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Stephen A. Douglas by Allen Johnson

A >> Allen Johnson >> Stephen A. Douglas




There was not the slightest prospect, however, that moderate views
would prevail. Log-rolling had already begun; the lobby was active;
and every member of the legislature who had pledged himself to his
constituents was solicitous that his section of the State should not
be passed over, in the general scramble for appropriations. In the end
a bill was drawn, which proposed to appropriate no less than
$10,230,000 for public works. A sum of $500,000 was set aside for
river improvements, but the remainder was to be expended in the
construction of eight railroads. A sop of $200,000 was tossed to those
counties through which no canal or railroad was to pass.[61] What were
prudent men to do? Should they support this bill, which they believed
to be thoroughly pernicious, or incur the displeasure of their
constituents by defeating this, and probably every other, project for
the session? Douglas was put in a peculiarly trying position. He had
opposed this "mammoth bill," but he knew his constituents favored it.
With great reluctance, he voted for the bill.[62] He was not minded
to immolate himself on the altar of public economy at the very
threshold of his career.[63]

Much the same issue was forced upon Douglas in connection with the
Illinois and Michigan canal. Unexpected obstacles to the construction
of the canal had been encountered. To allow the waters of Lake
Michigan to flow through the projected canal, it was found that a cut
eighteen feet deep would have to be made for twenty-eight miles
through solid rock. The cost of such an undertaking would exceed the
entire appropriation. It was then suggested that a shallow cut might
be made above the level of Lake Michigan which would then permit the
Calumet River or the Des Plaines, to be used as a feeder. The problem
was one for expert engineers to solve; but it devolved upon an
ignorant assembly, which seems to have done its best to reduce the
problem to a political equation. A majority of the House--Douglas
among them--favored a shallow cut, while the Senate voted for the deep
cut. The deadlock continued for some weeks, until a conference
committee succeeded in agreeing upon the Senate's programme. As a
member of the conferring committee, Douglas vigorously opposed this
settlement, but on the final vote in the House he yielded his
convictions. In after years he took great satisfaction in pointing
out--as evidence of his prescience--that the State became financially
embarrassed and had finally to adopt the shallow cut.[64]

The members of the 10th General Assembly have not been wont to point
with pride to their record. With a few notable exceptions they had
fallen victims to a credulity which had become epidemic. When the
assembly of 1840 repealed this magnificent act for the improvement of
Illinois, they encountered an accumulated indebtedness of over
$14,000,000. There are other aspects of the assembly of 1836-37 upon
which it is pleasanter to dwell.

As chairman of a committee on petitions Douglas rendered a real
service to public morality. The general assembly had been wont upon
petition to grant divorces by special acts. Before the legislature had
been in session ten days, no less than four petitions for divorces had
been received. It was a custom reflecting little credit upon the
State.[65] Reporting for his committee, Douglas contended that the
legislature had no power to grant divorces, but only to enact salutary
laws, which should state the circumstances under which divorces might
be granted by the courts. The existing practice, he argued, was
contrary to those provisions of the constitution which expressly
separated the three departments of government. Moreover, everyone
recognized the injustice and unwisdom of dissolving marriage contracts
by act of legislature, upon _ex parte_ evidence.[66] Without
expressing an opinion on the constitutional questions involved, the
assembly accepted the main recommendation of the committee, that
henceforth the legislature should not grant bills of divorce.[67]

One of the recurring questions during this session was whether the
State capital should be moved. Vandalia was an insignificant town,
difficult of access and rapidly falling far south of the center of
population in the State. Springfield was particularly desirous to
become the capital, though there were other towns which had claims
equally strong. The Sangamon County delegation was annoyingly
aggressive in behalf of their county seat. They were a conspicuous
group, not merely because of their stature, which earned for them the
nickname of "the Long Nine," but also because they were men of real
ability and practical shrewdness. By adroit management, a vote was
first secured to move the capital from Vandalia, and then to locate it
at Springfield. Unquestionably there was some trading of votes in
return for special concessions in the Internal Improvements bill. It
is said that Abraham Lincoln was the virtual head of the Sangamon
delegation, and the chief promoter of the project.[68]

