Existing comment:
Stephen A. Douglas, 1813-1861:
The political prominence of Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas rested largely on "popular sovereignty" -- a formula he had devices in the early 1850s to quell the controversy over slavery's westward extension by permitting the settlers of new territories to decide through balloting whether or not to allow slaveholding. In his quest for the presidency in 1860, he continued to urge this principle. By then, however, it satisfied neither North nor South. Although he was Lincoln's nearest rival in the four-way contest that year, his defeat in November was almost inevitable.
This portrait served as a visual backdrop at campaign rallies on Douglas's behalf. |