Stephen A. Douglas by Allen Johnson

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Through the good will of the village storekeeper, who also hailed from
Vermont, Douglass was presented to several citizens who wished to see
a school opened in town; and by the first Monday in December he had a
subscription list of forty scholars, each of whom paid three dollars
for three months' tuition.[30] Luck was now coming his way. He found
lodgings under the roof of this same friendly compatriot, the village
storekeeper, who gave him the use of a small room adjoining the
store-room.[31] Here Douglass spent his evenings, devoting some hours
to his law books and perhaps more to comfortable chats with his host
and talkative neighbors around the stove. For diversion he had the
weekly meetings of the Lyceum, which had just been formed.[32] He owed
much to this institution, for the the debates and discussions gave him
a chance to convert the traditional leadership which fell to him as
village schoolmaster, into a real leadership of talent and ready wit.
In this Lyceum he made his first political speech, defending Andrew
Jackson and his attack upon the Bank against Josiah Lamborn, a lawyer
from Jacksonville.[33] For a young man he proved himself astonishingly
well-informed. If the chronology of his autobiography may be accepted,
he had already read the debates in the Constitutional Convention of
1787, the _Federalist_, the works of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson,
and the recent debates in Congress.

Even while he was teaching school, Douglass found time to practice law
in a modest way before the justices of the peace; and when the first
of March came, he closed the schoolhouse door on his career as
pedagogue. He at once repaired to Jacksonville and presented himself
before a justice of the Supreme Court for license to practice law.
After a short examination, which could not have been very searching,
he was duly admitted to the bar of Illinois. He still lacked a month
of being twenty-one years of age.[34] Measured by the standard of
older communities in the East, he knew little law; but there were few
cases in these Western courts which required much more than
common-sense, ready speech, and acquaintance with legal procedure.
_Stare decisis_ was a maxim that did not trouble the average lawyer,
for there were few decisions to stand upon.[35] Besides, experience
would make good any deficiencies of preparation.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: There can be little doubt that he supplied the data for
the sketch in Wheeler's Biographical and Political History of
Congress.]

[Footnote 2: See Transactions of the Illinois State Historical
Society, 1901, pp. 113-114.]

[Footnote 3: Vermont Historical Gazetteer, III, p. 457.]

[Footnote 4: Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society,
1901, p. 115.]

[Footnote 5: Mr. B.F. Field in the _Vermonter_, January, 1897.]

[Footnote 6: For many facts relating to Douglas's life, I am indebted
to an unpublished autobiographical sketch in the possession of his
son, Judge R.M. Douglas, of Greensboro, North Carolina.]

[Footnote 7: Wheeler, Biographical History of Congress, p. 61; also
MS. Autobiography.]

[Footnote 8: Troy _Whig_, July 6, 1860.]

[Footnote 9: MS. Autobiography.]

[Footnote 10: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 11: MS. Autobiography; see Wheeler, Biographical History,
p. 62.]

[Footnote 12: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 13: _Vermonter_, January, 1897.]

[Footnote 14: MS. Autobiography.]

[Footnote 15: This story was repeated to me by Judge Douglas, on the
authority, I believe, of Senator Lapham of New York.]

[Footnote 16: This is the impression of all who knew him personally,
then and afterward. See Arnold, Reminiscences of the Illinois Bar.]

[Footnote 17: MS. Autobiography.]

[Footnote 18: MS. Autobiography.]

[Footnote 19: MS. Autobiography.]

[Footnote 20: Kirby, Sketch of Joseph Duncan in Fergus Historical
Series No. 29; also Historic Morgan, p. 60.]

[Footnote 21: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 22: Speech at Jonesboro, in the debate with Lincoln, Sept.
15, 1858.]

[Footnote 23: MS. Autobiography.]

[Footnote 24: Kirby, Joseph Duncan.]

[Footnote 25: James S. Anderson in Historic Morgan.]

[Footnote 26: Peck, _Gazetteer of Illinois_, 1834.]

[Footnote 27: MS. Autobiography.]

[Footnote 28: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 29: MS. Autobiography.]

[Footnote 30: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 31: Letter of E.G. Miner, January, 1877, in Proceedings of
the Illinois Association of Sons of Vermont.]

