nd ultimately
annihilated by the Federal government wherever its constitutional
authority extends.

To sum up the two theories in a few words:

Slavery, according to Breckinridge and his school, is a _national good_,
to be encouraged and protected by the national strong arm.

Slavery, according to Lincoln and Seward, is a _national evil_, gigantic
and portentous, to be combatted and slain by the same strong arm.

That the South will permit slavery to be abolished in all the States by
violence or starvation; or that the North will permit slavery to be
established in all the States by judicial decision or otherwise, no man
in his senses believes--hence looking to the legitimate results _of
their doctrines_, both the Breckinridge and Lincoln parties _are
essentially disunion parties_. Constant conflict and ultimate disunion
are the natural sequents of their antagonism. As neither can hope to
conquer the other, the Union, the common bond and roof tree of both,
must be divided and fall.

3d. The Douglas or truly conservative theory, resting upon the limited
powers of the Federal constitution, as a compact of confederation, among
sovereign and independent States, assumes that so far as the United
States, _as a Nation_, are concerned, domestic slavery is neither a
national good to be protected, nor a national evil to be crushed out; it
is a local domestic institution, existing at the formation of the
confederacy, in all the States, "under the laws thereof," and its good
or evil, concerns only the local sovereignties or people with whom it
exists or may exist. The Federal government not having been ordained or
established to form or control the domestic institutions of the people
of the confederated States, is equally powerless to destroy or to extend
slavery. Its destruction or extension must be the work of local law, not
of the Federal constitution, nor of Federal law made under it.

Let us re-state the points:

The Breckinridge or slavery extension party would _nationalize_ slavery,
by making its existence commensurate with the obligations of the Federal
constitution.

The Lincoln or abolition party would _denationalize_ it, by destroying
it by prohibition where it is not, and by starvation where it is.

The Douglas or non-intervention party would denationalize it, by leaving
the people in the respective localities, be they States or territories,
to deal with it as they see fit.

Therefore, Breckinridge would use