Stephen A. Douglas : his life, public services, speeches and patriotism

Front matter

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

Contents

HAPTER Page

I. First Appearance in Illinois 1

II. Early Life 3

Appendix

Senator Douglas's Speech in the House of Representatives in vindication of Andrew Jackson. Delivered January 7, 1844 . . 145

Speech in the House of Representatives on the Annexation of Texas and the Mexican War. Delivered May, 1846, in reply to John Quincy Adams 156

Extracts from Speeches on the Oregon Boundary ... 168

Policy with Foreign Nations. Clayton-Bulwer Treaty.

Speech in the Senate, February 14, 1853 169

Territorial Expansion, Foreign Aggression. Speech

in the Senate, March 10, 1853 179

Page

The Kansas-Nebkaska Bill. Speech in the Senate,

The Lecompton Constitution. Speech in the Senate,

Internal Improvements. Letter to Governor Matteson . 235

Pacific Railway. Speech in the Senate, April 17, 1858 . 243

Final Plea for the Union. Last Speech in the Senate,

Article by Clark E. Carr, showing that Douglas was not

" driven into a corner " at Freeport 276

INDEX 287

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page Marble Statue of Douglas in the Illinois State His-

TomcAL Society Libraey at Springfield . . Frontispiece

Birthplace at Brandon, Vermont 2

Portrait of Andrew Jackson, President 1829-1837 . 6

Portrait of William Henry Harrison 10

Portrait of Martin Van Buren 14

Portrait of John Quincy Adams 18

Portrait of Baron Von Humboldt 80

Portrait of John Hay 32

Portrait of Abraham Lincoln 44

Portrait of John D. Rockefeller 50

Douglas Monument 52

Portrait of James Buchanan 60

Portrait of Horace Greeley 74

Knox College Tablet showing Spot where Lincoln and

Douglas met in the Great Debate at Galesbueg . 80

Portrait of Franklin Pierce 96

Portrait of John C. Breckenridge 102

Portrait; of John J. Crittenden 108

Portrait of Benjamin F. Wade 112

Portrait of Reuben H. Walworth 120

Portrait of Jefferson Davis 128

Portrait of Stephen A. Douglas 134

Portrait of S. M. Cullom 136 xii ILLUSTRATIONS

Page

PORTEAIT OF EdWARD A. PoLLARD 140

The Teemont House, Chicago 143

Portrait of John Slidell 148

Portrait of General W. J. Worth 156

Portrait of Zachary Taylor 160

Portrait of Sam Houston 162

Portrait of General Santa Ana 166

Portrait of Henry Clay 184

Portrait of President James K. Polk 204

Chapter I First Appearance In Illinois

SLENDER of figure, only five feet four in height, and only twenty years old, without a friend and with scarcely an acquaintance within a thousand miles, with but a few cents in his pocket, Stephen A. Douglas, in the Spring of 1833, walked into the town of Winchester in Scott County, Illinois, with his coat on his arm, in the hope of being able to find employment.

As he proceeded along the main street of the town he saw quite a number of people assembled, and learned that there was to be an auction of the goods and chattels and live-stock of some citizen of the county. The young man paused to ask a question, when he was asked whether he could write and keep accounts; to which he replied in the affirmative. It was then proposed to him that he act as clerk of the auction, and he engaged to do so at the wages of two dollars a day. The auction continued for three days, and he was paid six dollars for his services.

This was the first money he ever earned.

The young man soon found an opportunity for more permanent employment by opening a private school. He got together forty scholars for a term of three months, at three dollars a scholar, which gave him enough for his immediate wants. He had studied the law in an Eastern State and, while thus teaching, he continued that study.