[Footnote 32: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 33: _Ibid._; MS. Autobiography.]

[Footnote 34: MS. Autobiography.]

[Footnote 35: Hon. J.C. Conkling in Fergus Historical Series,
No. 22.]

CHAPTER II

THE RISE OF THE POLITICIAN

The young attorney who opened a law office in the Court House at
Jacksonville, bore little resemblance to the forlorn lad who had
vainly sought a livelihood there some months earlier. The winter winds
of the prairies, so far from racking the frame of the convalescent,
had braced and toned his whole system. When spring came, he was in the
best of health and full of animal spirits. He entered upon his new
life with zest. Here was a people after his own heart; a generous,
wholesome, optimistic folk. He opened his heart to them, and, of
course, hospitable doors opened to him. He took society as he found
it, rude perhaps, but genuine. With plenty of leisure at command, he
mingled freely with young people of his own age; he joined the
boisterous young fellows in their village sports; he danced with the
maidens; and he did not forget to cultivate the good graces of their
elders. Mothers liked his animation and ready gallantry; fathers found
him equally responsive on more serious matters of conversation.
Altogether, he was a very general favorite in a not too fastidious
society.[36]

Nor was the circle of the young attorney's acquaintances limited to
Jacksonville. As the county seat and most important town in Morgan
County, Jacksonville was a sort of rural emporium. Thither came
farmers from the country round about, to market their produce and to
purchase their supplies. The town had an unwontedly busy aspect on
Saturdays. This was the day which drew women to town. While they did
their shopping, the men loitered on street corners, or around the
Court House, to greet old acquaintances. Douglass was sure to be found
among them, joining in that most subtle of all social processes, the
forming of public opinion. Moving about from group to group, with his
pockets stuffed with newspapers, he became a familiar figure.[37]
Plain farmers, in clothes soiled with the rich loam of the prairies,
enjoyed hearing the young fellow express so pointedly their own
nascent convictions.

This forum was an excellent school for the future politician. The dust
might accumulate upon his law books: he was learning unwritten law in
the hearts of these countrymen. And yet, even at this time, he
exhibited a certain maturity. There seems never to have been a time
when the arts of the politician were not instinctive in him. He had no
boyish illusions to outlive regarding the nature and conditions of
public life. His perfect self-possession attested this mental
maturity.

One of the first friendships which the young lawyer formed in his new
home was with S.S. Brooks, Esq., editor of the Jacksonville _News_.
While Douglass was still in Winchester, the first issue of this sheet
had appeared; and he had written a complimentary letter to Brooks,
congratulating him on his enterprise. The grateful editor never forgot
this kindly word of encouragement.[38] The intimacy which followed
was of great value to the younger man, who needed just the advertising
which the editor was in a position to give. The bond between them was
their devotion to the fortunes of Andrew Jackson. Together they
labored to consolidate the Democratic forces of the county, with
results which must have surprised even the sanguine young lawyer.

The political situation in Morgan County, as the State election
approached, is not altogether clear. President Jackson's high-handed
acts, particularly his attitude toward the National Bank, had alarmed
many men who had supported him in 1832. There were defections in the
ranks of the Democracy. The State elections would surely turn on
national issues. The Whigs were noisy, assertive, and confident.
Largely through the efforts of Brooks and Douglass, the Democrats of
Jacksonville were persuaded to call a mass-meeting of all good
Democrats in the county. It was on this occasion, very soon after his
arrival in town, that Douglass made his debut on the political stage.

It is said that accident brought the young lawyer into prominence at
this meeting. A well-known Democrat who was to have presented
resolutions, demurred, at the last minute, and thrust the copy into
Douglass' hands, bidding him read them. The Court House was full to
overflowing with interested observers of this little by-play.
Excitement ran high, for the opposition within the party was vehement
in its protest to cut-and-dried resolutions commending Jackson. An
older man with more discretion and modesty, would have hesitated to
face the audience; but Douglass possessed neither retiring modesty
nor the sobriety which comes with years. He not only read the
resolutions, but he defended them with such vigorous logic and with
such caustic criticism of Whigs and half-hearted Democrats, that he
carried the meeting with him in tumultuous approval of the course of
Andrew Jackson, past and present.[39]

