Political Parties: The Whig Party

At the time, the United States contained twenty-two states, evenly divided between slave and free. In the years leading up to the Missouri Compromise of 1820, tensions began to rise between proslavery and antislavery factions within the U.S. Congress and across the country. They reached a boiling point after Missouri’s 1819 request for admission to the Union as a slave state, which threatened to upset the delicate balance between slave states and free states. To keep the peace, Congress came up with a two-part compromise, granting Missouri’s request but also admitting Maine as a free state. It also passed an amendment that drew an imaginary line across the former Louisiana Territory, establishing a boundary between free and slave regions that remained the law of the land until it was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.

To begin with, under Andrew Jackson the Democratic-Republicans took name of Democrats. The two parties, the Whigs and the Democratic Republicans, had generally opposite opinions on many issues. To begin with, their economic beliefs were opposite, especially on the existence of a national bank and the existence of tariffs because of their usual geographical location. The Whigs wanted a strong national bank and high tariffs in order to support their industries and manufacturing in the north. On the other hand, the Democrats wanted low tariffs and state banks because they wanted to ensure they would be able to profit as much as possible from the trading of cotton to foreign countries, as their south had an agriculturally based economy. Furthermore, they had different opinions on the extent of the federal government’s power. The Whigs, who were originally the Federalists, wanted

Arguments that slavery was undesirable for the nation had long existed, and the northern states all abolished slavery after 1776. In the interest of maintaining unity, politicians had mostly moderate opposition to slavery, resulting in numerous compromises such as the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850. However, The compromise that was reached (the Kansas-Nebraska Act) outraged too many northerners, which triggered violent uprisings from the North. These uprisings angered the Southern states greatly.

territory. As northern settlers poured into Kansas, however, in 1861 it qualified for admission to the union as a state where slavery was illegal. So many Northerners were distraught over the Kansas-Nebraska Act that they founded a new, purely northern, purely anti-slavery political party. the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opened new lands, repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and allowed settlers in those territories to determine if they would allow slavery within their boundaries. The initial purpose of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was to create opportunities for a Transcontinental Railroad. It was not problematic until popular jurisdiction was written into the proposal. The act was designed by Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. The act established that settlers could vote to decide whether to allow slavery, in the name of "popular sovereignty" or rule of the people. Douglas hoped it would ease relations in both North and South, because the South could expand slavery to new territories but the North still had the right to abolish slavery in their states. He was wrong; opponents denounced the law as a privilege to the slave power of the South. The new Republican Party, which was created in opposition to the act, aimed to stop the expansion of slavery, and soon emerged as the dominant force throughout the

The issue of western expansion was an important topic in the middle of the 19th century, and with the admittance of new territories, there was the controversy on whether or not new western territories should be admitted to the Union as slave states or free states. Sam Houston was supportive of western expansion, but he was not supportive of the spreading of slavery. Houston’s opposition came to Congress in the form of a bill in 1854. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was proposed, and it repealed the Missouri Compromise, which put a ban on slavery above a line called the 36 °30 line. The Kansas-Nebraska Act applied a concept called “popular sovereignty”, which let the voters of each territory decide whether or not it would be admitted to the Union as a slave or a free state. Houston stood against his political party and voted against it, which outraged Southerners. Houston’s attitudes towards slavery may seem contradictory because he was, after all, a slave owner, but despite popular belief, he did not oppose the institution of slavery. Houston defended slavery as a necessity because the South

The Missouri Compromise caused some of the biggest conflicts in United States history. One of the biggest conflicts caused by the Missouri Compromise was the Civil War. The Missouri Compromise was passed forty-one years before the Civil War happened. It caused the disagreement between the north, the anti-slavery, and the south, the pro-slavery in the United States on the issue of slavery. The north did not like slavery and the south did. The Missouri Compromise was written by Henry Clay and both people who promote slavery and people who are against slavery agreed to it in Congress. The Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 agreeing to Missouri to be a slave state and Maine as a free state. It also banned slavery in the Louisiana Territory north from the latitude line which was thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes. The compromise stayed a law until it was canceled by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The

The Jacksonian Democratic Party and the Whig Party each, exemplified different beliefs on the role of the federal government in the economy and towards westward expansion in the 1830s and 1840s. However, the Jacksonian, laissez faire supporting Democrats and the economic nationalistic Whig party shared almost no beliefs except for the removal of American Indians in the areas their supporters wished to settle. The lack of similarities is because the Whigs formed their own party to oppose President Jackson’s strong-armed leadership style and policies which earned him the nickname “King Andrew.” The Jacksonian Democratic Party evolved out of the Democratic-Republican Party in the early 1800s, the core of its membership was composed of farmers, immigrants, and white Southerners. The Whigs formed in 1834 and lasted for 20 years, they were the major political party that opposed Andrew Jackson. The Whigs were created based upon the Federalist beliefs in a strong federal government and adopted many Federalist and National Republican policy ideas, including federal funding for internal improvements, a central bank, and high tariffs to protect the growth of manufacturing enterprises. Overall, the Jacksonian Democratic agrarian Party and the industrialization supporting Whig Party had different beliefs toward the role of the federal government in the economy and towards westward expansion.