Soon after the adjournment of the legislature, Douglas resigned his
seat to become Register of the Land Office at Springfield; and when
"the Long Nine" returned to their constituents and were feted and
banqueted by the grateful citizens of Springfield, Douglas sat among
the guests of honor.[69] It began to be rumored about that the young
man owed his appointment to the Sangamon delegation, whose schemes he
had industriously furthered in the legislature. Finally, the Illinois
_Patriot_ made the direct accusation of bargain.[70] Touched to the
quick, Douglas wrote a letter to the editor which fairly bristles with
righteous indignation. His circumstantial denial of the charge,--his
well-known opposition to the removal of the capital and to all the
schemes of the Sangamon delegation during the session,--cleared him of
all complicity. Indeed, Douglas was too zealous a partisan to play
into the hands of the Sangamon Whigs.[71]

The advent of the young Register at the Land Office was noted by the
Sangamo Whig _Journal_ in these words: "The Land Office at this place
was opened on Monday last. We are told the _little man_ from Morgan
was perfectly astonished, at finding himself making money at the rate
of from one to two hundred dollars a day!"[72] This sarcastic comment
is at least good evidence that the office was doing a thriving
business. In two respects Douglas had bettered himself by this change
of occupation. He could not afford to hold his seat in the legislature
with its small salary. Now he was assured of a competence. Besides, as
a resident of Springfield, he could keep in touch with politics at the
future capital and bide his time until he was again promoted for
conspicuous service to his party.

The educative value of his new office was no small consideration to
the young lawyer. He not only kept the records and plans of surveys
within his district, but put up each tract at auction, in accordance
with the proclamation of the President, and issued certificates of
sale to all purchasers, describing the land purchased. The duties were
not onerous, but they required considerable familiarity with land laws
and with the practical difficulties arising from imperfect surveys,
pre-emption rights, and conflicting claims.[73] Daily contact with the
practical aspects of the public land policy of the country, seems to
have opened his eyes to the significance of the public domain as a
national asset. With all his realism, Douglas was gifted with a
certain sort of imagination in things political. He not only saw what
was obvious to the dullest clerk,--the revenue derived from land
sales,--but also those intangible and prospective gains which would
accrue to State and nation from the occupation and cultivation of the
national domain. He came to believe that, even if not a penny came
into the treasury, the government would still be richer from having
parcelled out the great uninhabited wastes in the West. Beneath the
soiled and uncomely exterior of the Western pioneer, native or
foreigner, Douglas discerned not only a future tax-bearer, but the
founder of Commonwealths.

Only isolated bits of tradition throw light upon the daily life of the
young Register of the Land Office. All point to the fact that politics
was his absorbing interest. He had no avocations; he had no private
life, no esoteric tastes which invite a prying curiosity; he had no
subtle aspects of character and temperament which sometimes make even
commonplace lives dramatic. His life was lived in the open. Lodging at
the American Tavern, he was always seen in company with other men.
Diller's drug-store, near the old market, was a familiar rendezvous
for him and his boon companions. Just as he had no strong interests
which were not political, so his intimates were likely to be his
political confreres. He had no literary tastes: if he read at all, he
read law or politics.[74] Yet while these characteristics suggest
narrowness, they were perhaps the inevitable outcome of a society
possessing few cultural resources and refinements, but tremendous
directness of purpose.

One of the haunts of Douglas in these Springfield days was the office
of the _Republican_, a Democratic journal then edited by the Webers.
There he picked up items of political gossip and chatted with the
chance comer, or with habitues like himself. He was a welcome visitor,
just the man whom a country editor, mauling over hackneyed matter,
likes to have stimulate his flagging wits with a jest or a racy
anecdote. Now and then Douglas would take up a pen good-naturedly, and
scratch off an editorial which would set Springfield politicians by
the ears. The tone of the _Republican_, as indeed of the Western press
generally at this time, was low. Editors of rival newspapers heaped
abuse upon each other, without much regard to either truth or decency.
Feuds were the inevitable product of these editorial amenities.

