 That would give rich slave owners the chance to go anywhere and buy up the best land, thus undercutting the wages of free labor and destroying the foundations of civil society.The Democratic response was to countercrusade in 1856, warning that the election of Republican candidate John C. Frémont would produce civil war.The outstanding leader of the Democrats was Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas; he believed that the democratic process in each state or territory should settle the slavery question.