STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS
AND THE
AMERICAN UNION
8. War and Memory
On December 20, 1860, South Carolina adopted an ordinance of secession from the federal Union. In the next weeks, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed suit. Depressed by political defeat and financial woes, Douglas nonetheless joined in the final efforts to halt southern secession. A Senate Committee of Thirteen, including Douglas, was appointed to draft a compromise plan that would hold the South in the Union, but none of the proposals advanced could secure sufficient political support.
At this juncture, and much to the puzzlement of his Democratic colleagues, Douglas began to engage in a series of private meetings with Abraham Lincoln. Whatever his past differences with Lincoln, Douglas believed that the preservation of the Union now took precedence over party politics. On the inaugural platform, Douglas conspicuously held the president's hat while Lincoln delivered his address. Douglas escorted Mary Todd Lincoln, his early Springfield friend, to the inaugural ball and danced with her that evening. A few days later, Stephen and Adele Douglas were included among guests that the Lincolns invited to the White House. And on March 6, Douglas galvanized the Senate by taking the floor to defend Lincoln's inaugural address as a "peace offering," not a "war message" as some Democrats had charged.
By late March, Lincoln had decided to reinforce two federal forts in the South. In Charleston harbor on April 12, rebel gunners responded by opening a relentless bombardment of Fort Sumter. The long-dreaded war was underway. Two days later, Douglas met again with Lincoln at the White House and learned that the president planned to call up 75,000 troops. Douglas, infuriated by the attack on Fort Sumter, suggested that 200,000 might be a more appropriate figure. He also recommended points to be reinforced and possible courses for troop movements. After the meeting, Douglas published a widely circulated account of his conversation with Lincoln.
In Illinois, the state legislature was going into special session. Charles Lanphier, a longtime Douglas supporter, urged the Senator to be present and make the case for the Union. With Lincoln's encouragement, Stephen and Adele Douglas left Washington and headed west by train. At Harper's Ferry, rebel Virginia militia boarded the train, recognized Senator Douglas, and threatened to take him into custody. Douglas warned that if he were detained, a force would arrive from the west greater than any Virginia had ever seen. He and Adele were allowed to go on. Douglas spoke at several points along their route, repeating his exhortation that the Union must be saved.
In Springfield on April 25, Douglas delivered one of the most powerful speeches of his career. He called on all citizens to rally and do their patriotic duty for themselves, their posterity, and "the friends of constitutional liberty and self-government throughout the world." He also revealed his own shattered hopes. "There is no path of ambition open for me in a divided country," said Douglas, "after having so long served a united and glorious country...To discuss these topics is the most painful duty of my life. It is with a sad heart--with a grief that I have never before experienced, that I have to contemplate this fearful struggle."
On May 1, Stephen and Adele reached Chicago and took up their usual rooms in the Tremont House. Almost immediately upon their arrival, Douglas fell ill, and a fever set in. Within days, he was also afflicted by severe inflammatory rheumatism and a painfully ulcerated throat. His condition steadily declined, and on June 3, with Adele at his side, Douglas died.
Roman Catholic Bishop James Duggan presided at the funeral on June 7. The procession to the gravesite on the Oakenwald estate was led by sixty-four pallbearers accompanying the hearse. Sixteen military companies, including one from the University of Chicago, formed an honor guard, and they were followed by a crowd of more than 5,000 people. The body was laid to rest in a temporary brick tomb on the low bluff Douglas had selected for his Chicago residence.
The devastating war did not spare the remaining Douglas family properties. Camp Douglas, a military prison, was established in 1862 at the northern end of the Oakenwald estate. More than 26,000 captured Confederates were held there under deplorable conditions, and as many as 6,000 died. In Mississippi, the family plantation was raided by Union troops and the entire cotton crop seized. Douglas's sons attempted to recover damages from the federal government after the war, but without success.
Within months of Douglas's death, his friends established the Douglas Monument Association. Leonard W. Volk, a well-known sculptor, was commissioned to prepare a design. The site for the monument and tomb was sold to the state of Illinois by Adele Douglas, and with the aid of private donations and state funds the memorial was finally completed in 1881. A tall column on a sculpted granite base was surmounted by a nine-foot figure of Douglas facing east across Lake Michigan. Beneath, at the foot of the bluff, trains passing north and south rolled along the tracks of the Illinois Central.
In the last months of his life, Douglas had begun to reappraise his longstanding commitment to legal argument and political compromise. He had come to recognize that the continental growth and local self-government he prized could not survive the destruction of the national order. His record had been one of stalwart partisanship, but he now felt moved to defend the higher good of the American Union. It was thus fitting that Douglas's last words to his sons, widely reported after his untimely death, became his final political legacy: "Tell them to obey the laws and support the Constitution of the United States."
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS AND THE AMERICAN UNION