Claim: Abraham Lincoln lost to Douglas in a US Senate race.

Stephen Arnold Douglas -LRB- April 23 , 1813 -- June 3 , 1861 -RRB- was an American politician from Illinois and the designer of the Kansas -- Nebraska Act . He was 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 was nicknamed the `` Little Giant '' because he was short in physical stature , but a forceful and dominant figure in politics . -LRB- His height is given in various sources as being in the range of 5 ft to 5 ft ; five feet four is reported most often . -RRB-   Douglas was well known as a resourceful party leader , and an adroit , ready , skillful tactician in debate and passage of legislation . He was a champion of the Young America movement which sought to modernize politics and replace the agrarian and strict constructionist orthodoxies of the past . Douglas was a leading proponent of democracy , and believed 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 dominated the Senate from 1850 to 1859 . He was largely responsible for the Compromise of 1850 that apparently settled slavery issues ; however , in 1854 he reopened the slavery question with the Kansas -- Nebraska Act , which opened some previously prohibited territories to slavery under popular sovereignty . Opposition to this led to the formation of the Republican Party .   Douglas initially endorsed the Dred Scott decision of 1857 . But during the 1858 Senate campaign , he argued its effect could be negated by popular sovereignty . He also opposed 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 led to the split in the Democratic Party in the 1860 Convention . Hardline pro-slavery Southerners rejected Douglas , and nominated their own candidate , Vice President John C. Breckinridge , while the Northern Democrats nominated Douglas . Douglas deeply believed in democracy , arguing the will of the people should always be decisive . When civil war came in April 1861 , he rallied his supporters to the Union cause with all his energies , but he died of typhoid fever a few weeks later .