It didn't take long for freshman Congressman Stephen A. Douglas to see the truth of Senator Thomas Hart Benton's warning: slavery attached itself to every measure that came before the U.S. Congress. Douglas wanted to expand the nation into an ocean-bound republic. Yet slavery and the violent conflicts it stirred always interfered, as it did in 1844 with his first bill to organize Nebraska.In 1848, when America acquired 550,000 square miles after the Mexican War, the fight began ove...

When newly elected Illinois State Representative Abraham Lincoln first saw 5'4" Stephen A. Douglas, he sized him up as "the least man I ever saw." With the introduction of Douglas's first bill in 1834, Lincoln soon thought differently. The General Assembly not only passed the bill, it appointed the 21-year-old Douglas State's Attorney of Illinois' largest judicial district, replacing John J. Hardin, one of Lincoln's most powerful political allies.It was the first of many Douglas-Li...