Stephen A. Douglas by Allen Johnson

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Only three months before the August elections of 1844, the Democrats
were thrown into consternation by the death of Snyder, their
standard-bearer. Here was an emergency to which the convention system
was not equal, in the days of poor roads and slow stage-coaches. What
happened was this, to borrow the account of the chief Democratic
organ, "A large number of Democratic citizens from almost all parts of
the State of Illinois met together by a general and public call"--and
nominated Judge Thomas Ford for governor.[143] It adds significance to
this record to note that this numerous body of citizens met in the
snug office of the _State Register_. Democrats in distant parts of the
State were disposed to resent this action on the part of "the
Springfield clique"; but the onset of the enemy quelled mutiny. In one
way the nomination of Ford was opportune. It could not be said of him
that he had showed any particular solicitude for the welfare of the
followers of Joseph Smith.[144] The ticket could now be made to face
both ways. Ford could assure hesitating Democrats who disliked the
Mormons, that he had not hobnobbed with the Mormon leaders, while
Douglas and his crew could still demonstrate to the Prophet that the
cause of human liberty, for which he stood so conspicuously, was safe
in Democratic hands. The game was played adroitly. Ford carried
Hancock County by a handsome majority and was elected governor.[145]

It has already been remarked that as judge, Douglas was potentially a
candidate for almost any public office. He still kept in touch with
Springfield politicians, planning with them the moves and
counter-moves on the checker-board of Illinois politics. There was
more than a grain of truth in the reiterated charges of the Whig
press, that the Democratic party was dominated by an arbitrary
clique.[146] It was a matter of common observation, that before
Democratic candidates put to sea in the troubled waters of State
politics, they took their dead-reckoning from the office of the _State
Register_. It was noised abroad in the late fall that Douglas would
not refuse a positive call from his party to enter national politics;
and before the year closed, his Springfield intimates were actively
promoting his candidacy for the United States Senate, to succeed
Senator Young. This was an audacious move, since even if Young were
passed over, there were older men far more justly entitled to
consideration. Nevertheless, Douglas secured in some way the support
of several delegations in the legislature, so that on the first ballot
in the Democratic caucus he stood second, receiving only nine votes
less than Young. A protracted contest followed. Nineteen ballots were
taken. Douglas's chief competitor proved to be, not Young, but Breese,
who finally secured the nomination of the caucus by a majority of five
votes.[147] The ambition of Judge Douglas had overshot the mark.

In view of the young man's absorbing interest in politics, his slender
legal equipment, and the circumstances under which he received his
appointment, one wonders whether the courts he held could have been
anything but travesties on justice. But the universal testimony of
those whose memories go back so far, is that justice was on the whole
faithfully administered.[148] The conditions of life in Illinois were
still comparatively simple. The suits instituted at law were not such
as to demand profound knowledge of jurisprudence. The wide-spread
financial distress which followed the crisis of 1837, gave rise to
many processes to collect debts and to set aside fraudulent
conveyances. "Actions of slander and trespass for assault and battery,
engendered by the state of feeling incident to pecuniary
embarrassment, were frequent."[149]

The courts were in keeping with the meagre legal attainments of those
who frequented them. Rude frame, or log houses served the purposes of
bench and bar. The judge sat usually upon a platform with a plain
table, or pine board, for a desk. A larger table below accommodated
the attorneys who followed the judge in his circuit from county to
county. "The relations between the Bench and the Bar were free and
easy, and flashes of wit and humor and personal repartee were
constantly passing from one to the other. The court rooms in those
days were always crowded. To go to court and listen to the witnesses
and lawyers was among the chief amusements of the frontier
settlements."[150] In this little world, popular reputations were made
and unmade.

