that now people said might decide

人们都在怀疑
whether the Union would hold together or not.

联邦是否会分裂
The Democrats held their convention

民主党人在四月下旬和五月上旬
in late-April early-May

举行了党内选举
in the worst possible place they could hold it.

但是选举的地点却非常糟糕
They had scheduled it well ahead of time

他们事先在南卡罗莱纳州的查尔斯顿
in Charleston, South Carolina.

计划得很好
Charleston was a hotbed

在查尔斯顿
of Southern rights and Southern nationalism,

南方权利和南方国家主义的呼声很高
if you want to call it that, and Southern secessionism --

也可以称之为南部分裂主义
already it was.

其实它早已存在了
Now, the front running candidate of the Democratic Party by 1860 --

1860年民主党中领先的总统候选人