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Stephen A. Douglas by Allen Johnson

A >> Allen Johnson >> Stephen A. Douglas




Not long after Douglas had voiced his vision of "an ocean-bound
republic," he was called upon to assist one of the most remarkable
emigrations westward, from his own State. The Mormons in Hancock
County had become the most undesirable of neighbors to his
constituents. Once the allies of the Democrats, they were now held in
detestation by all Gentiles of adjoining counties, irrespective of
political affiliations. The announcement of the doctrine of polygamy
by the Prophet Smith had been accompanied by acts of defiance and
followed by depredations, which, while not altogether unprovoked,
aroused the non-Mormons to a dangerous pitch of excitement. In the
midst of general disorder in Hancock County, Joseph Smith was
murdered. Every deed of violence was now attributed to the Danites, as
the members of the militant order of the Mormon Church styled
themselves. Early in the year 1845, the Nauvoo Charter was repealed;
and Governor Ford warned his quondam friends confidentially that they
had better betake themselves westward, suggesting California as "a
field for the prettiest enterprise that has been undertaken in modern
times." Disgraceful outrages filled the summer months of 1845 in
Hancock County. A band of Mormon-haters ravaged the county, burning
houses, barns, and grain stacks, and driving unprotected Mormon
settlers into Nauvoo. To put an end to this state of affairs, Governor
Ford sent Judge Douglas and Attorney-General McDougal, with a force of
militia under the command of General Hardin, into Hancock County.
Public meetings in all the adjoining counties were now demanding the
expulsion of the Mormons in menacing language.[196] While General
Hardin issued a proclamation bidding Mormons and anti-Mormons to
desist from further violence, and promised that his scanty force of
four hundred would enforce the laws impartially, the commissioners
entered into negotiations with the Mormon authorities. On the pressing
demand of the commissioners and of a deputation from the town of
Quincy, Brigham Young announced that the Mormons purposed to leave
Illinois in the spring, "for some point so remote that there will not
need to be a difficulty with the people and ourselves."

There can be little doubt that Douglas's advice weighed heavily with
the Mormons. As a judge, he had administered the law impartially
between Mormon and non-Mormon; and this was none too common in the
civic history of the Mormon Church. As an aspirant for office, he had
frankly courted their suffrages; but times had changed. The reply of
the commissioners, though not unkindly worded, contained some
wholesome advice. "We think that steps should be taken by you to make
it apparent that you are actually preparing to remove in the spring.
By carrying out, in good faith, your proposition to remove, as
submitted to us, we think you should be, and will be, permitted to
depart peaceably next spring for your destination, west of the Rocky
Mountains.... We recommend to you to place every possible restraint in
your power over the members of your church, to prevent them from
committing acts of aggression or retaliation on any citizens of the
State, as a contrary course may, and most probably will, bring about a
collision which will subvert all efforts to maintain the peace in this
county; and we propose making a similar request of your opponents in
this and the surrounding counties."[197]

Announcing the result of their negotiations to the anti-Mormon people
of Hancock County, the commissioners gave equally good advice:
"Remember, whatever may be the aggression against you, the sympathy of
the public may be forfeited. It cannot be denied that the burning of
the houses of the Mormons ... was an act criminal in itself, and
disgraceful to its perpetrators.... A resort to, or persistence in,
such a course under existing circumstances will make you forfeit all
the respect and sympathy of the community."

Unhappily this advice was not long heeded by either side. While
Douglas was giving his vote for men and money for the Mexican War and
the gallant Hardin was serving his country in command of a regiment,
"the last Mormon war" broke out, which culminated in the siege and
evacuation of Nauvoo. Passing westward into No-man's-land, the Mormons
became eventually the founders of one of the Territories by which
Douglas sought to span the continent.

