He could not be trusted.

He had failed to stand by the extreme faith; he had refused to respond to its last requirement.

Even at the risk of permanently dissevering the Democratic party, the Southern leaders resolved to destroy Douglas.
To this end, in the session of Congress following the debate with Mr.Lincoln, the Democratic senators laid down, in a series of resolutions, the true exposition of the creed of their party.
Douglas was not personally referred to, but the resolutions were aimed so pointedly at what they regarded his heretical opinions, that his name might as well have been incorporated.

The resolutions were adopted during the absence of Douglas from the Senate, on a health-seeking tour, after his laborious canvass.

With only the dissenting vote of Mr.Pugh of Ohio among the Democrats, it was declared that "neither Congress nor a territorial legislature, whether by direct legislation, or legislation of an indirect or unfriendly character, possesses the power to impair the right of any citizen of the United States to take his slave property into the common Territories, and there hold and enjoy the same while the territorial condition exists." Not satisfied with this utter destruction of the whole doctrine of popular sovereignty, the Democratic senators gave one more turn to the wrench, by declaring that if "the territorial government should fail or refuse to provide adequate protection to the rights of the slave-holder, it will be the duty of Congress to supply such deficiency." The doctrine thus laid down by the Democratic senators was, in plain terms, that the territorial legislature might protect slavery, but could not prohibit it; and that even the Congress of the United States could only intervene on the side of bondage, and never on the side of freedom.
DOUGLAS AND THE SOUTHERN DEMOCRACY.
Anxious as Douglas was to be re-established in full relations with his party, he had not failed to see the obstacles in his way.