>>17794053>the south dominated the senatenorthern democrats were only aligned with southern democrats on westward expansion. most of the people to the west of the east coast are descended from southerners.
Stephen Douglas, the northern democrat candidate, was a Jacksonian in Illinois,l liek most midwestern settlers and politicians in the 30's and 40's. He used his influence to gain power with Van Buren, who was a stereotypical rich guy who only cared about the north since he was born in manhattan and was a full blooded dutchman. So you see, there's great nuance even within parties. Van buren was by all respects a whig but called himself a democrat because that's what his father did and because of this he was handed political control.
Douglas was a demagogue who championed low tariffs in order to get votes, and actively campaigned for all the great leaders of the time, but he did nothing to actually resolve that issue because he could not politically afford to go against the massive businesses building up in the midwest.
Nobody in the US resolved the issue of tariffs until the 1910's when the mustache twirling republicans forced us to pay income taxes in exchange for 10 years of lower tariffs. So no, the northern democrats did not team up with actual democrats to lower tariffs.
Northern democrats were more "hands off" "whatever" about issues and weren't direct allies of the south.
