Stephen Arnold Douglas

The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been faithfully preserved. Only obvious typographical errors have been corrected. The Riverside Biographical Series ————— 1. ANDREW JACKSON, by W.G. Brown. 2. JAMES B. EADS, by Louis How. 3. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, by Paul E. More. 4. PETER COOPER, by R.W. Raymond. 5. THOMAS JEFFERSON, by H.C. Merwin. 6. WILLIAM PENN, by George Hodges. 7. GENERAL GRANT, by Walter Allen. 8. LEWIS AND CLARK, by William R. Lighton. 9. JOHN MARSHALL, by James B. Thayer. 10. ALEXANDER HAMILTON, by Chas. A. Conant . 11. WASHINGTON IRVING, by H.W. Boynton . 12. PAUL JONES, by Hutchins Hapgood . 13. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, by W.G. Brown . 14. SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN, by H.D. Sedgwick , Jr. Each about 140 pages, 16mo, with photogravure portrait, 65 cents, net ; School Edition , each, 50 cents, net . HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. Boston and New York The Riverside Biographical Series NUMBER 13 STEPHEN ARNOLD DOUGLAS BY WILLIAM GARROTT BROWN STEPHEN ARNOLD DOUGLAS BY WILLIAM GARROTT BROWN BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1902 COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY WILLIAM GARROTT BROWN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published March, 1902 To J.S. Jr. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. Youth and the West 1 II. The House and the Senate 31 III. The Great Question 58 IV. Leadership 82 V. The Rivals 112 The portrait is from a photograph by Brady in the Library of the State Department at Washington. STEPHEN ARNOLD DOUGLAS YOUTH AND THE WEST The ten years of American history from 1850 to 1860 have a fascination second only to that of the four years which followed. Indeed, unless one has a taste for military science, it is a question whether the great war itself is more absorbing than the great debate that led up to it; whether even Gettysburg and Chickamauga, the March to the Sea, the Wilderness, Appomattox, are of more surpassing interest than the dramatic political changes,—the downfall of the Whig party, the swift rise and the equally swift submergence of the Know-Nothing party, the birth of the Republican party, the disruption and overthrow of the long-dominant Democratic party,—through which the country came at last to see that only the sword could make an end of the long controversy between the North and the South. The first years of the decade were marked by the passing of one group of statesmen…