Within ten years after that friendless boy walked into that town, he had been admitted to the bar, immediately becoming a successful lawyer; had been a member of the Illinois Legislature; had been Prosecuting Attorney ; had been Eegister of the Land Office at Springfield ; had been Secretary of State of Illinois ; had been a Judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois, presiding upon the bench ; and was on his way to Washington to take his seat in the Lower House of Congress, to which position he had been elected. When the Congressional term expired he was reelected, and then reelected again, each time by increased majorities. When about to enter upon his third term in the Lower House of Congress he was elected to the United States Senate for six years. When that term in the Senate expired he was reelected for another term practically without opposition. Six years later he was confronted by Abraham Lincoln in the great debates ; he was victorious, and was reelected to a third term ; upon this he served but little more than two years, when he died, at forty-eight years of age.

Chapter II Early Life

DOUGLAS was born at Brandon, Vermont, on the twenty- third of April, 1813. During his infancy, his father. Dr. Douglas, died. The child grew up on a farm, working in the field in the Summer and attending district school during the Winter. At fifteen he expected to be sent to college ; but his widowed mother could not afEord such an outlay, and he was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker and became proficient at the trade. It was said facetiously, after he became dominant in public affairs at Washington, that he was still a cabinet-maker, proficient in making Cabinets and Bureaus.

When he was seventeen, his mother married again and moved to Canandaigua, New York, taking the boy with her. He then had the advantages of the fine academy located there, of which he availed himself, and became an excellent scholar. He remained at Canandaigua for three years, and, in addition to his academic studies, he found time to study law in the ofl5.ce of one of the leading lawyers of the place. From Canandaigua, in 1833, at twenty years of age, he made his way alone to Illinois and appeared at Winchester, as has been stated.

Chapter III His Political Prominence

SENATOR DOUGLAS was several times presented by Illinois for nomination to the Presidency in Democratic national conventions, and finally in 1860 received a majority of the votes of the convention and became a candidate before the people; but the Southern wing of the party which opposed him withdrew, claiming that, under the two-thirds rule of the Democratic party, he was not regularly nominated. In that election Senator Douglas received an enormous popular vote for President, but Abraham Lincoln was elected.

Stephen A. Douglas was for several years the foremost American statesman. For nearly a quarter of a century he was prominently connected with, and potential in, all the great measures that came before the country.

Chapter IV A Jackson Democrat

WHEN Douglas first arrived in Illinois, Andrew Jackson was President and was just entering upon his second term of office, having been reelected the year before.

During all the youth of Stephen A. Douglas, Andrew Jackson was his heau ideal of an American patriot and statesman. The battle of New Orleans was fought and won by the intrepid hero when Douglas was two years old.

General Jackson was a man of most remarkable resources. The victory was won through his extraordinary strategy. To accomplish the result he deemed it necessary to declare martial law, under the rigor of which men were executed. He was on account of this confronted with many embarrassments by the actions of his own people, by American citizens who did not realize that a dictatorship alone could save the city of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana to the Union. The General found it necessary to arrest the United States Federal Judge, and imprison and finally banish him. When, after the victory, martial law was discontinued and civil government resumed, the Judge returned and fined General Jackson a thousand dollars for contempt of court. Friends tried to pay the fine, but the

General refused to permit it and paid it himself. These complications created bitter feelings of animosity, which resulted in a Jackson and an anti-Jackson party. The controversies were taken up by the country, and General Jackson became at once the most honored and the most detested of men. The Jackson men could not say enough in praise of their hero, and the anti-Jackson men could not say enough against him. He was called a murderer and an ignorant boor by one party, while the other regarded him as the sublimest of heroes and the noblest of patriots.

This controversy raged during the entire minority of Stephen A. Douglas. A youth of such strong character and such intensity of feeling could not keep out of the controversy. He must champion one side or the other. He was a Jackson boy and a Jackson man so long as his hero lived.

When the boy was eleven years old General Jackson first became a candidate before the people for President of the United States. He was not elected, but his popularity proved to be great. Four years later, when the lad was fifteen years old, General Jackson was again a candidate and was elected. Young Douglas was nineteen years old when General Jackson was reelected to a second term. Having from his earliest childhood been interested in and following so closely the career of his hero, who had constantly been the central figure in public life, no other man was so familiar with his history and no other championed him with greater zeal than did young Douglas.

