The Demise Of The Second Party System And The Rise Of The Republican Party Antonio Lovato The Whig Party • 1834-1854 • Led by Henry Clay • A group organized in their opposiHon to Andrew JacKson • They supported the supremacy of Congress over the Presidency. • Had 2 presidents: William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor; both died in office. – John Tyler succeeded Harrison but was expelled from the party and was a firm democrat – Millard Fillmore became president aer Taylor and was the last Whig to hold office The Whig Party ConHnued • JacKson’s victories in 1828 and 1832 destroyed the Naonal Republican Party and allowed for the Whig party to grow. • In 1836 they ran three presidenHal candidates (Daniel Webster, Hugh L. White, and William Henry Harrison) to appeal to the East, South, and West • They pracHcally captured Congress and the White House in 1840 and were poised to become the naon’s dominant party. The Demise of the Whig Party • By the late 1840’s the Whig party began to unravel due to the dispute of slavery. • Millard Fillmore’s enforcement of the fugiHve slave law won the support of the southern Whigs but had alienated anHslavery Whigs. • The Party was destroyed primarily by the quesHon of whether to expand slavery and because Fillmore wasn’t reelected in 1852 the party nominated General Winfield Scoc. • Scoc won favor because he had support from the North and some support from the South in the ElecHon of 1852. • On ElecHon Day, the power of the Whigs significantly decreased due to the fact that they had elected no governors and no president, leaving only control of Tennessee and KentucKy. The Demise of the Whigs ConHnued • FranKlin Pierce was elected president, someone who was very democrac. • The Democrats first made their way into the South aer the ElecHon of FranKlin Pierce of New Hampshire who was safe on slavery. • The democrats believed that congress had no power to interfere with slavery which was widely favored in the South. • At first the Democrats could not find a candidate but found FranKlin Pierce and the South was so united on his winning that the Democrats won by a landslide. • Pierce enforced the fugiHve slave law heavily which didn’t allow escaped slaves a trial. The Demise of the Whigs ConHnued • As the south grew away from the Whigs they became more Democrac • The dispute of slavery became such a big issue that the Whigs were no longer able to make a broad naonal appeal. • In 1854 most Whigs had joined the newly formed Republican Party. – The Republican Party destroyed the Whigs because, when the country was divided on slavery, the Republican Party was formed in order to Keep slavery quaranHned in the South. – The party aracted many AnH-Slavery Democrats and Whigs. The Kansas-NebrasKa Act of 1854 • The Kansas-NebrasKa Act of 1854, proposed by Stephen Douglas, caused civil disorders in Kansas and was passed on May 30, 1854. • It served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latude 36o30’ – Angered North and pleased the South. • The act allowed the residents of Kansas to vote on whether slavery would be allowed (popular sovereignty). • Pro-slavery and anH-slavery seclers rushed in to affect the outcome of the first elecHon but this caused violence. The Kansas-NebrasKa Act ConHnued • Pro-slavery seclers and anH-slavery seclers both aempted to hold elecHons but were accused of fraud by the opposing which resulted in President FranKlin Pierce’s interference. • Pierce, someone with a pro-slave stance, sent in troops to stop the violence and disperse the anH-slavery legislature; resulHng in the victory of the South/pro-slavery supporters. • Stephen Douglas was the man who iniHated the act of making Kansas and NebrasKa states able to vote on whether or not they wanted slavery. • Douglas proposed the repealing the Missouri Compromise organizing two territories: NebrasKa and Kansas in which it seemed that Kansas was reserved for slavery and NebrasKa for freedom. – With the repealing proposed to the President by Douglas he was given an ulHmatum: endorse the repeal or lose the South. – Pierce surrendered to the idea and agreed to make the revised Kansas-NebrasKa bill. The Kansas-NebrasKa Act ConHnued • The Whig party was split right down the center by the Act and caused an official parHng of ways destroying the Whig party altogether. • This meant that the Whigs of the South would easily be swept over by the Democrac South and the North leaned towards a new party: The Republican Party. – This was a violaon of the Missouri Compromise because it was above the line of non-slave states therefore allowing the expansion of slaver, but a vote would occur in order to decide whether there would be slavery in the states. – This caused strong slave owners and aboliHonists, such as