Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Duncan Styles
Taken: 1860
Caption: Stephen A. Douglas
Additional Description: This 1860 portrait of Stephen A. Douglas by Duncan Styles hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC.

“The political prominence of Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas rested largely on ‘popular sovereignty’ — a formula he had devised in the early 18505 to quell the controversy over slavery's westward extension by permitting the settlers of new territories to decide through balloting whether or not to allow slaveholding. In his quest for the presidency in 1860, he continued to urge this principle. By then, however, it satisfied neither North nor South. Although he was Lincoln's nearest rival in the four-way contest that year, his defeat in November was almost inevitable.

This portrait served as a visual backdrop at campaign rallies on Douglas's behalf. ” — National Portrait Gallery
Submitted: July 24, 2018, by Allen C. Browne of Silver Spring, Maryland.
Database Locator Identification Number: p437108
File Size: 1.412 Megabytes

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