During the term of the school he taught, young

Andrew Jackson, President 1829-1837

From a portrait loaned by the Smithsonian Institution

A JACKSON DEMOCRAT 7

Douglas had made himself familiar with the Illinois statutes and reports, and was admitted to the practice of the law ; and when the school closed, he opened an office in Jacksonville. From the first he found clients.

President Jackson had but a short time before removed the Government deposits from the National Bank, and vetoed its charter. A meeting was called in the Courthouse to indorse the President, and Douglas, young as he was, was called upon to present the resolutions, which were violently opposed. To the astonishment of everybody this stripling who had but just attained his majority, this petite stranger, this little man, made the finest address in vindication of the hero President, that had ever been heard in Jacksonville. His appearance to champion such a cause was at first regarded as ludicrous, and he was an object of derision ; but, as he proceeded, men listened and became absorbed in his statements, his arguments, his illustrations, his citing of precedents, his conclusions, to such a degree as to realize that they had before them in that young man an orator and a statesman. This, it must be remembered, was in the most cultivated, scholarly, and the only college town in Illinois. The long years of study and training under the spell of this hero worship which had been the inspiration of his life had borne fruit.

President Jackson was in himself the embodiment of Democracy, and Stephen A. Douglas had thus already proven himself to be the best informed and the ablest champion of the Democratic party in Illinois. In an incredibly short time his fame extended to aU that region and throughout the State.

So great had become the reputation of the young orator, and so great his influence, as to alarm the Whigs, who came to realize that, unless checked, he would carry the whole people with him. The ablest men were pitted against him. He met them fearlessly in joint debate, and not only held his own but constantly added to his reputation and strengthened himself with the people.

The Eev. Wm. H. Milburn, since chaplain of the United States Senate, known as the blind orator, describes Douglas, as he saw him engaged in one of these contests, as follows :

" The first time I saw Mr. Douglas was in June, 1838, standing on the gallery of the Market House, which some of my readers may recollect as situated in the middle of the square at Jacksonville. He and Colonel John J. Hardin were engaged in canvassing Morgan County for Congress. He was on the threshold of that great world in which he has since played so prominent a part. I stood and listened to him surrounded by a motley crowd of backwood farmers and hunters dressed in homespun or deerskin, my boyish breast glowing with exultant joy, as he, only ten years my senior [Douglas was then twenty-five], battled so bravely for the doctrines of his party with the veteran and accomplished Hardin. . . . He even then showed signs of that dexterity in debate and vehement and impressive declamation of which he has since become such a master. . . . Less than four years before, he had walked into the town of Winchester, sixteen miles from Jacksonville, an entire stranger, with thirty-seven and a half cents in his pocket, his all of earthly fortune."

Chapter V Martin Van Buren

IN those days there were no packed caucuses, no political bosses, no delegates, and no nominating conventions. Any man could become a candidate by announcing himself or by having his friends announce him. It was in this way that all the prominent men of those days in Illinois first became candidates before the people.

The machine politicians, the bosses, and the caucus managers, were not then able to crowd out men of ability and to fill public places with men of calibre similar to their own.

Soon after the appearance of Douglas in politics came a Presidential campaign. General Jackson's second term was drawing to a close. The General could not himself be again a candidate, but he could dictate the choice of his successor. He chose his friend and former cabinet ofl&cer, who was Vice President, having been elected upon the same ticket with himself, Martin Van Buren. There was no question after General Jackson spoke as to Douglas's choice. President Jackson's opinions were always followed by the young orator. He canvassed the State for Van Buren, who triumphantly carried it, and was elected.

When that campaign closed, Stephen A. Douglas at the age of twenty-four was the best-known public man in Illinois.

As we have stated, Douglas was chosen for and held positions of trust and responsibility, almost from the time he appeared in the State. To the duties of these oflfices he gave careful attention, in addition to his marvellous work " on the stump." When he could not give personal attention to details he always found faithful and efficient help. There were no scandals in his administration of public office.

