What is the significance of Stephen a Douglas?

Answer 1

Senator Stephen A. Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise, and allowed the possibility of new slave-states by local vote, theoretically all the way to the Pacific.

This raised the temperature of the slavery debate, notably in the admittance of Kansas to the Union, where terrorists from both sides descended on this thinly-populated area to intimidate voters and declare the results to be rigged. The resulting mayhem was called 'Bleeding Kansas'.

Answer 2

Stephen A. Douglas was unable to play any role in the Civil War itself, as he died in 1861, before the Civil War got under way.

He was an important figure in the events leading up to the war, being a declared champion of the US remaining one and indivisible. Shortly before his death of typhoid fever he advised Lincoln on his proclamation in which Lincoln declared the southern states in a state of rebellion and called up the troops to suppress it.

On the other hand, he proclaimed to the end that the Constitution and its protection of personal freedom was intended for white people only. Slavery was in his eyes not a moral issue: any State where the majority of the people was in favor of slavery should be free to have it institutionalized.

Answer 3

Stephen A. Douglas (April 1813-June 1861) was an American politician in Illinois. He is famous due to defeating Abraham Lincoln in a Senate contest in 1858.