Lincoln & Douglas Films

I have made two films with my friend and colleague Nathan Peck. The first is a biography of Lincoln’s great rival Stephen A. Douglas. The second is a road film, made in the Covid Summer of 2020, about the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Both can be streamed below free of charge.

Stephen a. Douglas and the fate of American democracy

Peck & Peck Productions (2017), 56 min.

Stephen A. Douglas and the Fate of American Democracy tells the intertwined story of the man and the nation from the country's founding to the outbreak of civil war. Born in 1813, Douglas migrated to Illinois from New York in 1833, eager to carve out his future on the frontier.  He quickly became a major force in Illinois politics, founding its Democratic Party, and using it as a base from which to ascend to national greatness. By 1846 he had laid claim to one of Illinois' two seats in the United States Senate. He soon earned acclaim as the architect of the Compromise of 1850, which resolved sectional strife over slavery and may have saved the nation from imminent civil war.  At the age of 37, he had won a national reputation while his Illinois rival, Abraham Lincoln, labored in obscurity as a lawyer in Springfield.

In contrast to Lincoln, Douglas reflected mid-nineteenth century America's relentless expansionism, unbridled optimism, ardent democracy, belligerent patriotism, and tolerance for slavery. He urged not only a continental empire, stretching from coast to coast, but also a hemispheric one incorporating Cuba, Mexico, and territory in Central America.  He believed that American expansion promoted freedom because it enlarged the reach of the country's democratic and progressive institutions, and therefore he advocated war against Mexico in 1846. He paid little attention to the issue of slavery’s expansion. Of far greater concern to Douglas was stretching a railroad across the continent and settling the vast territories that lay between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. An intercontinental railroad would produce incalculable national benefits, annihilating physical barriers that divided the Republic, enabling access to vast natural resources, and opening markets to American commerce throughout the Pacific.

However, the volatile mix of expansion and slavery proved tragic both for Douglas and the nation. Unintentionally, he played the leading role in the sectional drama that soon tore apart the country. His tolerance for slavery and desire for expansion led him to promote the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854--a law that permitted slavery's expansion where it previously had been prohibited. Angry northern voters soon created the antislavery Republican Party, which became a powerful political vehicle for Abraham Lincoln. In 1860, Lincoln’s election as the first Republican Party president precipitated southern secession and then civil war.  

Despite his bitter hostility to antislavery activists, Douglas rallied Democrats to the cause of the Union in the wake of the southern attack on Fort Sumter. Determined to save the Union, Douglas gave his celebrated Protect the Flag speech to the Illinois General Assembly on April 25, 1861, urging all Illinoisans to support Lincoln's administration. He died in Chicago soon afterwards, ravaged by illness and exhaustion, and was buried on his estate, Oakenwald, where his tomb now sits. Artist Leonard Volk designed the massive monument, which was completed in 1881, and featured a 10-foot statue of Douglas, facing east, standing atop a 46-foot column of marble.

Lincoln & Douglas: Touring Illinois in turbulent times

Peck & Peck Productions (2021), 47 min.

Lincoln and Douglas: Touring Illinois in Turbulent Times takes to the road to explore the history, art, and contemporary politics of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. It traces the trip made by my colleague Nathan Peck and I during the Covid Summer of 2020. Despite the risk of infection, we got in a 2011 Subaru Outback filled with gear and crossed the Illinois prairies to film Lincoln and Douglas reenactors on the sites of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Our aim was to get the backstory of the men who regularly climb into nineteenth-century clothing on hot summer days in order to bring to life political giants from America’s past. We wanted to know: why did they do it?

Our plan was soon upended by an unforeseen occurrence: the waves of political unrest produced by the killing of George Floyd, especially the violent attacks on statues of historic men throughout the world. Suddenly, Stephen A. Douglas was a topical figure. In Chicago, schoolchildren urged that Stephen A. Douglas Park be renamed Frederick Douglass Park. In Springfield, Black Lives Matter activists urged removal of Douglas’ portrait from the House of Representatives chamber. They also wanted his statue removed from the State Capitol grounds. It had stood there since 1912, right behind a statue of Abraham Lincoln. The activists found a sympathetic ear in the powerful Speaker of the House of Representatives, Michael Madigan, but not everyone in Illinois agreed. Douglas was important to the history of Illinois and the nation, they argued, and he was a great patriot who fought disunion. Should we not remember him? Our film collected perspectives on this issue to shed light on the meaning of the nation’s history. In the process, we created a permanent visual record of that most unusual summer.

On Film, History, & Democracy

Films invite a conversation about how history is crafted, communicated, and comprehended. Professional historians interpret texts in order to understand the past, and then write books and articles to convey their ideas. But most other people absorb history by listening to others, attending reenactments or theatrical performances, visiting museums, watching documentaries and feature films, or even playing video games. These approaches to the past are far more personal and immersive.  By engaging the senses, they bring the past alive.  Following this model, my films seek to immerse viewers in the world of Lincoln and Douglas.

But the films also ask viewers to think hard about America and democracy.  Douglas' life encapsulates the history of nineteenth-century America in many respects.  Although avidly democratic and convinced of democracy's progressive character, Douglas' commitment to a white man's republic compromised his ideals--and almost destroyed the country he loved.  He was far from alone.  Despite slavery, most white Americans perceived their country as a beacon of liberty in a world of tyranny, what Lincoln later called the world's "last, best hope" for mankind.  By examining the challenges racism and slavery have posed for American democracy in the past and present, the films remind viewers of democracy’s limitations and fragility, and of the constant efforts needed to sustain and improve democratic governance in America and around the globe.