Douglas had now become more potential than any other Democrat in Illinois. The time again came when, in order to hold the State to the Democracy, he must put forth his whole strength.

Van Buren's term drew to a close, and General Jackson, still wishing to maintain his influence and power, proclaimed from his retreat at the Hermitage his desire for Mr. Van Buren's reelection. With Douglas the will of Jackson still was law, and, desperate as was the contest, never was a candidate for President supported with such zeal and with such efficiency in his candidacy for reelection as was Martin Van Buren by Stephen A. Douglas.

In that year (1840) such a political tidal wave swept over the country as had never before been known. The country was deluged, overwhelmed by it. The song of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" reverberated throughout the land. Hard cider was on tap in every house, and coon-skins were the emblems nailed upon nearly every cabin door.

William Henry Harrison

MARTIN VAN BUREN 11

It seemed futile to attempt to stem the tide, but Stephen A. Douglas by the majesty of his power saved Illinois to General Jackson, to Van Buren, and to the Democratic party. Never had there been such a campaign as he made. In the midst of the craze for hard cider and coon-skins, the din of campaign music, the hoarse plaudits of campaign orators, the cheers for " Tippecanoe and Tyler too " upon the prairies, rose the voice of Stephen A. Douglas calling the people to halt, and hold fast to the prtaciples of the mighty chieftain who had so long been their guiding star. In the campaign, Douglas, then but twenty-seven years old, was far and away the foremost orator in Illinois. He spoke for seven months, addressing two hundred and seven different political meetings. It was then that he began to be generally known as " The Little Giant."

Illinois and New Hampshire were the only Northern States that gave their electoral votes to Mr. Van Buren and against WiUiam Henry Harrison.

Chapter VI Douglas Takes His Seat In Congress

SENATOR DOUGLAS took his seat in Congress in December, 1843. He was then thirty years old, and, as has been said, it was but ten years since he first appeared in Illinois.

Curiously his first effort and success was in vindication of the hero whom he had worshipped and followed from his childhood. 'Judge Hall of the Federal Court at New Orleans had, as has been stated, fined General Jackson a thousand dollars, which the hero had paid out of his own pocket.. A bill had been for several years pending in Congress to refund that money to the General, and, although he had since served two terms as President of the United States, the bill, thus far, could not be passed. Douglas waited modestly a proper time for a new member before venturing to put himself forward, and when he did, his appearance in debate was in support of the bill in vindication of the acts of General Jackson arguing that they were not only justifiable, but that Jackson would have been recreant to his duty had he failed to declare martial law and carry into effect such drastic measures as he adopted.

The right and the duty under the conditions that confronted General Jackson, of proclaiming martial law, and suspending the privilege of the writ of

DOUGLAS TAKES HIS SEAT IN CONGRESS 13

habeas corpus, was so clearly shown in the speech of Mr. Douglas that the bill was passed and became a law. The interpretation of the law in this matter by Mr. Douglas was made so plain that it was followed as a precedent in the Civil War.

Chapter VII The Old Man Eloquent

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS was then a member of the House. This great man had gone through all the gradations of political preferment — United States Minister to the greatest countries of the earth, United States Senator, Secretary of State, and had finally reached the highest goal of all American statesmen, the Presidency. At the end of his Presidential term he was tendered by his fellow-citizens of Massachusetts a seat in the House of Representatives, where he served for seventeen years, until finally stricken down in his seat with paralysis while still devoting himself to his country's service. He was the son of John Adams, the second President of the United States, and a graduate of Harvard, where he was for a time a professor. No living American had had such extraordinary opportunities and such experiences, and few were so learned. He was called "the old man eloquent."

It was perhaps but natural and inevitable that the great statesman should not at first have looked with favor upon the ambitious young man who came into the House as one of the representatives of a new State of the West. When Douglas entered Congress Mr. Adams had been a member of the House for t^V^elve

Martin Van Buren

THE OLD MAN ELOQUENT 15

years, and was necessarily a leader. It has since been brought to light that Mr. Adams in his diary called the young Douglas a homunculus, and describes him as "raving out his hour in abusive invectives, his face convulsed, his gesticulation frantic," and lashing himself into such heat that, if his body had been made of combustible matter it would have burned out.