It was only in the Northwest that the cry for the re-occupation of
Oregon had the ring of sincerity; elsewhere it had been thought of as
a response to the re-annexation of Texas,--more or less of a
vote-catching device. The sentiment in Douglas's constituency was
strongly in favor of an aggressive policy in Oregon. The first band of
Americans to go thither, for the single purpose of settlement and
occupation, set out from Peoria.[198] These were "young men of the
right sort," in whom the eternal _Wanderlust_ of the race had been
kindled by tales of returned missionaries. Public exercises were held
on their departure, and the community sanctioned this outflow of its
youthful strength. Dwellers in the older communities of the East had
little sympathy with this enterprise. It was ill-timed, many hundred
years in advance of the times. Why emigrate from a region but just
reclaimed from barbarism, where good land was still abundant?[199]
Perhaps it was in reply to such doubts that an Illinois rhymester bade
his New England brother

"Scan the opening glories of the West,
Her boundless prairies and her thousand streams,
The swarming millions who will crowd her breast,
'Mid scenes enchanting as a poet's dreams:
And then bethink you of your own stern land,
Where ceaseless toil will scarce a pittance earn,
And gather quickly to a hopeful band,--
Say parting words,--and to the westward turn."[200]

Douglas tingled to his fingers' ends with the sentiment expressed in
these lines. The prospect of forfeiting this Oregon country,--this
greater Northwest,--to Great Britain, stirred all the belligerent
blood in his veins. Had it fallen to him to word the Democratic
platform, he would not have been able to choose a better phrase than
"re-occupation of Oregon." The elemental jealousy and hatred of the
Western pioneer for the claim-jumper found its counterpart in his
hostile attitude toward Great Britain. He was equally fearful lest a
low estimate of the value of Oregon should make Congress indifferent
to its future. He had endeavored to have Congress purchase copies of
Greenhow's _History of the Northwest Coast of North America_, so that
his colleagues might inform themselves about this El Dorado.[201]

There was, indeed, much ignorance about Oregon, in Congress and out.
To the popular mind Oregon was the country drained by the Columbia
River, a vast region on the northwest coast. As defined by the
authority whom Douglas summoned to the aid of his colleagues, Oregon
was the territory west of the Rocky Mountains between the parallels of
42 deg. and 54 deg. 40' north latitude.[202] Treaties between Russia and Great
Britain, and between Russia and the United States, had fixed the
southern boundary of Russian territory on the continent at 54 deg. 40'; a
treaty between the United States and Spain had given the forty-second
parallel as the northern boundary of the Spanish possessions; and a
joint treaty of occupation between Great Britain and the United States
in 1818,--renewed in 1827,--had established a _modus vivendi_ between
the rival claimants, which might be terminated by either party on
twelve months' notice. Meantime Great Britain and the United States
were silent competitors for exclusive ownership of the mainland and
islands between Spanish and Russian America. Whether the technical
questions involved in these treaties were so easily dismissed, was
something that did not concern the resolute expansionist. It was
enough for him that, irrespective of title derived from priority of
discovery, the United States had, as Greenhow expressed it, a stronger
"national right," by virtue of the process by which their people were
settling the Mississippi Valley and the great West. This was but
another way of stating the theory of manifest destiny.

No one knew better than Douglas that paper claims lost half their
force unless followed up by vigorous action. Priority of occupation
was a far better claim than priority of discovery. Hence, the
government must encourage actual settlement on the Oregon. Two
isolated bills that Douglas submitted to Congress are full of
suggestion, when connected by this thought: one provided for the
establishment of the territory of Nebraska;[203] the other, for the
establishment of military posts in the territories of Nebraska and
Oregon, to protect the commerce of the United States with New Mexico
and California, as well as emigration to Oregon.[204] Though neither
bill seems to have received serious consideration, both were to be
forced upon the attention of Congress in after years by their
persistent author.

A bill had already been reported by the Committee on Territories,
boldly extending the government of the United States over the whole
disputed area.[205] Conservatives in both parties deprecated such
action as both hasty and unwise, in view of negotiations then in
progress; but the Hotspurs would listen to no prudential
considerations. Sentiments such as those expressed by Morris of
Pennsylvania irritated them beyond measure. Why protect this wandering
population in Oregon? he asked. Let them take care of themselves; or
if they cannot protect themselves, let the government defend them
during the period of their infancy, and then let them form a republic
of their own. He did not wish to imperil the Union by crossing
barriers beyond which nature had intended that we should not go.