Judge Douglas was thoroughly at home in this primitive environment.
His freedom from affectation and false dignity recommended him to the
laity, while his fairness and good-nature put him in quick sympathy
with his legal brethren and their clients. Long years afterward, men
recalled the picture of the young judge as he mingled with the crowd
during a recess. "It was not unusual to see him come off the bench, or
leave his chair at the bar, and take a seat on the knee of a friend,
and with one arm thrown familiarly around a friend's neck, have a
friendly talk, or a legal or political discussion."[151] An attorney
recently from the East witnessed this familiarity with dismay. "The
judge of our circuit," he wrote, "is S.A. Douglas, a youth of 28....
He is a Vermonter, a man of considerable talent, and, in the way of
despatching business, is a perfect 'steam engine in breeches.' ... He
is the most democratic judge I ever knew.... I have often thought we
should cut a queer figure if one of our Suffolk bar should
accidentally drop in."[152]

Meantime, changes were taking place in the political map of Illinois,
which did not escape the watchful eye of Judge Douglas. By the census
of 1840, the State was entitled to seven, instead of four
representatives in Congress.[153] A reapportionment act was therefore
to be expected from the next legislature. Democrats were already at
work plotting seven Democratic districts on paper, for, with a
majority in the legislature, they could redistrict the State at will.
A gerrymander was the outcome.[154] If Douglas did not have a hand in
the reapportionment, at least his friends saw to it that a desirable
district was carved out, which included the most populous counties in
his circuit. Who would be a likelier candidate for Congress in this
Democratic constituency than the popular judge of the Fifth Circuit
Court?

Seven of the ten counties composing the Fifth Congressional District
were within the so-called "military tract," between the Mississippi
and Illinois rivers; three counties lay to the east on the lower
course of the Illinois. Into this frontier region population began to
flow in the twenties, from the Sangamo country; and the organization
of county after county attested the rapid expansion northward. Like
the people of southern Illinois, the first settlers were of Southern
extraction; but they were followed by Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and
New Englanders. In the later thirties, the Northern immigration, to
which Douglas belonged, gave a somewhat different complexion to
Peoria, Fulton, and other adjoining counties. Yet there were diverse
elements in the district: Peoria had a cosmopolitan population of
Irish, English, Scotch, and German immigrants; Quincy became a city of
refuge for "Young Germany," after the revolutionary disturbances of
1830 in Europe.[155]

No sooner had the reapportionment act passed than certain members of
the legislature, together with Democrats who held no office, took it
upon themselves to call a nominating convention, on a basis of
representation determined in an equally arbitrary fashion.[156] The
summons was obeyed nevertheless. Forty "respectable Democats"
assembled at Griggsville, in Pike County, on June 5, 1843. It was a
most satisfactory body. The delegates did nothing but what was
expected of them. On the second ballot, a majority cast their votes
for Douglas as the candidate of the party for Congress. The other
aspirants then graciously withdrew their claims, and pledged their
cordial support to the regular nominee of the convention.[157] Such
machine-like precision warmed the hearts of Democratic politicians.
The editor of the _People's Advocate_ declared the integrity of
Douglas to be "as unspotted as the vestal's fame--as untarnished and
as pure as the driven snow."

The Griggsville convention also supplied the requisite machinery for
the campaign: vigilant precinct committees; county committees; a
district corresponding committee; a central district committee. The
party now pinned its faith to the efficiency of its organization, as
well as to the popularity of its candidate.

Douglas made a show of declining the nomination on the score of
ill-health, but yielded to the urgent solicitations of friends, who
would fain have him believe that he was the only Democrat who could
carry the district.[158] Secretly pleased to be overruled, Douglas
burned his bridges behind him by resigning his office, and plunged
into the thick of the battle. His opponent was O.H. Browning, a
Kentuckian by birth and a Whig by choice. It was Kentucky against
Vermont, South against North, for neither was unwilling to appeal to
sectional prejudice. Time has obscured the political issues which they
debated from Peoria to Macoupin and back; but history has probably
suffered no great loss. Men, not measures, were at stake in this
campaign, for on the only national issue which they seemed to have
discussed--Oregon--they were in practical agreement.[159] Both
cultivated the little arts which relieve the tedium of politics.
Douglas talked in heart to heart fashion with his "esteemed
fellow-citizens," inquired for the health of their families, expressed
grief when he learned that John had the measles and that Sally was
down with the chills and fever.[160] And if Browning was less
successful in this gentle method of wooing voters, it was because he
had less genuine interest in the plain common people, not because he
despised the petty arts of the politician.

The canvass was short but exhausting. Douglas addressed public
gatherings for forty successive days; and when election day came, he
was prostrated by a fever from which he did not fully recover for
months.[161] Those who gerrymandered the State did their work well.
Only one district failed to elect a Democratic Congressman. Douglas
had a majority over Browning of four hundred and sixty-one votes.[162]
This cheering news hastened his convalescence, so that by November he
was able to visit his mother in Canandaigua. Member of Congress at the
age of thirty! He had every reason to be well satisfied with himself.
He was fully conscious that he had begun a new chapter in his career.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 118: Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 213-214.]