The next issue of the _Patriot_, the local Whig paper, devoted two
columns to the speech of this young Democratic upstart; and for weeks
thereafter the editor flayed him on all possible occasions. The result
was such an enviable notoriety for the young attorney among Whigs and
such fame among Democrats, that he received collection demands to the
amount of thousands of dollars from persons whom he had never seen or
known. In after years, looking back on these beginnings, he used to
wonder whether he ought not to have paid the editor of the _Patriot_
for his abuse, according to the usual advertising rates.[40] The
political outcome was not in every respect so gratifying. The
Democratic county ticket was elected and a Democratic congressman from
the district; but the Whigs elected their candidate for governor.

A factional quarrel among members of his own party gave Douglass his
reward for services to the cause of Democracy, and his first political
office. Captain John Wyatt nursed a grudge against John J. Hardin,
Esq., who had been elected State's attorney for the district through
his influence, but who had subsequently proved ungrateful. Wyatt had
been re-elected member of the legislature, however, in spite of
Hardin's opposition, and now wished to revenge himself, by ousting
Hardin from his office. With this end in view, Wyatt had Douglass
draft a bill making the State's attorneys elective by the legislature,
instead of subject to the governor's appointment. Since the new
governor was a Whig, he could not be used by the Democrats. The bill
met with bitter opposition, for it was alleged that it had no other
purpose than to vacate Hardin's office for the benefit of Douglass.
This was solemnly denied;[41] but when the bill had been declared
unconstitutional by the Council of Revision, Douglass' friends made
desperate exertions to pass the bill over the veto, with the now
openly avowed purpose to elect him to the office. The bill passed, and
on the 10th of February, 1835, the legislature in joint session
elected the boyish lawyer State's attorney for the first judicial
district, by a majority of four votes over an attorney of experience
and recognized merit. It is possible, as Douglass afterward averred,
that he neither coveted the office nor believed himself fitted for it;
and that his judgment was overruled by his friends. But he accepted
the office, nevertheless.

When Douglas,--for he had now begun to drop the superfluous s in the
family name, for simplicity's sake,[42]--set out on his judicial
circuit, he was not an imposing figure. There was little in his boyish
face to command attention, except his dark-blue, lustrous eyes. His
big head seemed out of proportion to his stunted figure. He measured
scarcely over five feet and weighed less than a hundred and ten
pounds. Astride his horse, he looked still more diminutive. His mount
was a young horse which he had borrowed. He carried under his arm a
single book, also loaned, a copy of the criminal law.[43] His chief
asset was a large fund of Yankee shrewdness and good nature.

An amusing incident occurred in McLean County at the first court which
Douglas attended. There were many indictments to be drawn, and the new
prosecuting attorney, in his haste, misspelled the name of the
county--M Clean instead of M'Lean. His professional brethren were
greatly amused at this evidence of inexperience; and made merry over
the blunder. Finally, John T. Stuart, subsequently Douglas's political
rival, moved that all the indictments be quashed. Judge Logan asked
the discomfited youth what he had to say to support the indictments.
Smarting under the gibes of Stuart, Douglas replied obstinately that
he had nothing to say, as he supposed the Court would not quash the
indictments until the point had been proven. This answer aroused more
merriment; but the Judge decided that the Court could not rule upon
the matter, until the precise spelling in the statute creating the
county had been ascertained. No one doubted what the result would be;
but at least Douglas had the satisfaction of causing his critics some
annoyance and two days' delay, for the statutes had to be procured
from an adjoining county. To the astonishment of Court and Bar, and of
Douglas himself, it appeared that Douglas had spelled the name
correctly. To the indescribable chagrin of the learned Stuart, the
Court promptly sustained all the indictments. The young attorney was
in high feather; and he made the most of his triumph. The incident
taught him a useful lesson: henceforth he would admit nothing, and
require his opponents to prove everything that bore upon the case in
hand. Some time later, upon comparing the printed statute of the
county with the enrolled bill in the office of the Secretary of State,
Douglas found that the printer had made a mistake and that the name of
the county should have been M'Lean.[44]

On the whole Douglas seems to have discharged his not very onerous
duties acceptably. The more his fellow practitioners saw of him, the
more respect they had for him. Moreover, they liked him personally.
His wholesome frankness disarmed ill-natured opponents; his generosity
made them fast friends. There was not an inn or hostelry in the
circuit, which did not welcome the sight of the talkative,
companionable, young district attorney.

