Stephen A. Douglas After the 1860 Election

From Wikipedia.

After the election defeat, Douglas returned to the U.S. Senate, where he sought to prevent the break-up of the United States.  He joined a special committee of 13 senators led by John J. Crittenden which sought a legislative solution  to the increasing sectional divide between the North and the South.

He supported the Crittenden  Compromise, which called for a series of Constitutional amendments that would make the Missouri Compromise a part of that document, but this was defeated in committee.

As late as Christmas 1860, he wrote  Alexander H. Stephens and offered support to the idea of making Mexico as a slave territory to prevent secession.

But, South Carolina voted to secede on December 20, 1860, and by mid-January 1861 another five Southern states had done likewise.  In February, Jefferson Davis took the office of President of the Confederate States of America.

--Old Secesh