[Footnote 119: Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, pp. 454-455.]

[Footnote 120: Why McClernand was passed over is not clear. Douglas
entered upon the duties of his office November 30, 1840.]

[Footnote 121: Wheeler, Biographical History of Congress, p. 74.]

[Footnote 122: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 43.]

[Footnote 123: Ford, History of Illinois, p. 217.]

[Footnote 124: _Ibid._, pp. 212-222.]

[Footnote 125: Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, p. 456.]

[Footnote 126: Illinois _State Register_, January 29, 1841; Ford,
History of Illinois, p. 220.]

[Footnote 127: Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, pp. 457-458.]

[Footnote 128: _Ibid._, pp. 457-458.]

[Footnote 129: Illinois _State Register_, February 5, 1841. Judge
Smith is put in an unenviable light by contemporary historians. There
seems to be no reason to doubt that he misinformed Douglas and others.
See Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, pp. 458-459.]

[Footnote 130: Chicago _American_, February 18, 1841.]

[Footnote 131: Sangamo _Journal_, March 19, 1841.]

[Footnote 132: Chicago _American_, February 18, 1841.]

[Footnote 133: Wheeler, Biographical History of Congress, p. 74.]

[Footnote 134: Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 263-265; Linn, Story of
the Mormons, pp. 236-237.]

[Footnote 135: Linn, Story of the Mormons, pp. 237-238.]

[Footnote 136: _Ibid._, p. 244.]

[Footnote 137: _Times and Seasons_, II, p. 414.]

[Footnote 138: Illinois _State Register_, August 13, 1841.]

[Footnote 139: _Ibid._, September 24, 1841.]

[Footnote 140: _Times and Seasons_, III, p. 651.]

[Footnote 141: Ford, History of Illinois, p. 269.]

[Footnote 142: Illinois _State Register_, June 17, 1842. Douglas
replied in a speech of equal tartness. See _Register_, July 1, 1842.]

[Footnote 143: Illinois _State Register_, June 10, 1842.]

[Footnote 144: Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 277-278.]

[Footnote 145: Gregg, History of Hancock County, p. 419.]

[Footnote 146: Illinois _State Register_, November 4, 1842.]

[Footnote 147: Illinois _State Register_, December 23, 1842.]

[Footnote 148: Conkling, Recollections of the Bench and Bar, Fergus
Historical Series, No. 22.]

[Footnote 149: Conkling, Recollections of the Bench and Bar, Fergus
Historical Series, No. 22]

[Footnote 150: Arnold, Reminiscences of the Illinois Bar, Fergus
Historical Series, No. 22.]

[Footnote 151: Arnold, Reminiscences of the Illinois Bar.]

[Footnote 152: Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, p. 698.]

[Footnote 153: Statute of June 25, 1842.]

[Footnote 154: A sheet called _The Gerrymander_ was published in March
1843, which contained a series of cartoons exhibiting the
monstrosities of this apportionment. The Fifth District is called "the
Nondescript."]

[Footnote 155: Patterson, Early Society in Southern Illinois, Fergus
Historical Series No. 14; Koerner, Das deutsche Element in den
Vereinigten Staaten, pp. 245, 277; Baker, America as the Political
Utopia of Young Germany; Peoria _Register_, June 30, 1838; Ballance,
History of Peoria, pp. 201-202.]

[Footnote 156: Illinois _State Register_, March 10, 1843.]

[Footnote 157: Illinois _State Register_, June 16, 1843.]

[Footnote 158: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 55; Wheeler, Biographical History
of Congress, p. 75.]

[Footnote 159: _Globe_, 28 Cong. 1 Sess. App. pp. 598 ff.]

[Footnote 160: Alton _Telegraph_, July 20, 1843.]

[Footnote 161: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 56; Wheeler, Biographical History
of Congress, p. 75; Alton _Telegraph_, August 26, 1843.]

[Footnote 162: According to the returns in the office of the Secretary
of State. The _Whig Almanac_ gives 451 as Douglas's majority.]