On one occasion, the _Republican_ charged the commissioners appointed
to supervise the building of the new State House in Springfield, with
misuse of the public funds. The commissioners made an apparently
straightforward defense of their expenditures. The _Republican_
doubted the statement and reiterated the charge in scurrilous
language. Then the aggrieved commissioners, accompanied by their
equally exasperated friends, descended upon the office of the
_Republican_ to take summary vengeance. It so happened that Douglas
was at the moment comfortably ensconced in the editorial sanctum. He
could hardly do otherwise than assist in the defense; indeed, it is
more than likely that he had provoked the assault. In the disgraceful
brawl that followed, the attacking party was beaten off with heavy
losses. Sheriff Elkins, who seems to have been acting in an unofficial
capacity as a friend of the commissioners, was stabbed, though not
fatally, by one of the Weber brothers.[75]

From such unedifying episodes in the career of a rising politician,
public attention was diverted by the excitement of a State election.
Since the abortive attempts to commit the Democratic party to the
convention system in 1835, party opinion had grown more favorable to
the innovation. Rumors that the Whigs were about to unite upon a State
ticket doubtless hastened the conversion of many Democrats.[76] When
the legislature met for a special session in July, the leading spirits
in the reform movement held frequent consultations, the outcome of
which was a call for a Democratic State convention in December. Every
county was invited to send delegates. A State committee of fifteen was
appointed, and each county was urged to form a similar committee.
Another committee was also created--the Committee of Thirty--to
prepare an address to the voters. Fifth on this latter committee was
the name of S.A. Douglas of Sangamon.[77] The machinery of the party
was thus created out of hand by a group of unauthorized leaders. They
awaited the reaction of the insoluble elements in the party, with some
anxiety.

The new organization had no more vigilant defender than Douglas. From
his coign of vantage in the Land Office, he watched the trend of
opinion within the party, not forgetting to observe at the same time
the movements of the Whigs. There were certain phrases in the "Address
to the Democratic Republicans of Illinois" which may have been coined
in his mint. The statement that "the Democratic Republicans of
Illinois propose to bring theirs [their candidates] forward by the
full and consentaneous voice of every member of their political
association," has a familiar, full-mouthed quality.[78] The Democrats
of Sangamon called upon him to defend the caucus at a mass-meeting;
and when they had heard his eloquent exposition of the new System,
they resolved with great gravity that it offered "the only safe and
proper way of securing union and victory."[79] There is something
amusing in the confident air of this political expert aged
twenty-four; yet there is no disputing the fact that his words carried
weight with men of far wider experience than his own.

Before many weeks of the campaign had passed, Douglas had ceased to be
merely a consultative specialist on party ailments. Not at all
unwillingly, he was drawn into active service. It was commonly
supposed that the Honorable William L. May, who had served a term in
Congress acceptably, would again become the nominee of the Democratic
party without opposition. If the old-time practice prevailed, he would
quietly assume the nomination "at the request of many friends." Still,
consistency required that the nomination should be made in due form by
a convention. The Springfield _Republican_ clamored for a convention;
and the Jacksonville _News_ echoed the cry.[80] Other Democratic
papers took up the cry, until by general agreement a congressional
district convention was summoned to meet at Peoria. The Jacksonville
_News_ was then ready with a list of eligible candidates among whom
Douglas was mentioned. At the same time the enterprising Brooks
announced "authoritatively" that _if_ Mr. May concluded to become a
candidate, he would submit his claims to the consideration of the
convention.[81] This was the first intimation that the gentleman's
claims were likely to be contested in the convention. Meantime, good
friends in Sangamon County saw to it that the county delegation was
made up of men who were favorably disposed toward Douglas, and bound
them by instructions to act as a unit in the convention.[82]

The history of the district convention has never been written: it
needs no historian. Under the circumstances the outcome was a foregone
conclusion. Not all the counties were represented; some were poorly
represented; most of the delegates came without any clearly defined
aims; all were unfamiliar with the procedure of conventions. The
Sangamon County delegation alone, with the possible exception of that
from Morgan County, knew exactly what it wanted. When a ballot was
taken, Douglas received a majority of votes cast, and was declared to
be the regular nominee of the party for Congress.[83]

There was much shaking of heads over this machine-made nomination. An
experienced public servant had been set aside to gratify the ambition
of a mere stripling. Even Democrats commented freely upon the
untrustworthiness of a device which left nominations to the caprice of
forty delegates representing only fourteen counties out of
thirty-five.[84] The Whigs made merry over the folly of their
opponents. "No nomination could suit us better," declared the Sangamo
_Journal_.[85]