" In the midst of his roaring, to save himself from choking, he stript off and cast away his cravat, unbuttoned his waistcoat, and had the air and aspect of a half naked pugilist."

Mr. Adams was no doubt very much prejudiced against what seemed to him an upstart. No doubt Mr. Douglas had acquired some of the ways of public speaking that were then common in the West. If Douglas really had taken on some of these peculiarities he very soon, without losing his force and vigor, so adjusted himself to the new conditions as to gain the respect and good will of all the members of the House. He certainly proved himself capable of taking care of himself, even in a conflict with Mr. Adama.

Chapter VIII The Mexican War

DOUGLAS was an earnest and most enthusiastic supporter of his party and of the administration of President Polk in advocacy of the prosecution of a war with Mexico. He believed in the war, and did not object to the acquisition through the war of new territory. He looked with longing eyes toward the vast region west of that we had acquired by the Louisiana Purchase. It was afterwards claimed by his friends that but for him there would have been no Mexican war, and that to him more than to any other were we indebted for the acquisition of California, New Mexico, and Arizona.

Mr. Adams represented that New England Northern sentiment which was, above everything else, fearful that, if our territory were extended to the southwest the South might acquire preponderance in the Government. Consequently Mr. Adams was violently opposed to the Mexican war.

Mr. Adams soon found that there was more in this stripling of thirty, whom he had designated as a homunculus than he at first supposed.

Never were the tables turned upon an adversary in debate more completely and triumphantly than Douglas turned them upon the venerable statesman, and

THE MEXICAN WAR 17

never was an antagonist discomfited and overwhelmed in a manner so courteous and complimentary. For completeness and conclusiveness in turning the positions and arguments and conclusions of an adversary against himself, that of the youthful Douglas upon the venerable Mr. Adams has no parallel. Never was another man silenced in a manner so flattering to himself.

The Mexicans had made attacks upon Americans on the east side of the Rio Grande River. This, declared Douglas, and all the supporters of the administration/, was an invasion of our territory and, therefore, clearly a casus belli. The opponents of the war declared that Texas did not extend to the Rio Grande but only to the Nueces River. The Mexicans, while they crossed the Rio Grande, did not cross the Nueces. Therefore, declared the anti-war party, there had been no invasion of our territory and there was no casus belli. The whole question turned upon what was the western boundary of Texas. Mr. Adams was especially strenuous and earnest in taking the position that the western boundary of Texas was the Nueces River and not the Rio Grande. By a series of questions Douglas made Mr. Adams commit himself most positively to that position.

When the venerable statesman had entirely and fully so committed himself, Douglas drew from his desk a printed volume the contents of which he proceeded to explain. It was a despatch prepared by Mr. Adams himself nearly thirty years before, while Secretary of State in President Monroe's cabinet, which proved beyond question that the Rio Grande River was the -western boundary of Texas and that the country between the Nueces and the Rio Grande was a part of Texas.

Never in all of his illustrious public career, running through a period of more than half a century, was the great statesman so completely discomfited, and it may be doubted whether he ever received such flattering commendation.

In presenting the document to the House Mr. Douglas said :

"Texas (before her revolution) was always understood to have been a portion of the old province of Louisiana, whilst Coahuila was one of the Spanish provinces of Mexico. By ascertaining the western boundary of Louisiana, therefore, prior to the transfer by France to Spain, we discovered the dividing line between Texas and Coahuila. I will not weary the patience of the House by an examination of the authorities in detail. I will content myself by referring the gentleman to a document in which he will find them all collected and analyzed in a masterly manner, by one whose learning and accuracy he will not question. I allude to a despatch (perhaps I might with propriety call it a book from its great length) written by our Secretary of State in 1819 to Don Onis, the Spanish Minister. The document is to be found in the State papers. He will there find a multitudinous collection of old maps and musty records, histories, and geographies — Spanish, English, and French — by which it is clearly established that the Rio del Norte was the western houndary of Louisiana, and so considered by Spain and France

