to repeal the Missouri Compromise
as the Democrats, and they were unrelenting in their hostility to
Douglas, and severe in their exposure of his dogma of popular
sovereignty. They had effectively aided in bringing both the
doctrine and its author into disrepute in the South, and, if the
Democrats had ventured to nominate Douglas, they had their weapons
ready for vigorous warfare against him.

With a Southern slave-holder like Mr. Bell at the head of the
ticket, and a Northern man of Mr. Everett's well-known conservatism
associated with him, the Constitutional-Union Party was in a position
to make a strong canvass against Douglas in the South. It was this
fact which, on the re-assembling of the Democratic convention at
Baltimore, had increased the hostility of the South to Douglas,
and made their leaders firm in their resolution not to accept him.
Had the Union party nominated a Northern man instead of Mr. Bell
for President, the case might have been different for Douglas; but
the Southern Democrats feared that their party would be endangered
in half the slave States if they should present Douglas as a
candidate against a native Southerner and slave-holder of Bell's
character and standing. If they were to be beaten in the contest
for the Presidency, they were determined to retain, if possible,
the control of their States, and not to risk their seats in the
Senate and the House in a desperate struggle for Douglas. It would
be poor recompense to them to recover certain Northern States from
the Republicans, if at the same time, and by co-ordinate causes,
an equal number of Southern States should be carried by Bell, and
the destiny of the South be committed to a conservative party,
which would abandon threats and cultivate harmony. Bell's nomination
had, therefore, proved the final argument against the acceptance
of Douglas by the Southern Democracy.

Meanwhile, between the adjournment of the Democratic convention at
Charleston, and its re-assembling at Baltimore, the Republicans
had held their national convention at Chicago. It was a representative
meeting of the active and able men of both the old parties in the
North, who had come together on the one overshadowing issue of the
hour. Differing widely on many other questions, inheriting their
creeds from antagonistic organizations of the past, they thought
alike on the one subject of putting a stop to the extension of
slavery. Those who wished to go farther were