Several times over the years, I've been asked as Answer Man why “Douglas County” is known as “Booger County.”
Back in 2015, I tried to provide an answer. I interviewed a couple of people I thought might know — hoping perhaps the first trading post was founded by a “Mr. Booger” — but instead, I had to put up the white flag of surrender.
Today, I'm back with a slightly different question: Why is Douglas County named after Stephen A. Douglas, an Illinois senator who ended up on the wrong side of history on the question of slavery?
Douglas was known as the ‘Little Giant'
The answer, I believe, is straightforward. When the county chose the name in 1857, no one knew how the greatest challenge in our nation's history, slavery, would be resolved. No one knew what Douglas' legacy would be.
That's the thing about history. Unlike Abraham Lincoln, who seemed to have a steadfast and almost clairvoyant vision of not only our nation's future, but his own tragic destiny, most of us are foggy about what lies ahead.
The reality is that Missouri was a slave state, and our history reflects that.
In recent weeks, I pulled a book off the shelf first published in 1920 entitled “Abraham Lincoln: Man of God,” by John Wesley Hall.
Douglas is mentioned often. Lincoln's life was intertwined with the life of Douglas, nicknamed the “Little Giant” because he was 5 foot 4 (Lincoln was 6 foot 4), yet was a forceful speaker and a dominant figure in politics.
Missouri was a slave state; Douglas accommodated slavery
Douglas had already been a senator for 10 years when Douglas County, Missouri, adopted his name in 1857.
One reason for the name, I'm guessing, is that there weren't nearly as many senators to choose from as today. There were only 31 states and, therefore, only 62 senators. If you were looking for a national figure, the pool was smaller.
Missouri is not alone in having a (Stephen) Douglas County. Eleven others do too.
In my view, the second reason we have a Douglas County, Missouri, is because Missouri was a slave state and Douglas was one of the major proponents of accommodating slavery — even agreeing to overturn the Missouri compromise of 1820 — while trying to preserve the Union.
Douglas upends the Missouri Compromise
Since I'm not a serious student of history, I was surprised to learn in writing this column that Douglas tried to appease both sides when he sponsored the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which became law in 1854.
In 1820, the Missouri Compromise allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state while Maine was admitted as a non-slave state.
What I didn't realize is that the Missouri Compromise also had outlawed slavery above the 36º 30′ latitude line in the remainder of the Louisiana Territory. That line is roughly the northern border of Texas.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act changed that; it opened all territories to slavery as long as the resident voters approved it.
This act, according to the book I'm reading, in large part drew Lincoln back into politics. Earlier in his life, he served in Congress from 1847-1849. He had pledged to serve only one term in the House. He kept his word and returned to his law practice.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act, seen as a pro-slavery victory, in part prompted Lincoln's return. He challenged Douglas for the U.S. Senate in 1858.
In winning Senate seat, Douglas would lose his bid 2 years later for the presidency
The two men debated seven times across Illinois. Lincoln continued to frame slavery as a moral issue, not a legal one. He had done so for years, hoping the nation would someday see it that way, as well.
“A house divided against itself, cannot stand,” he said.
In those debates, Lincoln hammered home the point that in 1857 the U.S. Supreme Court had decided 7-2 in the Dred Scott case to uphold slavery, including in the territories.
Lincoln asked Douglas how he could support allowing votes on slavery in the territories while knowing the Supreme Court had already decided the matter in a pro-slavery decision.
Douglas won in 1858, but historians say his victory sealed his defeat in the presidential election of 1860.
Voter turnout in 1860 race was 81.2 percent
Douglas lost the support of Southern slave states, who wanted federal law — not a vote in the territories — assuring that white people could own slaves in the country's western expansion.
In defeat, Lincoln, who had been relatively unknown nationally, became the leading figure for those in the North opposed to slavery on moral grounds.
The new anti-slavery Republican Party grew in strength, replacing what had been the Whig Party.
Not being a student of Lincoln, or a serious student of history, I was surprised by the results of the 1860 election.
Voter turnout was 81.2 percent, the second highest in American history. (Black and female residents were not allowed to vote.)
Democratic Party was split in two
Lincoln won with only 39.8 percent of the vote, but he wasn't even on the ballot in the 10 slave states. He had 180 electoral votes.
The Democratic party split over slavery. The North and South each had their own nominating conventions. Douglas was the Northern Democratic candidate. He had only 12 electoral votes and garnered 29.5 percent of the overall vote.
John Breckinridge, a former Kentucky senator who was James Buchanan's vice president at the time, was the Southern Democratic candidate. He received 72 Electoral votes and 18.1 percent of the vote.
(Not-So-Fun Fact: President Buchanan, from Pennsylvania, was a pro-slavery sympathizer. After Lincoln was elected but before he took office, two members of Buchanan's cabinet resigned. They later became Confederate generals.)
I should note that Douglas supported the Union once the Civil War started. He died without knowing the nation's fate. He died of typhoid in June 1861, four years after the naming of Douglas County, Missouri.
Taney County named after chief justice in the infamous Dred Scott case
Hindsight is always 20-20. Lincoln was on the right side of history. Douglas was not.
Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, of Maryland, also died on the wrong side of history.
It was Taney who delivered the majority opinion in the Dred Scott case. He is the namesake of our neighbor, Taney County. Ironically, Taney also swore in Lincoln when he became president.
This is Pokin Around column No. 79.