CHAPTER IV

UNDER THE AEGIS OF ANDREW JACKSON

In his own constituency a member of the national House of
Representatives may be a marked man; but his office confers no
particular distinction at the national capital. He must achieve
distinction either by native talent or through fortuitous
circumstance; rarely is greatness thrust upon him. A newly elected
member labors under a peculiar and immediate necessity to acquire
importance, since the time of his probation is very brief. The
representative who takes his seat in December of the odd year, must
stand for re-election in the following year. Between these termini,
lies only a single session. During his absence eager rivals may be
undermining his influence at home, and the very possession of office
may weaken his chances among those disposed to consider rotation in
office a cardinal principle of democracy. If a newly elected
congressman wishes to continue in office, he is condemned to do
something great.

What qualities had Douglas which would single him out from the crowd
and impress his constituents with a sense of his capacity for public
service? What had he to offset his youth, his rawness, and his
legislative inexperience? None of his colleagues cared a fig about his
record in the Illinois Legislature and on the Bench. In Congress, as
then constituted, every man had to stand on his own feet, unsupported
by the dubious props of a local reputation.

There was certainly nothing commanding in the figure of the gentleman
from Illinois. "He had a herculean frame," writes a contemporary,
"with the exception of his lower limbs, which were short and small,
dwarfing what otherwise would have been a conspicuous figure.... His
large round head surmounted a massive neck, and his features were
symmetrical, although his small nose deprived them of dignity."[163]
It was his massive forehead, indeed, that redeemed his appearance from
the commonplace. Beneath his brow were deep-set, dark eyes that also
challenged attention.[164] It was not a graceful nor an attractive
exterior surely, but it was the very embodiment of force. Moreover,
the Little Giant had qualities of mind and heart that made men forget
his physical shortcomings. His ready wit, his suavity, and his
heartiness made him a general favorite almost at once.[165] He was
soon able to demonstrate his intellectual power.

The House was considering a bill to remit the fine imposed upon
General Andrew Jackson at New Orleans for contempt of court. It was a
hackneyed theme. No new, extenuating circumstances could be adduced to
clear the old warrior of high-handed conduct; but a presidential
election was approaching and there was political capital to be made by
defending "Old Hickory." From boyhood Douglas had idolized Andrew
Jackson. With much the same boyish indignation which led him to tear
down the coffin handbills in old Brandon, he now sprang to the defense
of his hero. The case had been well threshed already. Jackson had
been defended eloquently, and sometimes truthfully. A man of less
audacity would have hesitated to swell this tide of eloquence, and at
first, it seemed as though Douglas had little but vehemence to add to
the eulogies already pronounced. There was nothing novel in the
assertion that Jackson had neither violated the Constitution by
declaring martial law at New Orleans, nor assumed any authority which
was not "fully authorized and legalized by his position, his duty, and
the unavoidable necessity of the case." The House was used to these
dogmatic reiterations. But Douglas struck into untrodden ways when he
contended, that even if Jackson had violated the laws and the
Constitution, his condemnation for contempt of court was "unjust,
irregular and illegal." Every unlawful act is not necessarily a
contempt of court, he argued. "The doctrine of contempts only applies
to those acts which obstruct the proceedings of the court, and against
which the general laws of the land do not afford adequate
protection.... It is incumbent upon those who defend and applaud the
conduct of the judge to point out the specific act done by General
Jackson which constituted a contempt of court. The mere declaration of
martial law is not of that character.... It was a matter over which
the civil tribunals had no jurisdiction, and with which they had no
concern, unless some specific crime had been committed or injury done;
and not even then until it was brought before them according to the
forms of law."[166]

The old hero had never had a more adroit counsel. Like a good lawyer,
Douglas seemed to feel himself in duty bound to spar for every
technical advantage, and to construe the law, wherever possible, in
favor of his client. At the same time he did not forget that the House
was the jury in this case, and capable of human emotions upon which he
might play. At times he became declamatory beyond the point of good
taste. In voice and manner he betrayed the school in which he had been
trained. "When I hear gentlemen," he cried in strident tones,
"attempting to justify this unrighteous fine upon General Jackson upon
the ground of non-compliance with rules of court and mere formalities,
I must confess that I cannot appreciate the force of the argument. In
cases of war and desolation, in times of peril and disaster, we should
look at the substance and not the shadow of things. I envy not the
feelings of the man who can reason coolly and calmly about the force
of precedents and the tendency of examples in the fury of the war-cry,
when 'booty and beauty' is the watchword. Talk not to me about rules
and forms in court when the enemy's cannon are pointed at the door,
and the flames encircle the cupola! The man whose stoicism would
enable him to philosophize coolly under these circumstances would
fiddle while the Capitol was burning, and laugh at the horror and
anguish that surrounded him in the midst of the conflagration! I claim
not the possession of these remarkable feelings. I concede them all to
those who think that the savior of New Orleans ought to be treated
like a criminal for not possessing them in a higher degree. Their
course in this debate has proved them worthy disciples of the doctrine
they profess. Let them receive all the encomiums which such sentiments
are calculated to inspire."[167]

