Ver.04.29.93*END*
Prepared by Brett Fishburne (bfish@atlantech.net)
The Life of Stephen A. Douglas
by William Gardner
Preface.
De mortuis nil nisi bonum, (of the dead speak nothing but good),
is the rule which governed the friends of Stephen A. Douglas after
his death. "Of political foes speak nothing but ill," is the rule
which has guided much of our discussion of him for forty years.
The time has now arrived when we can study him dispassionately
and judge him justly, when we can take his measure, if not with
scientific accuracy, at least with fairness and honesty.
Where party spirit is as despotic as it is among us, it is difficult
for any man who spends his life amid the storms of politics to get
justice until the passions of his generation have been forgotten.
Even then he is generally misjudged--canonized as a saint,
with extravagant eulogy, by those who inherit his party name, and
branded as a traitor or a demagogue by those who wear the livery
of opposition.
Douglas has perhaps suffered more from this method of dealing with
our political heroes than any other American statesman of the first
class. He died at the opening of the Civil War. It proved to be
a revolution which wrought deep changes in the character of the
people. It was the beginning of a new era in our national life.
We are in constant danger of missing the real worth of men in these
ante-bellum years because their modes of thought and feeling were
not those of this generation.
The Civil War, with its storm of passion, banished from our minds
the great men and gigantic struggles of the preceding decade. We
turned with scornful impatience from the pitiful and abortive
compromises of those times, the puerile attempts to cure by futile
plasters the cancer that was eating the vitals of the nation. We
hastily concluded that men who belonged to the party of Jefferson
Davis and Judah P. Benjamin during those critical years were of
doubtful loyalty and questionable patriotism, that men who battled
with Lincoln, Seward and Chase could hardly be true-hearted
lovers of their country. Douglas died too soon to make clear to a
passion-stirred world that he was as warmly attached to the Union,
as intensely loyal, as devotedly patriotic, as Lincoln himself.
The grave questions arising from the War, which disturbed our politics
for twenty years, the great economic questions which have agitated
us for the past fifteen years, bear slight relation to those dark
problems with which Douglas and his contemporaries grappled. He
was on the wrong side of many struggles preliminary to the War.
He was not a profound student of political economy, hence is not
an authority for any party in the perplexing questions of recent
times. The result is that the greatest political leader of the
most momentous decade of our history is less known to us than any
second-rate hero of the Revolution.
It is not of much importance now to any one whether Douglas is loved
or hated, admired or despised. It is of some importance that he
be understood.
I have derived this narrative mainly from original sources. The
biography written during his life-time by his friend Sheahan, and
that published two years after his death by his admirer, Flint,
are chiefly drawn on for the brief account of his early life.
The history of his career in Congress has been gathered from the
Congressional record; the account of Conventions from contemporary
reports, and the Debates with Lincoln from the authorized publication.
I have not consciously taken any liberty with any text quoted,
except to omit superfluous words, which omissions are indicated by
asterisks. I have not attempted to pronounce judgement on Douglas
or his contemporaries, but to submit the evidence. Not those who
write, but those who read, pass final judgement on the heroes of
biography.
Chapter I. Youth.
Stephen Arnold Douglas was born at Brandon, Vermont, on the 23rd
of April, 1813. His father was a physician, descended from Scotch
ancestors, who had settled in Connecticut before the Revolution.
his mother was the daughter of a prosperous Vermont farmer. Before
he was three months old his father, whose only fortune was his
practice, suddenly died. A bachelor brother of the widow took
the family to his home near Brandon, where they lived for fifteen
years. When not needed at more important work Stephen attended
the common school. but the serious business of life was tilling
his uncle's fields.
At fifteen he sought help to prepare for college. His uncle declined
to assume the burden of his education and advised him to shun the
perils of professional life and adopt the safe and honorable career
of a farmer. The advice was rejected and he obtained permission
to earn his way and shape his future. He walked to Middlebury, a
distance of fourteen miles, and apprenticed himself to a cabinet
maker. He worked with energy and enthusiasm, became a good mechanic
and bade fair to win success at his trade, but owning to delicate
health he abandoned the shop after less than two years' service,
and entered the academy at Brandon, where he pursued his studies
for about a year, when his mother married again and moved to
Canandiagua, New York. He there entered an academy and continued
an industrious student for nearly three years, devoting part of his
time to law study. This ended his preliminary training. He quit
the schools and applied himself to the work of practical life.
In June, 1833, he left home to push his fortune in the West. His
health was delicate, his stock of money scant. He went to Cleveland,
Ohio, where he became acquainted with a lawyer named Andrews, who,
pleased with the appearance of the youth, invited him to share his
office and use his library, with the promise of a partnership when
admitted to the bar. The offer was accepted and he began his duties
as law clerk. A week later he was taken seriously sick, and at
the end of his long illness the doctors advised him to return home.
He rejected the advice and in October took passage on a canal boat
for Portsmouth, on the Ohio river, and went thence to Cincinnati.
For a week he sought employment. Unable to find it he went to
Louisville, where another week was spent in vain quest of work.
He continued his journey to St. Louis, where he landed in the late
autumn. An eminent lawyer offered him free use of his library,
but an empty purse compelled him to decline the offer and seek
immediate work. He went to Jacksonville, Illinois, arriving late
in November, and addressed himself to the pressing problem of
self-support. The remnant of his cash amount to thirty-seven cents.