Politically as well as socially, Illinois was in a transitional stage.
Although political parties existed, they were rather loose
associations of men holding similar political convictions than parties
in the modern sense with permanent organs of control. He who would
might stand for office, either announcing his own candidacy in the
newspapers, or if his modesty forbade this course, causing such an
announcement to be made by "many voters." In benighted districts,
where the light of the press did not shine, the candidate offered
himself in person. Even after the advent of Andrew Jackson in national
politics, allegiance to party was so far subordinated to personal
ambition, that it was no uncommon occurrence for several candidates
from each party to enter the lists.[45] From the point of view of
party, this practice was strategically faulty, since there was always
the possibility that the opposing party might unite on a single
candidate. What was needed to insure the success of party was the
rationale of an army. But organization was abhorrent to people so
tenacious of their personal freedom as Illinoisans, because
organization necessitated the subordination of the individual to the
centralized authority of the group. To the average man organization
spelled dictation.

The first step in the effective control of nominations by party in
Illinois, was taken by certain Democrats, foremost among whom was S.A.
Douglas, Esq. His rise as a politician, indeed, coincides with this
development of party organization and machinery. The movement began
sporadically in several counties. At the instance of Douglas and his
friend Brooks of the _News_, the Democrats of Morgan County put
themselves on record as favoring a State convention to choose
delegates to the national convention of 1836.[46] County after county
adopted the suggestion, until the movement culminated in a
well-attended convention at Vandalia in April, 1835. Not all counties
were represented, to be sure, and no permanent organization was
effected; but provision was made for a second convention in December,
to nominate presidential electors.[47] Among the delegates from Morgan
County in this December convention was Douglas, burning with zeal for
the consolidation of his party. Signs were not wanting that he was in
league with other zealots to execute a sort of _coup d'etat_ within
the party. Early in the session, one Ebenezer Peck, recently from
Canada, boldly proposed that the convention should proceed to nominate
not only presidential electors but candidates for State offices as
well. A storm of protests broke upon his head, and for the moment he
was silenced; but on the second day, he and his confidants succeeded
in precipitating a general discussion of the convention system.
Peck--contemptuously styled "the Canadian" by his enemies--secured the
floor and launched upon a vigorous defense of the nominating
convention as a piece of party machinery. He thought it absurd to talk
of a man's having a right to become a candidate for office without the
indorsement of his party. He believed it equally irrational to allow
members of the party to consult personal preferences in voting. The
members of the party must submit to discipline, if they expected to
secure control of office. Confusion again reigned. The presiding
officer left the chair precipitately, denouncing the notions of Peck
as anti-republican.[48]

In the exciting wrangle that followed, Douglas was understood to say
that he had seen the workings of the nominating convention in New
York, and he knew it to be the only way to manage elections
successfully. The opposition had overthrown the great DeWitt Clinton
only by organizing and adopting the convention system. Gentlemen were
mistaken who feared that the people of the West had enjoyed their own
opinions too long to submit quietly to the wise regulations of a
convention. He knew them better: he had himself had the honor of
introducing the nominating convention into Morgan County, where it had
already prostrated one individual high in office. These wise
admonitions from a mere stripling failed to mollify the conservatives.
The meeting broke up in disorder, leaving the party with divided
counsels.[49]

Successful county and district conventions did much to break down the
resistance to the system. During the following months, Morgan County,
and the congressional district to which it belonged, became a
political experiment station. A convention at Jacksonville in April
not only succeeded in nominating one candidate for each elective
office, but also in securing the support of the disappointed aspirants
for office, which under the circumstances was in itself a triumph.[50]
Taking their cue from the enemy, the Whigs of Morgan County also
united upon a ticket for the State offices, at the head of which was
John J. Hardin, a formidable campaigner. When the canvass was fairly
under way, not a man could be found on the Democratic ticket to hold
his own with Hardin on the hustings. The ticket was then reorganized
so as to make a place for Douglas, who was already recognized as one
of the ablest debaters in the county. Just how this transposition was
effected is not clear. Apparently one of the nominees of the
convention for State representative was persuaded to withdraw.[51] The
Whigs promptly pointed out the inconsistency of this performance.
"What are good Democrats to do?" asked the Sangamo _Journal_
mockingly. Douglas had told them to vote for no man who had not been
nominated by a caucus![52]

