I heard that Douglas had the same view on slavery as Lincoln did? as far as that it was wrong. Didn't both men feel that way? whereas Breckenridge supported slavery and idk about Bell.
Bell and Douglas more or less agreed about slavery. Douglas himself was opposed to slavery while Bell was for it, but both believed in popular sovereignty, or the status quo, whereby each state would decide whether to allow slavery or not by itself. Breckinridge favored popular sovereignty, but also wanted to promote the extension of slavery into new territories and, eventually, new states. Breckinridge also wanted to repeal the laws that prevented the importation of new slaves, I believe. Lincoln opposed slavery and wanted to try to do away with it; his platform was less radical than he partially because a lot of anti-slavery people were afraid of exactly what happened, a civil war, and would have voted for Douglas had Lincoln come right out and declared that he would abolish slavery.
So was popular sovereignty the only difference the Northern Democrats and the Southern Democrats had?