Steven Brown to rush into the states in order to affect the vote. – This was meant, by Douglas, to stop the civil war but in fact did the opposite and cause even more of a hatred and separaon between the south and the north. • This act caused the sparK and rise of the Republican Party because they Republicans were mainly focused on the stop of the expansion of slavery which was very important at the me. Bleeding Kansas • Missourians such as Atchison, a Democrac Missourian Senator, was the catalyst for the proslavery movement into Kansas. • He rallied up approximately 5,000 Missourians to rush into Kansas and “to Kill every God-damned aboliHonist in the Territory.” • This caused not only a large amount of legal issues but primarily a large outburst of violence in the new territories. • AVer two state consHtuHons were drawn up by both views, two territorial governments formed: the official one at Lecompton and one at TopeKa actually represenHng the majority. • Governor Shannon, when threats of violence from Missourians began to arise, aempted to disassemble the conflicts with the help of Atchison. The Lecompton ConsHtuHon • In 1857 proslavery delegates met in Lecompton, Kansas to dra a state consHtuHon in order to become a state. • Proslavery officials had weighted the elecHon in their favor, parHally through Atchison, and draed two versions of a consHtuHon: – One that protected slavery and allowed future importaon. – And one that also protected slavery but did not allow for future importaon The Lecompton ConsHtuHon ConHnued • Both versions allowed slavery in Kansas so the anHslavery ciHzens, the majority of the populaon, to not vote allowing the consHtuHon to easily pass, aempHng to let Kansas join the Union as a slave state. • When the ConsHtuHon was posed to Congress Stephen Douglas refused it because it was not a true representaon of the Kansas populaon. • Kansas was denied statehood, delaying its statehood unHl 1861. • Eventually, in 1861 under the Wyandoce ConsHtuHon, Kansas was brought into the Union as a free state therefore doing nothing for the South’s westward expansion of slavery. The Free Soil Party • A party that existed from 1848-1852. • Founded in Buffalo, New YorK as a third party. • Consisted of mainly former members of the Whig Party and the Democrac Party. • Its main purpose was to stop the expansion of slavery into Western territories. • They responded to the Kansas-NebrasKa Act with revolts that were meant to show the presidency that the North was against the act. • Eventually, it was largely absorbed by the Republican Party in 1854. The Rise of the Republican Party • AVer the spling of the Whigs and Democrats because of the Kansas-NebrasKa and due to the issue of slavery, the southern Whigs were absorbed by the Democrac Party. • In the North, there was a plethora of parHes such as the Free Soilers, the anH-NebrasKa Democrats, the Know-Nothing party, and the abandoned Whigs who were split from the South. • With all the different parHes scaered, groups of Whigs proposed to abandon mere party names and rally as one for the establishment of liberty and the overthrowing of Slave Power; they became Known as the Republican Party. The Republican Party ConHnued • The growing controversy over slavery and its expansion into Western territories was a major influence for the party’s formaon. • It was mainly the outrage over the Kansas-NebrasKa that quicKly caused the Republican Party to consolidate and rally into unified poliHcal party. • The party, at the Hme, was completely based on the issue of slavery and pung an end to its expansion past where it already existed. • The new party was endorsed in Washington by 33 delegates on May 9th 1854, Michigan officially designated itself Republican in July and the convenHon stated “In view of the necessity of baling for the first principles of republican government, and against the schemes of aristocracy the most revolHng and oppressive with which the earth was ever cursed, or man debased, we will co- operate and be Knows as Republicans.” Republicans in the Civil War • In 1860 Abraham Lincoln, an unKnown former Whig yet member of the Republican Party, from Illinois won presidency and was the first Republican President in the United States. • Throughout the Civil War, the Republican Party was idenHfied by the cause of preserving the Union at all costs. Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in slavery • Lincoln: – Lincoln was a former Whig and part of the anH-NebrasKa group and believed that the founding fathers were opposed to slavery based on “all men are created equal” – He truly believed that the people who founded this country were against slavery due to things such as the Northwest Ordinance (prohibiHon of slave trade) and the direct words of the ConsHtuHon.