The Democrats committed also another tactical blunder. The county
convention had adjourned without appointing delegates to the
congressional district convention, which was to be held at Peoria.
Such of the delegates as had remained in town, together with resident
Democrats, were hastily reassembled to make good this omission.[53]
Douglas and eight others were accredited to the Peoria convention; but
when they arrived, they found only four other delegates present, one
from each of four counties. Nineteen counties were unrepresented.[54]
Evidently there was little or no interest in this political
innovation. In no wise disheartened, however, these thirteen delegates
declared themselves a duly authorized district convention and put
candidates in nomination for the several offices. Again the Whig press
scored their opponents. "Our citizens cannot be led at the dictation
of a dozen unauthorized individuals, but will act as freemen," said
the Sangamo _Journal_.[55] There were stalwart Democrats, too, who
refused to put on "the Caucus collar." Douglas and his "Peoria Humbug
Convention" were roundly abused on all sides. The young politician
might have replied, and doubtless did reply, that the rank and file
had not yet become accustomed to the system, and that the bad roads
and inclement weather were largely responsible for the slim attendance
at Peoria.

The campaign was fought with the inevitable concomitants of an
Illinois election. The weapons that slew the adversary were not always
forged by logic. In rude regions, where the rougher border element
congregated, country stores were subsidized by candidates, and liquor
liberally dispensed. The candidate who refused to treat was doomed. He
was the last man to get a hearing, when the crowds gathered on
Saturday nights to hear the candidates discuss the questions at issue.
To speak from an improvised rostrum--"the stump"--to a boisterous
throng of men who had already accepted the orator's hospitality at the
store, was no light ordeal. This was the school of oratory in which
Douglas was trained.[56]

The election of all but one of the Democratic nominees was hailed as a
complete vindication of the nominating convention as a piece of party
machinery. Douglas shared the elation of his fellow workers, even
though he was made to feel that his nomination was not due to this
much-vaunted caucus system. At all events, the value of organization
and discipline had been demonstrated. The day of the professional
politician and of the machine was dawning in the frontier State of
Illinois.

During the campaign there had been much wild talk about internal
improvements. The mania which had taken possession of the people in
most Western States had affected the grangers of Illinois. It amounted
to an obsession. The State was called upon to use its resources and
unlimited credit to provide a market for their produce, by supplying
transportation facilities for every aspiring community. Elsewhere
State credit was building canals and railroads: why should Illinois,
so generously endowed by nature, lag behind? Where crops were spoiling
for a market, farmers were not disposed to inquire into the mysteries
of high finance and the nature of public credit. All doubts were laid
to rest by the magic phrase "natural resources."[57] Mass-meetings
here and there gave propulsion to the movement.[58] Candidates for
State office were forced to make the maddest pledges. A grand
demonstration was projected at Vandalia just as the legislature
assembled.

The legislature which met in December, 1836, is one of the most
memorable, and least creditable, in the annals of Illinois. In full
view of the popular demonstrations at the capital, the members could
not remained unmoved and indifferent to the demands of their
constituents, if they wished. Besides, the great majority were already
committed in favor of internal improvements in some form. The subject
dwarfed all others. For a time two sessions a day were held; and
special committees prolonged their labors far into the night.
Petitions from every quarter deluged the assembly.[59]

A plan for internal improvements had already taken shape in the mind
of the young representative from Morgan County.[60] He made haste to
lay it before his colleagues. First of all, he would have the State
complete the Illinois and Michigan canal, and improve the navigation
of the Illinois and Wabash rivers. Then he would have two railroads
constructed which would cross the State from north to south, and from
east to west. For these purposes he would negotiate a loan, pledging
the credit of the State, and meet the interest payments by judicious
sales of the public lands which had been granted by the Federal
government for the construction of the Illinois and Michigan canal.
The most creditable feature of these proposals is their moderation.
This youth of twenty-three evinced far more conservatism than many
colleagues twice his age.

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