His closing words were marked with much the same perfervid rhetoric,
only less objectionable because they were charged with genuine
emotion: "Can gentlemen see nothing to admire, nothing to commend, in
the closing scenes, when, fresh from the battlefield, the victorious
general--the idol of his army and the acknowledged savior of his
countrymen--stood before Judge Hall, and quelled the tumult and
indignant murmurs of the multitude by telling him that 'the same arm
which had defended the city from the ravages of a foreign enemy should
protect him in the discharge of his duty?' Is this the conduct of a
lawless desperado, who delights in trampling upon Constitution, and
law, and right? Is there no reverence for the supremacy of the laws
and the civil institutions of the country displayed on this occasion?
If such acts of heroism and moderation, of chivalry and submission,
have no charms to excite the admiration or soften the animosities of
gentlemen in the Opposition, I have no desire to see them vote for
this bill. The character of the hero of New Orleans requires no
endorsement from such a source. They wish to fix a mark, a stigma of
reproach, upon his character, and send him to his grave branded as a
criminal. His stern, inflexible adherence to Democratic principles,
his unwavering devotion to his country, and his intrepid opposition to
her enemies, have so long thwarted their unhallowed schemes of
ambition and power, that they fear the potency of his name on earth,
even after his spirit shall have ascended to heaven."

"An eloquent, sophistical speech, prodigiously admired by the slave
Democracy of the House," was the comment of John Quincy Adams; words
of high praise, for the veteran statesman had little patience with
the style of oratory affected by this "homunculus."[168] A
correspondent of a Richmond newspaper wrote that this effort had given
Douglas high rank as a debater.[169] Evidence on every hand confirms
the impression that by a single, happy stroke the young Illinoisan had
achieved enviable distinction; but whether he had qualities which
would secure an enduring reputation, was still open to question.

In the long run, the confidence of party associates is the surest
passport to real influence in the House. It might easily happen,
indeed, that Douglas, with all his rough eloquence, would remain an
impotent legislator. The history of Congress is strewn with oratorical
derelicts, who have often edified their auditors, but quite as often
blocked the course of legislation. No one knew better than Douglas,
that only as he served his party, could he hope to see his wishes
crystallize into laws, and his ambitions assume the guise of reality.
His opportunity to render effective service came also in this first
session.

Four States had neglected to comply with the recent act of Congress
reapportioning representation, having elected their twenty-one members
by general ticket. The language of the statute was explicit: "In every
case where a State is entitled to more than one Representative, the
number to which each State shall be entitled under this apportionment
shall be elected by districts composed of contiguous territory equal in
number to the number of Representatives, to which said State may be
entitled, no one district electing more than one Representative."[170]
Now all but two of these twenty-one Representatives were Democrats.
Would a Democratic majority punish this flagrant transgression of
Federal law by unseating the offenders?

In self-respect the Democratic members of the House could not do less
than appoint a committee to investigate whether the representatives in
question had been elected "in conformity to the Constitution and the
law."[171] Thereupon it devolved upon the six Democratic members of
this committee of nine to construct a theory, by which they might seat
their party associates under cover of legality. Not that they held
_any_ such explicit mandate from the party, nor that they deliberately
went to work to pervert the law; they were simply under psychological
pressure from which only men of the severest impartiality could free
themselves. The work of drafting the majority report (it was a
foregone conclusion that the committee would divide), fell to Douglas.
It pronounced the law of 1842 "not a _law_ made in pursuance of the
Constitution of the United States, and valid, operative, and binding
upon the States." Accordingly, the representatives of the four States
in question were entitled to their seats.

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