Lincoln advocated a positive inhibition of slavery by the General Government.

Mr.Douglas proposed to submit Southern rights under the Constitution to the decision of the first mob or rabble that might get possession of a Territorial legislature, and pass a police regulation hostile to slavery.

Against this construction of the Constitution the South protested, and the protest carried with it implacable hostility to Douglas.
The separation of the Democratic party into warring factions was, therefore, inevitable.

The line of division was the same on which the Republican party had been founded.

It was the North against the South, the South against the North.