The Democratic State convention met at the appointed time, and again
new methods prevailed. In spite of strong opposition, a slate was made
up and proclaimed as the regular ticket of the party. Unhappily, the
nominee for governor fell under suspicion as an alleged defaulter to
the government, so that his deposition became imperative.[86] The
Democrats were in a sorry plight. Defeat stared them in the face.
There was but one way to save the situation, and that was to call a
second convention. This was done. On June 5th, a new ticket was put in
the field, without further mention of the discredited nominee of the
earlier convention.[87] It so happened that Carlin, the nominee for
Governor, and McRoberts, candidate for Congress from the first
district, were receivers in land offices. This "Land Office Ticket"
became a fair mark for wags in the Whig party.[88]

In after years, Douglas made his friends believe that he accepted the
nomination with no expectation of success: his only purpose was to
"consolidate the party."[89] If this be true, his buoyant optimism
throughout the canvass is admirable. He was pitted against a
formidable opponent in the person of Major John T. Stuart, who had
been the candidate of the Whigs two years before. Stuart enjoyed great
popularity. He was "an old resident" of Springfield,--as Western
people then reckoned time. He had earned his title in the Black Hawk
War, since which he had practiced law. For the arduous campaign, which
would range over thirty-four counties,--from Calhoun, Morgan and
Sangamon on the south to Cook County on the north,--Stuart was
physically well-equipped.[90]

Douglas was eager to match himself against Stuart. They started off
together, in friendly rivalry. As they rode from town to town over
much the same route, they often met in joint debate; and at night,
striking a truce, they would on occasion, when inns were few and far
between, occupy the same quarters. Accommodations were primitive in
the wilderness of the northern counties. An old resident relates how
he was awakened one night by the landlord of the tavern, who insisted
that he and his companion should share their beds with two belated
travelers. The late arrivals turned out to be Douglas and Stuart.
Douglas asked the occupants of the beds what their politics were, and
on learning that one was a Whig and the other a Democrat, he said to
Stuart, "Stuart, you sleep with the Whig, and I'll sleep with the
Democrat."[91]

Douglas never seemed conscious of the amusing discrepancy between
himself and his rival in point of physique. Stuart was fully six feet
tall and heavily built, so that he towered like a giant above his
boyish competitor. Yet strange to relate, the exposure to all kinds of
weather, the long rides, and the incessant speaking in the open air
through five weary months, told on the robust Stuart quite as much as
on Douglas. In the midst of the canvass Douglas found his way to
Chicago. He must have been a forlorn object. His horse, his clothes,
his boots, and his hat were worn out. His harness was held together
only by ropes and strings. Yet he was still plucky. And so his friends
fitted him out again and sent him on his way rejoicing.[92]

The rivals began the canvass good-naturedly, but both gave evidence of
increasing irritability as the summer wore on. Shortly before the
election, they met in joint debate at Springfield, in front of the
Market House. In the course of his speech, Douglas used language that
offended his big opponent. Stuart then promptly tucked Douglas's head
under his arm, and carried him _hors de combat_ around the square. In
his efforts to free himself, Douglas seized Stuart's thumb in his
mouth and bit it vigorously, so that Stuart carried a scar, as a
memento of the occasion, for many a year.[93]

As the canvass advanced, the assurance of the Whigs gave way to
ill-disguised alarm. Disquieting rumors of Douglas's popularity among
some two thousand Irishmen, who were employed on the canal excavation,
reached the Whig headquarters.[94] The young man was assiduously
cultivating voters in the most inaccessible quarters. He was a far
more resourceful campaigner than his older rival.

The election in August was followed by weeks of suspense. Both parties
claimed the district vociferously. The official count finally gave the
election to Stuart by a majority of thirty-five, in a total vote of
over thirty-six thousand.[95] Possibly Douglas might have successfully
contested the election.[96] There were certain discrepancies in the
counting of the votes; but he declined to vex Congress with the
question, so he said, because similar cases were pending and he could
not hope to secure a decision before Congress adjourned. It is
doubtful whether this merciful consideration for Congress was
uppermost in his mind in the year 1838. The fact is, that Douglas
wrote to Senator Thomas H. Benton to ascertain the proper procedure in
such cases;[97] and abandoned the notion of carrying his case before
Congress, when he learned how costly such a contest would be.[98] He
had resigned his position as Register of the Land Office to enter the
campaign, and he had now no other resources than his profession.