John Quincv Adams

THE MEXICAN WAR 19

both, when they owned the opposite banks of that river. The venerable gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Adams) in that famous despatch reviews all the authorities on either side with a clearness and ability which defy refutation, and demonstrate the validity of our title by virtue of the purchase of Louisiana. He went further and expressed his own convictions, upon a full examination of the whole question, that our title as far as the Rio del Norte, was as clear as to the Island of New Orleans. This was the opinion of Mr. Adams in 1819. It was the opinion of Messrs. Monroe and Pinckney in 1805. It was 'the opinion of JefEerson and Madison — of all our Presidents and of all administrations from its acquisition in 1803 to its fatal relinquishment in 1819."

In the lapse of nearly thirty years, during which there had been crowded into his life the duties and vast responsibilities of Secretary of State, the Presidency, and membership of that House, besides all his literary work, it is not remarkable that the memory of that famous despatch was crowded out.

In reply " the grand old man " pleaded that he made the best case possible for his country, as he surely did — so good a case as to set at rest the dispute upon the question of the boundary of Texas.

Chapter IX The Oregon Boundary

IT is difficult for people of this generation to realize how much was involved in the question of the northern boundary of Oregon. Our people claimed that the western coast almost up to the present boundary of Alaska, to the parallel of fifty-four degrees and forty minutes, then designated as Oregon, belonged to us. Great Britain claimed that that whole coast clear down to California belonged to her. Fur traders and trappers of both nations had made their way into those wild regions and through this, both the United States and Great Britain had indefinite and inchoate claims to certain localities. British vessels had skirted along the Pacific coast and ascended for short distances rivers that flowed into the ocean. As a legal proposition the question of title turned in a great degree upon discovery and occupancy, — whether the Hudson's Bay Company, a British commercial organization and its agents, or the American Fur Company and its agents had been foremost in discovering and most persistent in holding the territory. Eeally, if ever a matter of momentous importance depended upon determined, united, positive aggressiveness — call it nerve, gall, or what you will — on the part of the United States, it was the Oregon boundary question.

THE OREGON BOUNDARY 21

Senator Douglas declared that our title to the Oregon country, up to fifty-four degrees and forty minutes, was clear and unquestionable and that he never would, now or hereafter, yield up one inch of Oregon to either Great Britain or any other government.

He believed that, if our Government could be so aroused as to present a united front ; an inexorable determination in claiming all that region as ours, Great Britain would yield as she did on the northeastern boundary question which was finally fixed by the Ashburton Treaty. The Senate was then unanimous in asserting the justice of our claim and the House of Representatives stood one hundred and ninety-seven for it, with but six agaiust it. Senator Douglas insisted that if we would be so united upon the Oregon question, all that vast region would be conceded to us and that there would be no war, but that we could better afford to fight than surrender it. He realized, as did few other men, the importance to us of our having the territory between the present boundary, as finally settled upon, and the parallel of fifty-four degrees and forty minutes. He said that out of that region could be carved three states as large as Illinois, of, when developed, almost unlimited resources, and he knew that, with all her other vast enterprises, that wild region was not regarded as of very great importance to Great Britain. He said that an empire was involved in the controversy. One will realize that the Senator did not overestimate the importance to us of this controversy if he will now go and see that country ; if he will traverse Puget Sound, the Gulf of Georgia, and the Straits of

Juan de Fuca and get an idea of the vast commerce to the Orient that is springing up.

Upon this northwestern boundary question Douglas found himself working with, and under the leadership of, the " Old Man Eloquent," John Quincy Adams. In the course of a speech upon the Oregon question Mr. Adams avowed himself in favor of the course of Frederick the Great in regard to Silesia, to " take possession first, and negotiate afterwards. " ^ The country became so intgreste*iH;he^a3ttertKat " Fifty-four forty or fight " became the watchword of the Democratic party. Upon this cry James K. Polk had been elected President.