The Whig Party is adversely affected
over the issue of slavery:
• Some Whigs
grew more
impassione
d about
ending
slavery and
more
convinced
that the
national
Whig party
would never
take a
strong stand
against it.
These anti-slavery
Whigs joined
Northern Democrats
and former Free Soil
Party people (whose
single issue was
effectively defeated
by Kansas-Nebraska)
The Whigs managed to win the election of 1848
by running another nondescript military hero,
Zachary Taylor
• However, the Whig party was on its way
out due to the loss of two of its leaders:
Daniel Webster & Henry Clay
• Webster and Clay died before the next
presidential election in 1852, leaving a
huge leadership void in the Whig Party
• In 1856, the Whigs did not even field a
presidential candidate; they were
finished as a national power
• The remaining Whig members joined the
Free Soil Party and formed a new party:
the Republican Party.
The Republican Party was dedicated to keeping
slavery out of the territories.
• Midwestern merchants and farmers,
Western settlers, and Eastern
importers all joined the Republican
Party.
• It was also made up of anti-slavery
Whigs and Free Soilers
• The Republican party grew quickly in
the North, where it won a majority of
Congressional seats in 1854.
Another new party formed during this period:
The American Party
• Aka the Know-Nothings because they met privately and remained
secretive about their political agenda, rallied around a single issue:
Hatred of foreigners
• The party grew quickly and dominated several state legislatures.
• It also spread some ugly anti-Irish, anti-German, and anti-Catholic
propaganda
Violence spread to Congress over the issue of slavery.
• Republican Abraham Lincoln
and Democrat Stephen Douglas
ran against each other for the
U.S. Senate in Illinois in 1858.
•The debates were followed by
the country because both
candidates were interested in
running for the Presidency in
1860.
•Slavery was the main issue
Chart/L&D Debates
•Lincoln stated: A House Divided against itself cannot stand. Either we become one or the other.
•Lincoln was against the expansion of slavery
•Douglas believed that slavery should be decided by the people.
•Popular sovereignty
•In the end, Douglas won the election. But Lincoln’s speeches & debates earned him the respect of
many. They saw him as a good presidential candidate.
Reading/Lincoln on slavery
The Democratic Party tried its best to keep it
together.
• Stephen Douglas came up with the
Freeport Doctrine
– Slavery could be prevented from any
territory by the refusal of the people
living in that territory to pass laws
favorable to slavery. Likewise, if the
people of the territory supported
slavery, legislation would provide for its
continued existence.
The Freeport Doctrine failed to please the whole party because any
position that did not support the Dred Scott decision was opposed
in the South
Election of 1860
presidential candidates:
• Northern Democrats
supported Stephen
Douglas
• Southern Democrats
backed John
Breckinridge
• A new party formed in
the Upper South called
the Constitutional Union
party nominated John
Bell
• The Republicans
nominated Abraham
Lincoln
 Immediately after
the election, Southern
leaders who wanted to
maintain the Union
tried to negotiate a
compromise.
• Lincoln refused to
soften the Republican
demand that all
territories be declared
free
Election of 1860
• He had no other
political option, as to
do otherwise would
have been to abandon
the principles of those
who had supported his
election
 The country is polarized
(divided) over the issue of
slavery.
 In December 1860, 3
months before Lincoln’s
inauguration, South
Carolina seceded from
the Union
•303 total
electoral votes
and 152 to win.
 Within months, 7
states join South
Carolina to form the
Confederate States of
America (CSA)
 The states chose
Jefferson Davis to lead
the Confederacy
Election of 1860
Cautiously, Lincoln decided to maintain control of federal forts
in the South while waiting for the Confederacy to make a
move.
• On April 12, 1861, the South attacked and captured Fort Sumter
• No one died in this first battle of America’s bloodiest war, the Civil War.
Picture: Fort Sumter 1
Fort Sumter 2
• The states of the upper South provided a natural border
between the two belligerents.
• The loyalty of each of these states represented a important
milestone to both Confederacy and Union.
For many, the Civil War was not primarily
about slavery.
• Except for active abolitionists, most Northerners believed
they were fighting to preserve the Union
• Most Southerners felt they were fighting for their
states’ rights to govern themselves
• Many on BOTH sides thought that slavery was simply the
issue that had caused the argument over states’ rights to
escalate to war.
• Lincoln even stated: “If I could save the Union without
freeing any slaves I would do it, and if I could save the
Union by freeing all the slaves I would do it… What I do
about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe
it helps to save the Union.”