1845 



DOUGLAS 



Mountains. After holding a number of posi- 

 tions under John McLoughlin (1784-1857), he 

 was in 1830 appointed McLoughlin's chief as- 

 sistant at Fort Vancouver, and finally succeeded 

 him as chief factor. In 1851 Douglas became 

 governor of Vancouver Island, then under the 

 control of the Hudson's Bay Company, and 

 later he also became governor of the Crown 

 colony on the mainland, which was first called 

 New Caledonia and later British Columbia. 



Until 1864, when he retired from public life, 

 he was not merely the chief representative of 

 the company, but was also, after the colonies 

 were transferred to the Crown, the royal gov- 

 ernor. There is no question that he was an 

 autocrat in office. He observed certain forms 

 of government, and in 1856 even allowed the 

 establishment of representative government in 

 Vancouver Island, but it was the will of Doug- 

 las that ruled. The rapid increase in popula- 

 tion which followed the discovery of gold on 

 the Fraser River led to demands for a more 

 democratic form of government, with which 

 Douglas had no sympathy. He finally resigned 

 his office because he felt that he could not 

 change his views, yet his bitterest opponents 

 paid tribute to his honesty, courage and abil- 

 ity, and admit that the stimulus which he gave 

 to the colonies justifies his title, the "founder 

 of British Columbia." G.H.L. 



DOUGLAS, STEPHEN ARNOLD (1813-1861), an 

 eminent American statesman whose skill as a 

 debater and resourcefulness as a political leader 

 made him one of the most prominent figures 

 during the stormy period before the War of 

 Secession. Small 

 o f stature, but 

 with large head 

 and massive 

 shoulders, he was 

 popularly known 

 in his day as 

 "The Little 

 Giant," giving 

 "the image of 

 power under close 

 compression." In 

 American history 

 his name is espe- 

 cially associated STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS 

 with the doctrine of "squatter sovereignty," of 

 which he was the most distinguished champion 

 (see SQUATTER SOVEREIGNTY) . 

 1 Douglas was born at Brandon, Vt., and spent 

 the first fifteen years of his life on a farm. A 

 meager country schooling, a year or so of acad- 



emy training and a course in law constituted 

 his preparation for his public career. Admitted 

 to the bar at Jacksonville, 111., in 1834, he soon 

 gained a large practice, and having associated 

 himself with the Andrew Jackson Democrats 

 was elected in 1835 to the office of prosecuting 

 attorney for his district. The following year he 

 was sent to the lower house of the state legis- 

 lature; from 1841 to 1843 he was judge of the 

 supreme court of Illinois, and in 1843 he en- 

 tered the national House of Representatives. 

 In 1847 he began his first term in the United 

 States Senate, where he was conspicuously be- 

 fore the public until his death. 



Soon after his appearance in Congress, Doug- 

 las was singled out as one of the most' energetic 

 and able of the Democratic leaders. His en- 

 thusiasm for the Westward expansion of his 

 country made him a champion of the annexa- 

 tion of Texas and advocate of the Mexican 

 War, and, as he was chosen chairman of the 

 Senate committee on territories, it was his 

 task to introduce bills for organizing the terri- 

 tories of Minnesota, Oregon, New Mexico, 

 Utah, Washington, Kansas and Nebraska. He 

 was soon in the very storm center of the 

 slavery controversy, for the question of admit- 

 ting the territories as free or slave became the 

 great issue of the hour. In 1854 he reported 

 the famous Kansas-Nebraska Bill (which see), 

 giving to the people of those territories the 

 right of deciding whether or not slavery should 

 be permitted within their boundaries, and 

 therefore bringing the squatter sovereignty 

 principle squarely before the people. The 

 passage of this bill was due to Douglas' brilliant 

 qualities of leadership. 



In 1858 he toured the state of Illinois in a 

 stirring campaign for reelection to the Senate, 

 having for his Republican opponent a man as 

 yet unknown to fame Abraham Lincoln. In 

 a series of debates that attracted wide interest, 

 the two discussed the whole problem of slavery 

 arid its extension. Douglas was playing for 

 two prizes, the Senatorship and the Presidency, 

 a fact which Lincoln knew when he put to 

 his opponent the question "Can the people 

 of a territory, against the wish of any citizen 

 of the United States, lawfully exclude slavery 

 from its limits before the formation of a state 

 constitution?" Douglas answered "Yes," which 

 pleased his constituents and secured his reelec- 

 tion to the Senate, but which lost him the 

 support of the Southern Democrats and doubt- 

 less the Presidency of the United States. In 

 1860 he was nominated for the Presidency by 