This frank, if not cynical, disregard of the claims of American
emigrants,--"wandering and unsettled" people, Morris had called
them,--brought Douglas to his feet. Memories of a lad who had himself
once been a wanderer from the home of his fathers, spurred him to
resent this thinly veiled contempt for Western emigrants and the part
which they were manfully playing in the development of the West. The
gentleman should say frankly, retorted Douglas, that he is desirous of
dissolving the Union. Consistency should force him to take the ground
that our Union must be dissolved and divided up into various, separate
republics by the Alleghanies, the Green and the White Mountains.
Besides, to cede the territory of Oregon to its inhabitants would be
tantamount to ceding it to Great Britain. He, for one, would never
yield an inch of Oregon either to Great Britain or any other
government. He looked forward to a time when Oregon would become a
considerable member of the great American family of States. Wait for
the issue of the negotiations now pending? When had negotiations not
been pending! Every man in his senses knew that there was no hope of
getting the country by negotiation. He was for erecting a government
on this side of the Rockies, extending our settlements under military
protection, and then establishing the territorial government of
Oregon. Facilitate the means of communication across the Rocky
Mountains, and let the people there know and feel that they are a part
of the government of the United States, and under its protection; that
was his policy.

As for Great Britain: she had already run her network of possessions
and fortifications around the United States. She was intriguing for
California, and for Texas, and she had her eye on Cuba; she was
insidiously trying to check the growth of republican institutions on
this continent and to ruin our commerce. "It therefore becomes us to
put this nation in a state of defense; and when we are told that this
will lead to war, all I have to say is this, violate no treaty
stipulations, nor any principle of the law of nations; preserve the
honor and integrity of the country, but, at the same time, assert our
right to the last inch, and then, if war comes, let it come. We may
regret the necessity which produced it, but when it does come, I would
administer to our citizens Hannibal's oath of eternal enmity, and not
terminate the war until the question was settled forever. I would blot
out the lines on the map which now mark our national boundaries on
this continent, and make the area of liberty as broad as the continent
itself. I would not suffer petty rival republics to grow up here,
engendering jealousy of each other, and interfering with each other's
domestic affairs, and continually endangering their peace. I do not
wish to go beyond the great ocean--beyond those boundaries which the
God of nature has marked out, I would limit myself only by that
boundary which is so clearly defined by nature."[206]

The vehemence of these words startled the House, although it was not
the only belligerent speech on the Oregon question. Cooler heads, like
J.Q. Adams, who feared the effect of such imprudent utterances falling
upon British ears, remonstrated at the unseemly haste with which the
bill was being "driven through" the House, and counselled with all the
weight of years against the puerility of provoking war in this
fashion. But the most that could be accomplished in the way of
moderation was an amendment, which directed the President to give
notice of the termination of our joint treaty of occupation with Great
Britain. This precaution proved to be unnecessary, as the Senate
failed to act upon the bill.

No one expected from the new President any masterful leadership of the
people as a whole or of his party. Few listened with any marked
attention, therefore, to his inaugural address. His references to
Texas and Oregon were in accord with the professions of the Democratic
party, except possibly at one point, which was not noted at the time
but afterward widely commented upon. "Our title to the country of the
Oregon," said he, "is clear and unquestionable." The text of the
Baltimore platform read, "Our title to the _whole_ of the territory of
Oregon is clear and unquestionable." Did President Polk mean to be
ambiguous at this point? Had he any reason to swerve from the strict
letter of the Democratic creed?

In his first message to Congress, President Polk alarmed staunch
Democrats by stating that he had tried to compromise our clear and
unquestionable claims, though he assured his party that he had done so
only out of deference to his predecessor in office. Those inherited
policies having led to naught, he was now prepared to reassert our
title to the whole of Oregon, which was sustained "by irrefragable
facts and arguments." He would therefore recommend that provision be
made for terminating the joint treaty of occupation, for extending the
jurisdiction of the United States over American citizens in Oregon,
and for protecting emigrants in transit through the Indian country.
These were strong measures. They might lead to war; but the temper of
Congress was warlike; and a group of Democrats in both houses was
ready to take up the programme which the President had outlined.
"Fifty-four forty or fight" was the cry with which they sought to
rally the Chauvinists of both parties to their standard. While Cass
led the skirmishing line in the Senate, Douglas forged to the fore in
the House.[207]

