Board Thread:New on Alternative History/@comment-72.185.4.15-20130303025444/@comment-6884305-20130305145900

I found this comment at Civilwartalk.com:

"If Douglas wins the election (which I find improbable, but lets go with it) I think he will say let the territories decide for themselves. However, the Southern states are still going to see a threat from the (minority) abolitionists in the North, and the men and women who will not abide by the Fugitive Slave laws and they will find some reason to secede.   I don't think they had any confidence in Douglas to protect slavery like they wanted.  Hence the reason you see the split in the Democratic party, with Douglas running as a (Northern) Democrat and Breckenridge running as a (Southern) Democrat. There would have been secession and war, though it might have taken a bit longer to happen. "

My position has been Douglas wins, South still secedes. I was wondering if there would still be a war. This person says there would be. I found several other people on this site talking about all the dissension over slavery in the territories. And, I agree there would have been many possible flashpoint between separate North and South.

However, if there had been a peaceful secession before there had been a war, perhaps the war wouldn't been the total war that Lincoln pursued. And such a war would have left two nations waiting for the events of the 20th century to arrive.