It was because the followers of Jackson and Douglas did fight for it, that the Union was preserved.
Be it immediately remarked, however, that the pioneer Democrats were obliged to fight for the Union, just because they were not interested in its progressive consummation.

They willed at one and the same time that the Union _should_ be preserved, but that it _should not_ be increased and strengthened.

They were national in feeling, but local and individualistic in their ideas; and these limited ideas were associated with a false and inadequate conception of democracy.

Jefferson had taught them to believe that any increase of the national organization was inimical to democracy.

The limitations of their own economic and social experience and of their practical needs confirmed them in this belief.