It is good evidence of the confidence placed in Douglas by his
colleagues that, when territorial questions of more than ordinary
importance were pending, he was appointed chairman of the Committee on
Territories.[208] If there was one division of legislative work in
which he showed both capacity and talent, it was in the organization
of our Western domain and in its preparation for statehood. The vision
which dazzled his imagination was that of an ocean-bound republic; to
that manifest destiny he had dedicated his talents, not by any
self-conscious surrender, but by the irresistible sweep of his
imagination, always impressed by things in the large and reinforced by
contact with actual Western conditions. Finance, the tariff, and
similar public questions of a technical nature, he was content to
leave to others; but those which directly concerned the making of a
continental republic he mastered with almost jealous eagerness. He had
now attained a position, which, for fourteen years, was conceded to be
indisputably his, for no sooner had he entered the Senate than he was
made chairman of a similar committee. His career must be measured by
the wisdom of his statesmanship in the peculiar problems which he was
called upon to solve concerning the public domain. In this sphere he
laid claim to expert judgment; from him, therefore, much was required;
but it was the fate of nearly every territorial question to be bound
up more or less intimately with the slavery question. Upon this
delicate problem was Douglas also able to bring expert testimony to
bear? Time only could tell. Meantime, the House Committee on
Territories had urgent business on hand.

Texas was now knocking at the door of the Union, and awaited only a
formal invitation to become one of the family of States, as the
chairman was wont to say cheerily. Ten days after the opening of the
session Douglas reported from his committee a joint resolution for
the admission of Texas, "on an equal footing with the original states
in all respects whatever."[209] There was a certain pleonasm about
this phrasing that revealed the hand of the chairman: the simple
statement must be reinforced both for legal security and for
rhetorical effect. Six days later, after but a single speech, the
resolution went to a third reading and was passed by a large
majority.[210] Voted upon with equal dispatch by the Senate, and
approved by the President, the joint resolution became law, December
29, 1845.

While the belligerent spirit of Congress had abated somewhat since the
last session, no such change had passed over the gentleman from
Illinois. No sooner had the Texas resolution been dispatched than he
brought in a bill to protect American settlers in Oregon, while the
joint treaty of occupation continued. He now acquiesced, it is true,
in the more temperate course of first giving Great Britain twelve
months' notice before terminating this treaty; but he was just as
averse as ever to compromise and arbitration. "For one," said he, "I
never will be satisfied with the valley of the Columbia, nor with 49 deg.,
nor with 54 deg. 40'; nor will I be, while Great Britain shall hold
possession of one acre on the northwest coast of America. And, Sir, I
never will agree to any arrangement that shall recognize her right to
one inch of soil upon the northwest coast; and for this simple reason:
Great Britain never did own, she never did have a valid title to one
inch of the country."[211] He moved that the question of title should
not be left to arbitration.[212] His countrymen, he felt sure, would
never trust their interests to European arbitrators, prejudiced as
they inevitably would be by their monarchical environment.[213] This
feeling was, indeed, shared by the President and his cabinet advisers.

With somewhat staggering frankness, Douglas laid bare his inmost
motive for unflinching opposition to Great Britain. The value of
Oregon was not to be measured by the extent of its seacoast nor by the
quality of its soil. "The great point at issue between us and Great
Britain is for the freedom of the Pacific Ocean, for the trade of
China and Japan, of the East Indies, and for the maritime ascendency
on all these waters." Oregon held a strategic position on the Pacific,
controlling the overland route between the Atlantic and the Orient. If
this country were yielded to Great Britain--"this power which holds
control over all the balance of the globe,"--it would make her
maritime ascendency complete.[214]

Stripped of its rhetorical garb, Douglas's speech of January 27, 1846,
must be acknowledged to have a substratum of good sense and the
elements of a true prophecy. When it is recalled that recent
developments in the Orient have indeed made the mastery of the Pacific
one of the momentous questions of the immediate future, that the
United States did not then possess either California or Alaska, and
that Oregon included the only available harbors on the coast,--the
pleas of Douglas, which rang false in the ears of his own generation,
sound prophetic in ours. Yet all that he said was vitiated by a
fallacy which a glance at a map of the Northwest will expose. The line
of 49 deg. eventually gave to the United States Puget Sound with its
ample harbors.

