Speech of Stephen A. Douglas at Richmond, Virginia, July 9, 1852

What it is

This is a printed speech titled Speech of Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, delivered in Richmond, Virginia, July 9, 1852. Douglas, a senator from Illinois, spoke at the invitation of the Central Democratic Association. The Richmond Examiner, quoted in the opening of the text, reported that a large audience filled the African Church to hear him. The copy is a scanned book in PDF form from the Internet Archive, and the text shown here is a machine-read version of its pages, which contains some reading errors.

Why it matters

The speech was given during the 1852 presidential campaign, when the Democratic Party chose Franklin Pierce to run against the Whig candidate Winfield Scott. Douglas, who later became famous for the debates with Abraham Lincoln, here helps rally Democrats around Pierce. It shows how party leaders argued for their candidate and how local Democratic groups in the South hosted national figures.

Look closer

• What does Douglas say about Pierce and why does he think Democrats should support him?
• Who organized the event, and what does the newspaper report tell you about the audience?
• Since this is a printed version of a spoken speech, what might have been changed or left out when it was written down?