During the time periods between the 1830s and 1840s, two political parties: the Democratic party and the Whig party had faced the challenges among their ideological differences on the role of federal government in the economy and the westward expansion, but did compromise in certain ways. The one-party system of Monroe’s presidency had led to the creation of a two-party system under the presidency terms of Andrew Jackson. The supporters of President Jackson were known as the Democrats and the supporters of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, rivals of Jackson, came to be known as the Whigs. The Democrats were influenced by Thomas Jefferson, whereas the Whigs were influenced by Alexander Hamilton. The Democrats were in favor of states’ rights and opposed the growth of a powerful central government. Democrats also favored in rapid territorial and external growth. The Whigs were in favor of a stronger federal government that was dominated by Congress. Whigs also favored gradual territorial expansions and internal improvements. In future reference, the Democratic and Whig party created the two political parties in which we see today, the Democratic and Republican Party.

This was seen in the Missouri Compromise (1820), admitting Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. This compromise banned slavery in the north latitude of the Louisiana Territory. Even though this attempted to stop the spread of slavery, the Compromise was only affective in the specific area rather than all the U.S, not providing much change or stability. When the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) passed, and repealed the compromise, it reopened the slavery debate. The violence that resulted from this act resulted in the nickname ‘Bleeding Kansas'.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act was made by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. This act let Kansas and Nebraska decide if they would slavery in their territory or not. People against and for slavery went to Kansas to change their opinion, to have it their way. People were fighting each other because they were against slavery or for slavery. This territory earned the nickname "Bleeding Kansas" President Franklin Pierce sent troops to stop the violence. After all of this on January 29, 1861 Kansas became part of the Union and became a free

In the beginning of the 19th century ,The United States was already equally divided between free states and slave holding states. The Compromise of 1820 was passed by Congress merely to keep The Union in equilibrium, not to resolve the issue of slavery. The 1820 Compromise created a line at 36’ 30’ latitude line that would determine a boundary for the Northern free and Southern slave holding states. This effectively permitted Missouri into The Union as a slave holding state and created Maine, from northern Massachusetts, as free state. Bringing the count of free and slave holding states to an even 24. As balance was struck it only stalled the issue and in 1854 the Kansas Nebraska Act, which asked the State to determine their stance

The initial purpose of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was to open up thousands of new farms and make feasible a midwestern Transcontinental Railroad. But, as popular sovereignty become a factor in the decision of the states being the pro or against slavery change the purpose of the act for the people. The act provided organization of the Kansas and Nebraska territories. The tension between pro-slavery and free-soil factions over slavery in new territories increased to the higher level because of the popular sovereignty. Nebraska Territory lay north of 36"30', so the Missouri Compromise was repealed. This act passed Congress, but it angered North and led to the collapse of the Democrats and the rise of the Republicans.

The Whigs were eventually taken over by the Republican Party, because the Republicans supported this issue of slavery. - Whigs - Didn’t have origins in the United States. They were created in England whom they represented the landowners and financial interests. - Their opponents were the Tories, who were loyal to the king of England. - A man named Henry Clay created the American Whigs.

Another way to see the American Whig Party is where they drew their popular support. The Whigs drew their popular support from men who benefited from the ongoing transformation of the American market and class relations (Kim, 1979). The Democrats were the complete opposite to the previous statement. What is interesting about the elections of 1836 and 1840 is the new voters that were mobilized by the Whigs. The Whigs captured three-fifths of the 900,000 new voters in these two elections (Kim, 1979). So, how did the Whig Party rose? The rise of the Whigs began within their ideological devotion to the republican principle of self-government and their attack against executive tyranny. The Whigs rose in an era called the “Second Party System”. The

Clay’s main reason for creating this party was to oppose Andrew Jackson. The name Whig party is derived from patriots who called themselves the Whigs during the time of the American revolution, which shows hatred towards king George III, thus comparing king George to “King Andrew”. The Whig party had different views than the Democrats in that they believed in improving the nation internally and improving the economy, and the aid of the second bank of the United States. The Whig party stood for increased tariffs to help improve the government and industries in