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Stephen A. Douglas and the Mormons

Bruce A. Van Orden

From the beginning, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have naturally been defensive about slanderous attacks against their faith, their church, and their leaders. Especially is this true when a prominent individual lashes out against them. Governors Daniel Dunklin and Lilburn W. Boggs of Missouri, Governors Thomas Carlin and Thomas Ford of Illinois, and United States Presidents Martin Van Buren, James Buchanan, and Ulysses S. Grant are among those who offended the Saints because of their statements and actions. Another prominent nineteenth century political figure, Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, has also been categorized an enemy to the Mormons.

In an editorial in the Church Section of the Deseret News on 5 December 1936, Senator Douglas was held up as an "example of infamy" and an "enemy of truth." "The case of Stephen Arnold Douglas, aspirant to the presidency of the United States, is a classic instance of man's impotency to rise on an appeal to prejudice, intolerance and falsehood," the editorial read. "As warned the Prophet Joseph Smith, Douglas' chances of election to the presidency were doomed when he attacked the character of the Prophet and the Latter-day Saints in his election appeal. He went down to defeat before the great Lincoln and today is merely a memory, a figure flitting across the political scene in a crucial period of America's history."

Does Stephen A. Douglas deserve this severe indictment? What did he do or say against the Mormons that was so terrible? What actually did Joseph Smith say to Douglas? Was Douglas ever a friend to the Saints, or was he always an enemy? How do the actions and words of Douglas toward the Mormons compare with those of Abraham Lincoln, with whom he is so often unfavorably compared? Do today's Mormons generally understand the trying circumstances that were wrenching the Union in the 1850s? Could p.360] all of us better understand Stephen A. Douglas and his place in history, both in Mormon and American history, by analyzing the historical milieu which affected his actions and words, both favorable and unfavorable, toward the Mormons?

Mormon traditions regarding Stephen A. Douglas go something like this: When old Missouri enemies sought to extradite Joseph Smith to Missouri, the Prophet repeatedly called upon a young country judge, Stephen A. Douglas, to help keep him (Joseph Smith) out of the clutches of the Missourians. On one occasion in 1843, Joseph Smith dined with Judge Douglas and rehearsed the depredations of the Saints at the hands of their Missouri enemies. Douglas agreed that the Saints deserved redress for their grievances, whereupon the Prophet solemnly prophesied to the thirty-year-old politician that he would later aspire to the presidency of the United States and that if he ever turned against the Prophet, the Lord would punish him and he would fail in his presidential bid. Sure enough, in later years Douglas did become a presidential aspirant, but he deliberately and maliciously turned against the Saints and their leaders by accusing them of all manner of evil and said that they should be punished by the United States. Flaunting Joseph Smith's prophecy, Stephen A. Douglas ran for the presidency and had every reason to believe that he would be successful in his quest. But according to the justice and wisdom of God, Douglas was ignominiously defeated by previously unknown and unappreciated Abraham Lincoln, who would go on to preserve the Union under the influence of the Almighty. The unrepentant Stephen A. Douglas was brought low to his death bed while still in the prime of his life by a just God.