws, domestic institutions, and police regulations adapted to its own wants and its own condition; and they acted on the presumption, also, that these laws and institutions would be as diversified and as dissimilar as the States would be numerous, and that no two would be precisely alike, because the interests of no two would be precisely the same.”
- “There are only two sides to this question. Every man must be for the United States or against it. There can be no neutrals in this war; only patriots and traitors.”
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
Key facts
- Preceded by
- James Semple
- Succeeded by
- Orville H. Browning
- Governor
- Thomas Carlin
- 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
- Party
- Democratic
- Spouses
- Martha Martin ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1847 ; died 1853 ) Adele Cutts ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1856 )
via Wikipedia infobox
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Stephen Arnold Douglas (né Douglass; April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861) was an American politician and lawyer from Illinois. A Democrat, he served in the United States Senate for fourteen years and defeated Abraham Lincoln to win reelection in 1858, a campaign known for the pivotal Lincoln–Douglas debates. He was the representative of the Northern Democrats in the 1860 United States presidential election; with the Democrats split between northern and southern factions in the leadup to the American Civil War, he was defeated by Lincoln, the Republican nominee. During his senate career, Douglas was one of the brokers of the Compromise of 1850, which sought to avert a sectional crisis over the issue of slavery. To deal with the volatile issue of whether to extend slavery into US territories, Douglas became the foremost advocate of popular sovereignty, which held that the voters of each territory should be allowed to decide. At just 5 feet 4 inches (1.63 m) tall, Douglas was nicknamed the "Little Giant" because he was short in physical stature but a forceful and dominant figure in politics.
Born in Brandon, Vermont, Douglas migrated to Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1833 to establish a legal practice. He experienced early success in politics as a member of the newly formed Democratic Party, serving in the Illinois House of Representatives and various other positions. He was appointed to the Supreme Court of Illinois in 1841. In 1843, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Douglas became an ally of President James K. Polk and favored Texas annexation and US involvement in the Mexican–American War. He was one of four Northern Democrats in the House to vote against the Wilmot Proviso, which would have banned slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Stephen A. Douglas” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.