Stephen Arnold Douglas (April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861) is an American politician from Illinois.

He is a U.S. Representative, a U.S.

Senator, and the Democratic Party nominee for President in the 1860 election, losing to Republican Abraham Lincoln.

Douglas had previously defeated Lincoln in a Senate contest, noted for the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858.

He is nicknamed the "Little Giant" because though short in physical stature, he is a forceful and dominant figure in politics.

Douglas is well known as a resourceful party leader, and an adroit, ready, skillful tactician in debate and passage of legislation.

He is a leading proponent of democracy, and believes in the principle of popular sovereignty: that the majority of citizens should decide contentious issues such as slavery and territorial expansion.

As chairman of the Committee on Territories, Douglas dominates the Senate in the 1850s.

He is largely responsible for the Compromise of 1850 that apparently settles slavery issues.

However, in 1854 he reopens the slavery question with the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which opens some previously prohibited territories to slavery under popular sovereignty.

Opposition to this leads to the formation of the Republican Party.

Douglas initially endorses the Dred Scott decision of 1857, but during the 1858 Senate campaign, he argues its effect could be negated by popular sovereignty.

He also opposes the efforts of President James Buchanan and his Southern allies to enact a Federal slave code and impose the Lecompton Constitution on Kansas.

In 1860, the conflict over slavery leads to the split in the Democratic Party in the 1860 Convention.

Hardline pro-slavery Southerners reject Douglas, and nominate their own candidate, Vice President John C. Breckinridge, while the Northern Democrats nominate Douglas.

Douglas deeply believes in democracy, arguing the will of the people should always be decisive.

When civil war comes in April 1861, he rallies his supporters to the Union with all his energies, but he dies a few weeks later.