It was comforting to the wounded pride of the young man to have the
plaudits of his own party, at least. He had made a gallant fight; and
when Democrats from all over the State met at a dinner in honor of
Governor-elect Carlin, at Quincy, they paid him this generous tribute:
"Although so far defeated in the election that the certificate will be
given to another, yet he has the proud gratification of knowing that
the people are with him. His untiring zeal, his firm integrity, and
high order of talents, have endeared him to the Democracy of the State
and they will remember him two years hence."[99] Meantime there was
nothing left for him to do but to solicit a law practice. He entered
into partnership with a Springfield attorney by the name of Urquhart.

By the following spring, Douglas was again dabbling in local politics,
and by late fall he was fully immersed in the deeper waters of
national politics. Preparations for the presidential campaign drew him
out of his law office,--where indeed there was nothing to detain
him,--and he was once again active in party conclaves. He presided
over a Democratic county convention, and lent a hand in the drafting
of a platform.[100] In November he was summoned to answer Cyrus
Walker, a Whig who was making havoc of the Democratic programme at a
mass-meeting in the Court House. In the absence of any reliable
records, nothing more can be said of Douglas's rejoinder than that it
moved the Whigs in turn to summon reinforcements, in the person of the
awkward but clever Lincoln. The debate was prolonged far into the
night; and on which side victory finally folded her wings, no man can
tell.[101] Douglas made the stronger impression, though Whigs
professed entire satisfaction with the performance of their
protagonist. There were some in the audience who took exception to
Lincoln's stale anecdotes, and who thought his manner clownish.[102]

Not long after this encounter, Douglas came in for his share of public
ridicule. Considering himself insulted by a squib in the Sangamo
_Journal_, Douglas undertook to cane the editor. But as Francis was
large and rotund, and Douglas was not, the affair terminated
unsatisfactorily for the latter. Lincoln described the incident with
great relish, in a letter to Stuart: "Francis caught him by the hair
and jammed him back against a market-cart, where the matter ended by
Francis being pulled away from him. The whole affair was so ludicrous
that Francis and everybody else, Douglas excepted, have been laughing
about it ever since."[103] The Illinois _State Register_ tried to save
Douglas's dignity by the following account of the rencontre: "Mr.
Francis had applied scurrilous language to Mr. Douglas, which could be
noticed in no other way. Mr. Douglas, therefore, gave him a sound
caning, which Mr. Francis took with Abolition patience, and is now
praising God that he was neither killed nor scathed."

The executive talents of Douglas were much in demand. First he was
made a member of the Sangamon County delegation to the State
convention;[104] then chairman of the State Central Committee; and
finally, virtual manager of the Democratic campaign in Illinois.[105]
He was urged to stand for election to the legislature; but he steadily
refused this nomination. "Considerations of a private nature," he
wrote, "constrain me to decline the nomination, and leave the field to
those whose avocations and private affairs will enable them to devote
the requisite portion of their time to the canvass."[106] Inasmuch as
Sangamon County usually sent a Whig delegation to the legislature,
this declination could hardly have cost him many hours of painful
deliberation.[107] At all events his avocations did not prevent him
from making every effort to carry the State for the Democratic party.

An unfortunate legal complication had cost the Democrats no end of
worry. Hitherto the party had counted safely on the vote of the aliens
in the State; that is, actual inhabitants whether naturalized or
not.[108] The right of unnaturalized aliens to vote had never been
called in question. But during the campaign, two Whigs of Galena
instituted a collusive suit to test the rights of aliens, hoping, of
course, to embarrass their opponents.[109] The Circuit Court had
already decided the case adversely, when Douglas assumed direction of
the campaign. If the decision were allowed to stand, the Democratic
ticket would probably lose some nine thousand votes and consequently
the election. The case was at once appealed.[110] Douglas and his old
friend and benefactor, Murray McConnell, were retained as counsel for
the appellant. The opposing counsel were Whigs. The case was argued in
the winter term of the Supreme Court, but was adjourned until the
following June, a scant six months before the elections.

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