Stephen Douglas: in pursuit of a democratic union

Robert W. Johannsen. The Frontier, the Union, and Stephen A. Douglas.
Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1989.
Pp. 311 with index. $34.95 (cloth).

In the 1850s the dominant political and social issue in the United States was the extension of slavery into the vast territorial areas of the nation. As American leaders during these years looked westward for national expansion, the territories of the West became the prize in the crucial contest between the free and slave states — a contest that culminated in disunion and civil war.

The central figure in this period of national and sectional debate was Stephen Arnold Douglas, the senior senator from Illinois. Douglas had entered Congress in the mid-1840s as an advocate of western expansion, a Pacific railroad, a free land policy encouraging westward settlement, and the organization of territorial government. To Douglas, the West represented the future strength and power of the nation. When he proposed a solution to the sectional conflict — that the question of slavery be decided by the people who lived in the territories — he won the support of the settlers in the West and became their spokesman.

The Frontier, the Union, and Stephen A. Douglas offers a compilation of 15 essays — most of which appeared previously in historical publications — by Robert W. Johannsen. Johannsen, winner of the Society for American Historians' Francis Parkman Prize for his 1973 biography of Douglas, weaves details about Douglas's personality and beliefs into an account of his political pursuit of a

To Douglas, the West represented the future strength and power of the nation

democratic union.

Through his successful sponsorship of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, Douglas affirmed at the national level the principle of popular sovereignty — allowing residents of these territories the freedom "to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way." This controversial act repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820-21, which had permitted slavery in certain areas while prohibiting it in others. Opposing popular sovereignty was Douglas's fellow Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln. Aroused "as he had never been before," Lincoln publicly and unequivocally expressed his concern over "the moral question of slavery."

In several of these essays, Johannsen offers interpretations of the ideological conflicts between Douglas and Lincoln, especially as these were recorded during the 1858 senatorial campaign in Illinois. Because of Douglas's central role in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise —thereby reviving the disruptive issue of slavery — "the Illinois campaign assumed a national significance that few state contests have ever had." The senatorial debates in seven towns throughout Illinois provided "one of the most important intellectual discussions of the slavery question" and established for Lincoln the national identity that led him to the presidency two years later.

Within months of Lincoln's presidential victory, six southern states withdrew from the Union and a number of territorial officials revived a movement from the previous decade for a separate nation west of the Rocky Mountains. Compromise prevailed in the West, however, as the editor of the Washington (Territory) Standard urged: "The time has arrived when concessions must be made to hold this fabric together."

On first reading, the essay "Sandburg and Lincoln: The Prairie Years" seems out of place in a volume focusing on mid-nineteenth century America because it is more biographical of Sandburg than analytical of Lincoln. Yet, as a modern complement to the historical offerings of the collection, its inclusion is appropriate: Sandburg describes Lincoln as "nearer the average man and the common people than any man of the century."

In the 21 years since the essay "In Search of the Real Lincoln, or Lincoln at the Crossroads" first appeared, there have been at least a few classics added to the Lincoln literature, notably Stephen Oates's biography, With Malice Toward None (1977). And The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, described here as "the closest thing to a definitive collection" of Lincoln's written and spoken words, will be supplemented in the next few years by a compilation of all the known documents relating to his legal career.

By assembling these rich, readable essays from an acknowledged authority on Douglas and his times into a convenient volume, the University of Illinois Press has provided a valuable resource. The index and extensive footnotes furnish many helpful reference sources for the period — letters, newspapers, reminiscences. Lay readers as well as students and scholars of American history will appreciate this fine volume. □

Janice Petterchak is head of the Illinois State Historical Library. She holds a master's degree from Sangamon State University and began her career with the historical library in 1971 as an SSU intern.

October 1989 | Illinois Issues | 29