Basic Information
Name: Stephen Arnold Douglas
Nickname: Little Giant, Mr. Popular, the Other Douglas(s)
Born: April 23, 1813
Died: June 3, 1861
Nationality: American
Hometown: Brandon, VT
WORK & EDUCATION
Occupation: Farmer, lawyer, congressman, U.S. senator
Education: The Canandaigua Academy
FAMILY & FRIENDS
Parents: Stephen Arnold Douglass, Sarah Fisk Douglass (that's right, there were two s's—Stephen the younger dropped the second one around the time he was elected senator)
Siblings: Sarah Douglass (his parents really weren't very original, were they?)
Spouse: Martha Martin (d. 1853), Adele Cutts
Children: Robert M. Douglas, Stephen Arnold Douglas, Jr., Elizabeth Douglas, and Ellen Douglas
Friends: Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay
Foes: Abraham Lincoln, Southern Democrats
Analysis
Although he had a pretty solid political career for decades, Stephen Douglas really reached peak fame in the 1850s. While everyone else was yelling over whether slavery should be expanded into the new western states, Douglas stood up and said, basically, "Hey everyone, why don't we make other people decide this? It's so much more democratic this way."
This idea of "popular sovereignty" made him a real star/villain. (Hey: you win some, you lose some. Sometimes you do both at the same time.)
Old McDouglas Had a Farm
Douglas came from one of those old American families that have been around since Vikings landed in North America. Okay, slight exaggeration, but he part of the sixth generation of New England Douglasses.
Growing up on his uncle's farm in Vermont (his dad died when he was a wee baby), Douglas showed a preference for school over working the farm. (Source)
The maple syrup trade must not have taken off yet, because that would have been too sweet to give up. (We'll show ourselves out.)
He finally got to indulge his academic side studying classics at The Canandaigua Academy in Canandaigua, NY, where he also got his start in law.
He was known for much of his life as the "Little Giant," as he was five feet four inches tall, a bit heavyset, and his most distinctive feature was his large head. He did rise quickly in the political ranks of the Democratic Party, and became pretty influential not just for the Democrats, but the entire U.S. (Source)
The Jackson One
Young Douglas got really interested in politics after the rise of Andrew Jackson and the ideas of Jacksonian Democracy. In fact, he took on a leading role in the local Democratic party machine in his new town of Jacksonville, Illinois, in an effort to encourage Jacksonian principles, by introducing things like committees and nominating conventions. (Source)
In 1843, Douglas was elected to be the youngest member of the U.S. House of Representatives, followed closely by his election to the Senate in 1846. He hung out in the Senate until he died in the early days of the Civil War. So when Lincoln went up against Douglas in 1856, he was going up against someone who had had the job for ten years already.
All About the Elbow Room
Where Douglas really started to rise and shine was western expansion and the Manifest Destiny craze of the mid-19th Century. He supported all major efforts to increase the size of the United States, such as the Annexation of Texas, the Mexican-American War, and the effort to finally get Oregon from Great Britain. Along the way, he supported investment in those territories, using tactics like giving land to people and building railroads. (Source)
Well, as they say "If you build it, he will come…"
After the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848 and the acquisition of lots (and lots and lots) of land from Mexico, Douglas' enthusiasm for expansion became especially relevant. Although the Compromise of 1850 is mostly attributed to Henry Clay, Douglas was actually a prominent figure in getting the legislation passed. The New Mexico and Utah territories were to eventually be organized under popular sovereignty—passing on the decision about slavery to future settlers. Douglas also split the larger bill into individual pieces, which helped them get passed. (Source)
Toto, I Think We're in Kansas Now
And then there was the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
The Compromise of 1850 kinda-sorta kept some level of peace, which was promptly ruined by the crisis of Kansas and Nebraska. Once those territories had enough people to become states, lawmakers were once again faced with the question: to allow slavery, or not to allow slavery?
(Hint: the answer to that one is always "not.")
You can get some more specifics about the legislation here. In essence, Douglas—who by this point was chairman of the congressional Committee on Territories, appropriately—was the one introducing bills to decide how to organize these new states. His second bill, introduced in January 1854, created two states where the people living there would decide whether or not to allow slavery when they created their state constitution.
Part of this process also required Douglas to publicly question the legality of the Missouri Compromise, which would have prevented popular sovereignty in a lot of new territory. (Source) After all, you can't give people the option to vote for or against slavery when Congress has already made that decision. His wish would be granted in 1857 with the Dred Scott decision.
Although the Kansas-Nebraska Act passed, it led to a whole bunch of violence known as "Bleeding Kansas" (ew), not to mention the very sketchy Lecompton Constitution, which even Douglas didn't support. So far, popular sovereignty in practice was not turning out as well as Douglas (or anyone) would have hoped.
The American Non-President
Douglas didn't give up on his dream, though. During the Lincoln-Douglas Debates in 1858, Douglas issued what has become known as the Freeport Doctrine (because it was uttered in Freeport, IL), which, in a nutshell, said that no matter what the Supreme Court or Congress said, the people would allow or forbid slavery if they really wanted to.
There's more than one way to skin a cat (but please, don't try any of them at home).
Douglas may have won the Senate seat for the umpteenth time after the Lincoln-Douglas Debates (although historians generally agree that Lincoln kind of won the debates), but he paid a price.
Not only did the events in Kansas make popular sovereignty look dicey at best to anti-slavery or Free Soil northerners, it lost him the support of the South as well. His idea was too conciliatory to slaveholders for the North, and too non-committal for the South. When the 1860 election rolled around, southern Democrats were so upset by his stance that they broke off and formed their own political party.
That's when you know you've made an impact—when people go start a whole new party because they don't like you.
Douglas was a solid contender for president in 1860, but the approximately one gajillion political parties in the mix left him second place in the popular vote, and last in the electoral vote. (Source)
Oof.
Little Giant, Big Impact
When war broke out soon after he lost the presidential election, Douglas was outspoken that secession was illegal and that they needed to save the union by any means necessary. He never lived to see the reunion though, since the stress of traveling around raising support for the union helped speed up his rather untimely demise in June of 1861. (Source)
Over the course of his decades-long career in Congress, Douglas achieved a level of political clout that many only dream of. Although the ultimate results of his influence are mixed at best, he's a major figure in American political history, and a pretty good illustration of what the political situation was in the antebellum period.
You certainly can't say he didn't make an effort.