The Statesmanship of Stephen Douglas

ABSTRACT Stephen Douglas was a statesman in the mid-1800’s that used his diplomatic skills, leadership, and influence for the greater good of his country. Douglas was a prominent politician that served as state attorney, state legislator, and Supreme Court judge for the state of Illinois, then advanced to U.S. Congressman. He played a significant role in shaping the nation’s politics during the most tumultuous period leading up to the Civil War. Douglas is most known as Abraham Lincoln’s political opponent in the 1858 Illinois Senate race and the 1860 Presidential election. His divergent viewpoint from Lincoln on how to eliminate slavery in the country led him to being a contentious figure in American history, often relegating him to the role of a mere politician, rather than a statesman. Douglas was a champion of Western expansion for the country. In his opinion, expansion was key to the country’s higher national goals. He believed if popular sovereignty were implemented in the new western territories, it would ultimately result in freedom’s displacement of slavery. While Douglas saw slavery agitation as a dangerous distraction from the achievement of a greater and stronger America, a Constitutional path to its extinction needed to be respected. The success of popular sovereignty and its ability to rid the country of slavery by westward expansion was reliant on the free choice of the people. Therein, lay the constitutional path to end slavery without igniting a civil war. Douglas’s purported amorality toward slavery, as well as his juxtaposition to Lincoln, who came to be revered as a martyr for the anti-slavery cause, contributed to the obscurity of Douglas’s statesman-like qualities. Incorporating evidence from both primary and secondary sources, this study illustrates that the life of Stephen Douglas exemplified a bedrock of principles, a moral compass, a vision, and the ability to form a consensus, that made him a statesman in his own right.