S. Douglas Stephen Arnold Douglas was born in Brandon, Vermont, in 1813.
He did not attend law school but he became attorney-general of Illinois in 1834. A member of the legislature in 1835, and secretary of state in 1840, and judge of the supreme court in 1841. He became a member of the House of Representatives in 1847. In 1854 Douglas introduced his a bill to the Senate that would let the states enter the Union with or without slavery.
Fredrick Douglas warned that the bill was "an open invitation to a fierce and bitter strife".Meaning that it would cause more harm than good. In 1858 Abe Lincoln challenged Douglas for his seat in the Senate. He was against Douglass proposal that the people living in the Louisiana Purchase (Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, the Dakotas, Montana, and parts of Minnesota, Colorado and Wyoming) should be allowed to own slaves.
Lincoln argued that the territories must be kept free for "poor people to go and better their condition".The two men took part in a series of seven public debates on the issue of slavery. The debates, each three hours long, started on 21st August and finished on 15th October. Douglas attempted to brand Lincoln as a dangerous radical who was wanting racial equality.
All Lincoln focused on was the immorality of slavery. He ran for presidency in 1840 against Abraham Lincoln and lost. Stephen Douglas had unusual ways of campaigning, he was out in the public which was unconventional for those times and thought to be unfit with being so eager.President elscts were not seen among the people back then. It was said that he would go about imploring, begging and beseeching people to grant him his wish. He would make up stories just to infuriate the crowds, one was about Fredrick Douglass and that he was seen in Illinois traveling the state in a carriage with two white women.
There were people who saw that certain things were “managed” certain ways if the vote was in a certain persons favor. Ehistory. freeservers. com history1800's. about.
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