STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS
AND THE
AMERICAN UNION
4. Loss and Renewal
The failure of the 1852 Douglas presidential campaign was quickly followed by a more deeply wrenching personal tragedy. When Martha Douglas gave birth to a daughter in early 1853, her health was dangerously frail. As Martha grew weaker, complications set in, and on January 19, 1853, she died. A few weeks later, the Douglases' unnamed infant daughter died as well. The shock of losing his wife and daughter immersed Douglas in profound grief.
After several months of despair, Douglas decided to escape the scene of his bereavement and seek solace in an extended trip to Europe. He also felt that he might gain important insights on national issues, particularly as they affected international relations. He left Washington in May 1853 and sailed from New York to Liverpool on the first leg of his travels. In London, he inquired about a possible audience with Queen Victoria but declined when he learned that he would have to wear court dress rather than his regular attire. With Douglas's encouragement, much was made of the fact that a hardy, democratic American had refused to submit to a petty aristocratic tradition.
From London, Douglas headed for the Continent, traveling east to Constantinople, and then north across the Crimea, through Kiev and Moscow to St. Petersburg. In the Russian capital, Czar Nicholas I asked him to join in reviewing troops. Douglas was pleased to note that the Czar did not expect him to change clothes for the military parade. He then made his way home via Paris, stopping for one last diplomatic audience with Napoleon III. By October 1853, Douglas had arrived back in the United States.
Although his grief was somewhat assuaged, Douglas had not yet entirely recovered from the loss of Martha. His feelings remained a carefully guarded private matter until the summer of 1856, when he made the acquaintance of a twenty-year-old Washington beauty named Adele Cutts. Like Martha Martin, Adele came from a southern family with an impressive political pedigree. Her father, James Madison Cutts, was the namesake of his uncle, President James Madison. As the grand-niece of Dolley Madison, Adele had grown up in the same household with the president's widow when Dolley was the doyenne of Washington society. Adele's mother came from a prominent Catholic family in Maryland, and Adele had been educated at a Catholic academy in Georgetown.
Stephen Douglas and Adele Cutts were married in Washington in November 1856. Adele immediately took over the management of the Senator's household, accepted the two Douglas boys as her own, and, with Douglas's approval, had Robert and Stephen, Jr., raised and educated as Catholics.
Marriage once again turned Douglas's thoughts to improving his residential quarters. In 1857 Douglas, Vice President John C. Breckinridge, and Henry M. Rice, the Minnesota territorial delegate, decided to build three adjoining houses in what became known as Minnesota Row. Under Adele's direction, the richly decorated Douglas mansion became the setting for some of the most spectacular events on the Washington social calendar. A gala housewarming party in January 1858 attracted as many as 2,000 visitors. A year later, a "grand ball" at the Douglas mansion left nearby streets so jammed with carriages that guests had to walk several blocks to reach the front door.
Friends were delighted that Adele had apparently brought Stephen back from his melancholy. The Douglases shared an unusually close and empathic relationship, particularly in times of trial. When Adele suffered a miscarriage in February 1858, she was so weakened that for several days doctors feared for her life. In the following weeks, Stephen himself became seriously ill and briefly abandoned his senatorial obligations. The next year, after giving birth to a daughter, Ellen, who lived only a few weeks, Adele once more became desperately ill. Her health began to improve, but then Stephen succumbed to illness, and the two shared weeks of convalescence.
Familial joys and sorrows were not the only matters pressing for Douglas's attention. With Martha's death, ownership of the family plantation had passed to Douglas's two young sons. In 1857, disappointed with frequent floods and poor crops, Douglas decided to sell the Pearl River plantation and move to a more promising location. In partnership with James A. McHatton of Baton Rouge, he re-established operations south of Greenville, Mississippi. McHatton furnished 2,000 acres of uncultivated land, and Douglas provided mules, cattle, wagons, and 142 slaves. The new plantation was soon functioning on a profitable basis.
Douglas's involvement in agriculture was matched by a strong amateur interest in science, technology, and education. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the Smithsonian Institution from its creation in 1846, and he secured passage of an amendment that made the Smithsonian library a federal depository for books, maps, and other printed materials. Douglas was later appointed a Regent of the Smithsonian, and he and Joseph Henry, secretary of the Smithsonian, became close friends.
Douglas made his most significant gift for the advancement of learning in his home city of Chicago. In 1856, he offered ten acres of his Oakenwald estate worth $50,000 as the site for the University of Chicago, an institution being organized by local Baptists. The gift was immediately criticized by Douglas's political foes as an effort to increase the value of his property or curry the political support of the Baptists. Douglas offered to withdraw the gift and subscribe $50,000 to locate the University on another site. But the president and trustees refused to be swayed, and in 1858 Stephen and Adele Douglas gave the land to the University of Chicago. A predecessor of the present University of Chicago, this institution served the community for thirty years before closing for financial reasons. [ See related exhibition text: The University and the City: A Centennial View of the University of Chicago ].
The University of Chicago, the new Mississippi plantation, and the lavish mansion in Washington were all facets of Douglas's reborn sense of purpose. Having survived the loss of Martha and found new happiness with Adele, he was better prepared for the fractious and increasingly bitter political struggle that now engulfed the nation.
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS AND THE AMERICAN UNION