The Northern Democratic Party was the Northern wing of the Democratic Party that, in 1860, ran Stephen A. Douglas for President of the United States.
Following the signing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, the sectional divide between the pro-slavery American South and the anti-slavery North was greatly exacerbated. While the Republican Party rallied former Whigs, Know Nothings, and Free Soil Democrats who opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories, the Southern Democrats argued for the immediate expansion of slavery to the west. US Senator Stephen A. Douglas (D-IL) charted a middle course; he believed in "popular sovereignty," under which the settlers would decide for themselves whether to expand slavery or not. Douglas was himself opposed to slavery, and he believed that the terrain of the Western territories would ultimately not be conducive for Southern-style agricultural slavery, meaning that slavery would fail to establish itself in the West. However, he and other Northern Democrats tended to oppose free Black migration to free frontier states, opposed citizenship rights for African-Americans, and supported white supremacism.
The Southern Democrats refused to put slavery up to a vote in the territories, arguing that enslavement was a constitutional right. At the 1860 Democratic National Convention, Southern states' rights delegates walked out to form the Southern Democratic Party with John C. Breckinridge as its candidate, leaving Douglas as the Northern Democrats' presidential nominee.
The Northern Democrats retained the 1856 party platform, resolving to obey the US Supreme Court's decisions on constitutional law, supporting the construction of a railroad to the Pacific, supporting the annexation of Cuba on terms agreeable to Spain, and opposing attempts to defeat the execution of the Fugitive Slave Law. While the primary base of Douglas's support came from Northern Democrats who favored popular sovereignty, many moderates within the party who sought to preserve the Union and avoid conflict over slavery also rallied behind Douglas. Douglas found support among lawyers, doctors, and merchants in cities who were concerned about the implications of secession and favored a more conciliatory approach to slavery. Many small farmers and laborers in the North supported Douglas, as they were often wary of the Southern elite's influence over national politics. Douglas garnered significant support from Irish and German immigrants in urban areas, who were often aligned with the Democratic Party due to its more inclusive approach compared to the Republicans. Douglas’s strongest support came from states in the Midwest and Northeast, including Illinois, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. Douglas attracted a more diverse, middle-class coalition, whereas Breckinridge drew from the Southern elite and those directly invested in the plantation economy. Douglas's approach was characterized by a willingness to negotiate and compromise on the issue of slavery, while Breckinridge's faction was uncompromisingly pro-slavery.
Ultimately, Douglas only carried the state of Missouri and three electoral votes from New Jersey, winning 1,004,042 votes (21.5% of votes cast) overall. Despite placing second in vote share behind the Republican Party's Abraham Lincoln, Douglas placed fourth in electoral votes behind Breckinridge and John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party. In the four Upper South states, there was a unionist majority divided between Douglas and Bell in Virginia and Tennessee; in North Carolina and Arkansas, the unionist (Bell and Douglas) vote approached a majority. In three of the seven Deep South states, unionists (Bell and Douglas) won divided majorities in Georgia and Louisiana and neared it in Alabama. Douglas Democrats in the South would play a major role in the wartime Unionist movement, while Douglas rallied Northern Democrats to support the war effort. While War Democrats cooperated with the Republican government in defeating the South, a peace faction known as "Copperheads" emerged as a powerful anti-war movement in the Ohio Valley sections of Illinois and Indiana, in central and northwestern Ohio, and in urban ethnic wards, supporting a negotiated peace with the Confederacy. In 1864, the Democratic Party ran George B. McClellan as its presidential candidate, seeking a peaceful resolution of the American Civil War without the abolition of slavery. However, enough War Democrats crossed party lines at the polls to re-elect Lincoln. The Northern and Southern Democrats would reunite as a national Democratic Party at the 1868 election.
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