Monday, May. 04, 1931

Little Giant's Letter

If Senator Stephen Arnold ("Little Giant") Douglas and President James Buchanan had not quarreled over slavery in Kansas, a united Democracy would have nominated Douglas for President at Charleston in 1860.

If Douglas had had the solid support of his party, including President Buchanan, he would have defeated Abraham Lincoln in the election.

If Douglas had been in the White House in 1861, he would have deprived the South of a pretext to secede, would have held the Union together, would have averted the Civil War.

Ergo, President Buchanan's animosity toward Douglas was in large measure responsible for that four-year strife.

Such was the new line of historical reasoning put forth last week by George Fort Milton, editor of the Chattanooga News, upon the discovery of 20,000 letters to and from the great-lunged, short-legged Illinois Senator. Under the dusty eaves of an old barn at Greensboro. N. C., was found this treasure of historical correspondence. It belonged to Robert Dick Douglas, the "Little Giant's" grandson who turned it over to Editor Milton for use in connection with the latter's forth coming Douglas biography.* Declared Mr. Milton:

"This is certainly one of the two or three most important discoveries of source material for the history of America in the 19th Century. . . . These letters reveal the part President Buchanan played in forcing Democratic disruption in the 1860 campaign which insured the election of Abraham Lincoln. . . . It seems well within the range of probability that except for Buchanan, Douglas would have become President and the Civil War post-poned and possibly altogether averted. The Douglas letters reveal the existence of a strong Union sentiment throughout the South as late as April 15, 1861./- Important figures of the new Confederacy kept writing Douglas in piteous appeal to work out a plan of compromise. . . . The Civil War was an avoidable war."

Forgotten by many people, glossed over by many historians, is the fact that Douglas was a national statesman long before Lincoln. He was runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1856. He viewed his slavery debates with Lincoln in 1858 as a mere incident to winning re-election to the Senate. For Lincoln they were a major opportunity to attract public notice and favor. Contrasted with Lincoln, Douglas is commonly depicted as the arch fiend of slavery. As a matter of fact he was not. He tried to take a middle course on the issue, to weasel on it just as politicians today weasel on Prohibition. He favored settlement of the question in each new State by "popular sovereignty." His quarrel with Buchanan arose because he thought the President had gone over bag & baggage to the extreme pro-slavery camp in trying to make Kansas a slave State. Declared Senator Douglas of the Lecompton constitution: "It's none of my business which way the slavery clause is decided. I care not whether it is voted up or down."

*Editor Milton, Civil War student, is also author of an Andrew Johnson biography (The Age of Hate).

/-Fort Sumter was fired at April 12.

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