He was a grandson of Sen. Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and of Robert P. Dick, a North Carolina state Supreme Court justice.

Douglas graduated from Georgetown University and "read the law" under his grandfather Dick.

Daniel L. Russell to serve out the remainder of Attorney General Zeb V. Walser's term.

[citation needed] At the time of his appointment, he was the youngest person to ever serve as North Carolina Attorney General and the youngest person serving as a state attorney general in the country.

[2] After that he built a practice of law in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he also served as postmaster from 1906 to 1916.