In that same month the Democrats held a convention at Cincinnati. Every effort was made to nominate Stephen A. Douglas for President. But he was beaten in his own party, on account of the action which he had taken in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. James Buchanan was nominated in his stead, and, in November, was elected. And so the conflict went on. In the year 1858 there was another series of joint debates between Lincoln and Douglas. Both were candidates for the United States Senate. Their speeches were among the most remarkable ever delivered in any country. Lincoln spoke for liberty and justice. Douglas's speeches were full of fire and patriotism. He hoped to be elected President in 1860. In the end, it was generally acknowledged that Lincoln had made the best arguments. But Douglas was re-elected to the Senate. * * * * * XIV.--PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. In 1860 there were four candidates for the presidency. The great Democratic Party was divided into two branches. One branch nominated Stephen A. Douglas. The other branch, which included the larger number of the slave-owners of the South, nominated John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky. The remnant of the old Whig Party, now called the "Union Party," nominated John Bell, of Tennessee. The Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln. In November came the election, and a majority of all the electors chosen were for Lincoln. The people of the cotton-growing states believed that, by this election, the Northern people intended to deprive them of their rights. They believed that the anti-slavery people intended to do much more than prevent the extension of slavery. They believed that the abolitionists were bent upon passing laws to deprive them of their slaves. Wild rumors were circulated concerning the designs which the "Black Republicans," as they were called, had formed for their coercion and oppression. They declared that they would never submit. And so, in December, the people of South Carolina met in convention, and declared that that state had seceded from the Union--that they would no longer be citizens of the United States. One by one, six other states followed; and they united to form a new government, called the Confederate States of America. It had long been held by the men of the South that a state had the right to withdraw from the Union at any time. This was called the doctrine of States' Rights. The Confederate States at once chose Jefferson Davis for their President, and declared themselves free and independent. In February, Mr. Lincoln went to Washington to be inaugurated. His enemies openly boasted that he should never reach that city alive; and a plot was formed to kill him on his passage through Baltimore. But he took an earlier train than the one appointed, and arrived at the capital in safety.