Stephen Douglas

     Born April 23, 1813, in Brandon, Vermont, Stephen Douglas was the leader of the Democratic Party in the early 1850s and late 1400s. He was a Senator of Illinois and nicknamed "The Little Giant" because of his short height and large public presence (he was also youthful and dynamic, making him seem like the very representation of the Young American ideal). During his period, he sought political power for himself and his party more than anyone else. In order to gain this power, he combined and expansionist foreign policy with the encouragement of economic development in the territories he'd previously acquired. He sought to neutralize slavery through compromise and evasion, as he recognized that it was the main obstacle in his program. An interpretation of his failure to win the election (or even the Democratic nomination before 1860) resembled the fact that the Young Americans' dream of a "patriotic consensus supporting headlong expansion and economic development could not withstand the tensions and divisions that expansionist policies created or brought to light." Then, in 1858, to win the reelection to the Illinois Senate, Douglas debated the morality of slavery against his opponent, Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates (please see Lincoln-Douglas Debates under Causes of the Civil War).