In reality it was a double game.

There was plot and under-plot.

Beneath the struggle between the free-States and the slave-States were the intrigue and deception carried on between Northern Democrats and Southern Democrats.

The Kansas-Nebraska act was a double-tongued statute, and the Cincinnati platform a Janus-faced banner.

Momentary victory was with the Southern Democrats, for they had secured the nomination and election of President Buchanan--"a Northern man with Southern principles." [Sidenote] Walker to Cass, July 15, 1857.