Stephen A. Douglas and Antebellum Democracy

Demonstrates how Stephen Douglas's path to overnight stardom in Illinois led to his identification with the Democratic Party.

Martin H. Quitt (Author)

9781107024786, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 September 2012

223 pages, 1 table
24.1 x 16 x 1.7 cm, 0.53 kg

'By situating Douglas' political theories within his social milieu and psychological background, Quitt develops a nuanced analysis of a flawed statesman and the doctrine that defined his career.' Michael E. Woods, Civil War History

This thematic biography demonstrates how Stephen Douglas's path from a conflicted youth in Vermont to dim prospects in New York to overnight stardom in Illinois led to his identification with the Democratic Party and his belief that the federal government should respect the diversity of states and territories. His relationships with his mother, sister, teachers, brothers-in-law, other men and two wives are explored in depth. When he conducted the first cross-country campaign by a presidential candidate in American history, few among the hundreds of thousands that saw him in 1860 knew that his wife and he had just lost their infant daughter or that Douglas controlled a large Mississippi slave plantation. His story illuminates the gap between democracy then and today. The book draws on a variety of previously unexamined sources.

1. Adolescence in Vermont
2. Schooling, learning and passing the bar
3. Family influence, stress and bonds
4. Democratic prodigy in Illinois
5. Douglas's constitutionalism, part i: noncitizen voting, apportionment and internal improvements
6. Douglas's constitutionalism, part ii: slavery in the territories
7. The campaign of 1860 and the code against campaigning
8. In Lincoln's shadow
9. Douglas's Mississippi slaves.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK]