Douglas was a shameless opportunist who re-opened a literal can of worms with his detested Kansas-Nebraska Act. He sold his soul for a railroad that would go through Chicago and tried to cut a deal that would make Kansas a Slave State.
I admire Douglas’ energetic campaigning in 1860 but little else. If I had been around during that period, I would have voted for John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party.
Another one of my heroes is John J. Crittenden of Tennessee . .who had two sons, one was a General in. the Union Army and the other was a General in Confederate Army.
Crittenden authored the heroic Crittenden Compromise that Seward supported and Lincoln quashed.
And yet you have more respect for him than the other two.
Crittenden authored the heroic Crittenden Compromise that Seward supported and Lincoln quashed.
You have an odd choice of heroes. The Crittenden Compromise was an absolute disaster and died a well deserved death. It guaranteed the expansion of slavery into the territories and the 6th article prohibiting any attempts to interfere with slavery in an fashion through Constitutional means basically took the power to amend the Constitution away from the states.