Perhaps it was the same uncompromising spirit that prompted Douglas's
constituents in far away Illinois to seize the moment to endorse his
course in Congress. Early in January, nineteen delegates, defying the
inclemency of the season, met in convention at Rushville, and
renominated Douglas for Congress by acclamation.[215] History
maintains an impenetrable silence regarding these faithful nineteen;
it is enough to know that Douglas had no opposition to encounter in
his own bailiwick.

When the joint resolution to terminate the treaty of occupation came
to a vote, the intransigeants endeavored to substitute a declaration
to the effect that Oregon was no longer a subject for negotiation or
compromise. It was a silly proposition, in view of the circumstances,
yet it mustered ten supporters. Among those who passed between the
tellers, with cries of "54 deg. 40' forever," amid the laughter of the
House, were Stephen A. Douglas and four of his Illinois
colleagues.[216] Against the substitute, one hundred and forty-six
votes were recorded,--an emphatic rebuke, if only the ten had chosen
so to regard it.

While the House resolution was under consideration in the Senate, it
was noised abroad that President Polk still considered himself free to
compromise with Great Britain on the line of 49 deg.. Consternation fell
upon the Ultras. In the words of Senator Hannegan, they had believed
the President committed to 54 deg. 40' in as strong language as that
which makes up the Holy Book. As rumor passed into certainty, the
feelings of Douglas can be imagined, but not described. He had
committed himself, and,--so far as in him lay,--his party, to the line
of 54 deg. 40', in full confidence that Polk, party man that he was, would
stubbornly contest every inch of that territory. He had called on the
dogs of war in dauntless fashion, and now to find "the standard-bearer
of Democracy," "Young Hickory," and many of his party, disposed to
compromise on 49 deg.,--it was all too exasperating for words. In contrast
to the soberer counsels that now prevailed, his impetuous advocacy of
the whole of Oregon seemed decidedly boyish. It was greatly to his
credit, however, that, while smarting under the humiliation of the
moment, he imposed restraint upon his temper and indulged in no bitter
language.

Some weeks later, Douglas intimated that some of his party associates
had proved false to the professions of the Baltimore platform. No
Democrat, he thought, could consistently accept part of Oregon instead
of the whole. "Does the gentleman," asked Seddon, drawing him out for
the edification of the House, "hold that the Democratic party is
pledged to 54 deg. 40'?" Douglas replied emphatically that he thought the
party was thus solemnly pledged. "Does the gentleman," persisted his
interrogator, "understand the President to have violated the
Democratic creed in offering to compromise on 49 deg.?" Douglas replied
that he did understand Mr. Polk in his inaugural address "as standing
up erect to the pledge of the Baltimore Convention." And if ever
negotiations were again opened in violation of that pledge, "sooner
let his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth than he would defend
that party which should yield one inch of Oregon."[217] Evidently he
had made up his mind to maintain his ground. Perhaps he had faint
hopes that the administration would not compromise our claims. He
still clung tenaciously to his bill for extending governmental
protection over American citizens in Oregon and for encouraging
emigration to the Pacific coast; and in the end he had the empty
satisfaction of seeing it pass the House.[218]

Meantime a war-cloud had been gathering in the Southwest. On May 11th,
President Polk announced that war existed by act of Mexico. From this
moment an amicable settlement with Great Britain was assured. The most
bellicose spirit in Congress dared not offer to prosecute two wars at
the same time. The warlike roar of the fifty-four forty men subsided
into a murmur of mild disapprobation. Yet Douglas was not among those
who sulked in their tents. To the surprise of his colleagues, he
accepted the situation, and he was among the first to defend the
President's course in the Mexico imbroglio.

A month passed before Douglas had occasion to call at the White House.
He was in no genial temper, for aside from personal grievances in the
Oregon affair, he had been disappointed in the President's recent
appointments to office in Illinois. The President marked his
unfriendly air, and suspecting the cause, took pains to justify his
course not only in the matter of the appointments, but in the Oregon
affair. If not convinced, Douglas was at least willing to let bygones
be bygones. Upon taking his departure, he assured the President that
he would continue to support the administration. The President
responded graciously that Mr. Douglas could lead the Democratic party
in the House if he chose to do so.[219]

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