Chapter 10
Section 3: New
Political Parties
Effects of the Missouri Compromise
• Compromise maintained the
balance in the Senate between
slave & free states & stated that
any states to be created out of land
north of the 36 degrees 30 minutes
north latitude would be free states
• Issue was with land in the west
• Northerners feared all of the land
acquired from Mexico would become
slave states
• Election of 1848
–Democrat Lewis Cass
–Whig Zachary Taylor
–Many people were angry at both
parties for not addressing slavery
•Split & formed the Free Soil Party
The Compromise of 1850
• CA asked to join the Union as a
free state
• Clay proposes a compromise
–Admit CA as a free state
–NM & Utah would decide for
themselves to allow slavery
• Congress would abolish the sale
of slaves in DC
• Texas would give up claims to NM
for $10 million
• Fugitive Slave Act would allow for
the return of escaped slaves
Calhoun Opposes Compromise
• Felt north had “exclusive power of
controlling the government”
• Believed the southern states had
the right to leave the union if that
were necessary for their own
protection
• Believed that stopping slavery was
morally wrong
Webster Favors Compromise
• Spoke for preservation of the
union
• Outraged his longtime supporters
• Congress approves compromise
–Compromise essentially solved
nothing
Changes in Political Parties
• Decline of the Whigs
–1850’s
–Badly hurt by the slavery issue
–Old issues had been resolved
•Banks
•Strong leaders were dead or
dying
Rise of the Know Nothings
• Fear of immigrants led to the
Order of the Star Spangled
Banner
–Complete secrecy
–Always replied to questions
about the organization “I know
nothing”
• Went public in 1854 & formed the
American Party
–Pledged to work against Irish
Catholic candidates & to
campaign for laws requiring
immigrants to wait longer before
they could become citizens
The Kansas- Nebraska Act
• Stephen Douglas, Illinois Senator
brought up the slavery issue again
• Wanted to run for President
–Needed support of Southern
Democrats
• Under the Compromise of 1820,
Kansas & Nebraska would be free
states & south would blame
Douglas
• Supported the practice of popular
sovereignty
–Repealed Missouri Compromise
–Outraged northerners
The Creation of the Republican Party
• Members dedicated themselves to
stopping the “slave power”
• Declared slavery a great moral evil
& vowed to fight against its
extension into new territories
• Demanded the repeal of the KSNE & Fugitive Slave Acts