But there was a flaw in Douglas’s armor which Green of Missouri detected.  Had the Senator from Illinois not urged the intervention of Congress to prevent polygamy in Utah?  “Not at all,” replied Douglas; “the people of that Territory were in a state of rebellion against the Federal authorities.”  What he had urged was the repeal of the organic act of the Territory, so that the United States might exercise absolute jurisdiction and protect property in that region.  “But if the people of a Territory took away property in slaves, were they not also defying the Federal authorities?” persisted Green.  Unquestionably Congress might revoke the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Douglas admitted; but it should be remembered that the act was bottomed upon an agreement.  There was a distinct understanding that the question whether territorial laws affecting the right of property in slaves were constitutional, should be referred to the Supreme Court.  “If constitutional, they were to remain in force until repealed by the Territorial Legislature; if not, they were to become void not by action of Congress but by the decision of the court."[787] And Douglas quoted at length from a speech by Senator Benjamin in 1856, to prove his point.  But it was precisely this agreement of 1854, which was now being either repudiated or construed in the interest of the South.  Jefferson Davis frankly deprecated the “great hazard” which representatives from his section ran in 1854; but, he added, “I take it for granted my friends who are about me must have understood at that time clearly that this was the mere reference of a right; and that if decided in our favor, congressional legislation would follow in its train, and secure to us the enjoyment of the right thus defined."[788]

The wide divergence of purpose and opinion which this debate revealed, dashed any hope of a united Democratic party in 1860.  Men who looked into the future were sobered by the prospect.  If the Democratic party were rent in twain,—­the only surviving national party,—­if Northerners and Southerners could no longer act together within a party of such elastic principles, what hope remained for the Union?  The South was already boldly facing the inevitable.  Said Brown, passionately, “If I cannot obtain the rights guaranteed to me and my people under the Constitution, as expounded by the Supreme Court, then, Sir, I am prepared to retire from the concern....  When our constitutional rights are denied us, we ought to retire from the Union....  If you are going to convert the Union into a masked battery from behind which to make war on me and my property, in the name of all the gods at once, why should I not retire from it?"[789]