No issue could have been more pronounced than the one thus presented.

Mr.Douglas desired to evade it, and advocated his doctrine of non-intervention which was full of contradictions, and was in any event offensive to the anti- slavery conscience.

It permitted what was considered a grievous moral wrong to be upheld, if a majority of white men would vote in favor of upholding it.

Mr.Bell desired to avoid the one question that was in the popular mind, and to lead the people away from every issue except the abstract one of preserving the Union.

By what means the Union could be preserved against the efforts of Southern secessionists, Mr.Bell's party did not explain.