The Conflict Between The Republican Party And The Whig Party

The compromises merely worked, and with the passing of time, tensions rose more between the sections, thus making these compromises less and less effective. The Compromise of 1850 enraged both the North and the South. When California was annexed, it was assigned to become a free state and the South did not appeal to that because the land boundaries that was made by the Missouri Compromise was large. Another part of this compromise that angered Southerners was that slave trade was banned in Washington D.C. The Fugitive Slave Law, which was a part of the Compromise of 1850 angered the North, because it allowed bounty hunters to hunt down slaves and the people who helped them to hide. Also, Northerners rejected this because they rejected Popular Sovereignty, which created possibilities of having slavery in any Northern states.

The major parties since early 1830s in the United States of America were the Democratic Party, organized by Andrew Jackson, and the Whig Party, assembled by Henry Clay from the National Republicans and in opposition to Andrew Jackson.

The political issue of slavery in the United States intensified with the Mexican-American War. The United States gained a large area of territory with their victory over Mexico in 1848. Arguments over free versus slave states in the United States had already been around. The Southern states believed the Northern states wanted to eliminate slavery from the United States, while the free Northern states believed that the slave Southern states wanted slavery to spread throughout the continent. The new states brought up the issue of free versus slave, which created even more conflict in the United States. In 1845, Texas became a slave state. California became a state under the Great Compromise of 1850. The North gained California, making it a free

The reason it divided the nation was the Southern politicians objected to the new territories entering the Union as Free states, and felt like they were not being heard on their sides of the issue, in return the South decided to secede from the Union. War with Mexico added new territories to the Southwest, slavery expanding became more serious than ever. Henry Clay made a series of compromises in an effort to fix the space between the north and south states. Congress eventually passed the Compromise of 1850. This Compromise added California to the Union as a free state, allowed the territories of New Mexico and Utah to decide the slavery issue for themselves. The Kansas-Nebraska Act granted residents of these territories “popular sovereignty,”.

In 1850, Henry Clay introduced a series of propositions which concerned California as a free state and the fugitive slave law. However, Clay never succeeded in passing his plans due to differences congress portrayed within each other. In September, Douglas introduced Clays plans, but separately, and ended up…… so the Compromise of 1850 was signed. This Compromise admitted California as a free state and enforced the Fugitive slave laws among others. It created tension as northerners were unhappy with the fugitive slave law and the southerners felt threatened due to

The coexistence of a slave owning south with an increasingly anti-slavery north made conflict likely. It was formidable to decide whether such states like the ones gained from the Mexican War should be slavery or anti-slavery, which either way would disrupt the balance between the slave and antislavery states. This divided the Union and Confederacy even further. Later on, President Lincoln sought not to propose federal laws against slavery where it already existed, but he had in his 1858 House Divided speech, expressed a desire to “arrest the further spread of it “(Doc. G). Much of the political battle in the 1850s focused on the expansion of slavery into the newly created territories. All of the organized territories were likely to become free soil states which increased the southern movement toward secession. Both north and south assumed that if slavery could not expand it would become nonexistent. Southern fears of losing control of the federal government to anti-slavery forces, and northern feared that the slave power already controlled the government; these thoughts brought the sectional disagreements. The morality of slavery, the scope of democracy, and the economic merits of free labor versus slave plantations caused the Whig and know nothing parties to collapse and the free soil party to arrive, ruining the resolve of compromise.

During the years of 1820-1860, the United States split into Northern and Southern factions. Each side held completely opposing viewpoints on issues affecting the nation. Compromise was made almost impossible by 1860 due to disagreement over states rights. Eventually, a breakdown of trust between both parties on each side that led to a collapse of compromise due to one of an important main issue, slavery. American citizens, despite constant thoughts of compromise, could not resolve their political disputes. Through conflicts towards the issue of slavery to saving the Union itself, their disputes refused any intention of compromise and would eventually lead to the start of the Civil War.

The Democrats and the Whigs were polar opposites of each other and believed strongly in different aspects of the federal government, economy, and state. The Whigs were mainly a conservative group which believed in a strong active government that protected industry through tariffs and wanted internal improvements such as canals, railroads, and telegraph lines as well as to promote public education. The Whigs also favored both Northern and Southern manufacturing and agriculture but did not like the concept of slavery and wished to abolish it. The Democrats on the other hand favored a state government over a federal government and believed in agriculture and slave labor over industry. The Democrats believed that the government should leave business alone, neither hindering it nor helping it.

Sectionalism played a large part in the fight for and against slavery in the 1800s. Slavery was a big issue, as the North wanted to abolish slavery with feelings about it being intesified in the early 1800s. The North also felt strongly opposed to slavery for the new states in the West. In the mid-1800s, slavery was a common practice in the South. So common that they viewed it as a large part of how their economy was run.

This political party was an anti-southern group who wanted keep land for the white small farmer and not slavery. It was lead by Martin Van Burean. Finally the Compromise of 1850 was an agreement to help the northern and southern states with the issues about the slavery being allowed  in the new states after California and New Mexico were admitted in the Union without being specified as slave states on not. The Compromise of 1850 had elements for both sides. It allowed California to be a free state and the another state entering the Union the state would decided whether they would be a slavery state or not. Slaves could not be sold in Washington, D.C. Texas would be given $10 million to discourage the state from encourage New Mexico with the idea of

Although Northerns opposed the concept of slavery, they viewed blacks as inferior to whites. One main concern of the North was that freed or escaped slaves would overrun the North. This would lead to fewer jobs for whites as they competed against the freed slaves for the limited number of jobs. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (Avalon Project) was passed through Congress as a result of a compromise that allowed southern slaveholders to recapture their escaped slaves that fled across the Mason Dixon to Northern states.

During the time around 1850, tensions were rising on the issue of slavery between the North and the South. New states were being admitted to the United States, but the decisions to make them a free state or a slave state were what really mattered. As an example, California was admitted to the Union as a free state, and this angered the south very much because slavery was a very important factor to the South's economy. The Compromise of 1850 was developed to help soothe the tensions on each side. This Compromise had several provisions: California was admitted to the Union as a free state; the territories of New Mexico and Utah were created without restrictions of slavery; the slave trade was abolished in Washington, D.C.; Congress passed a stricter fugitive slave law. This compromise showed just how important slavery was to each side, and it gives us a good idea of why it could be important as one of their goals during the Civil War. With slavery in mind, it brought about ideas of succession to the South. Because the South was scared of Lincoln abolishing slavery, they thought it would be a wise decision to secede from the Union. In fact, Lincoln had no plans of abolishing slavery, but stated that it should not spread to the territories. The South basically misunderstood and decided to secede anyway. The reason slavery was so important to the South, and lead them to break apart from the Union was that it

While this uncertainty was taking place, a social force greater than party loyalty was beginning to reshape American politics. The slavery issue, with the passions it aroused in the North and the South, gradually compelled a realignment of parties. The Whigs party began to split in 1852. This was a result of the deep split in opinion over slavery. During the next few years most Southern Whigs joined the Democrats. Northern Whigs joined northern antislavery Democrats. In 1854 groups of northern men against slavery urged the creation of a new political party opposed to the continuation of slavery. This party has become today’s Republicans. During 1854 to1860, the slavery issue became such a hot topic that even Democrats were becoming divided among themselves. In 1860 four candidates ran for the presidency. Brekenridge was the Southern Democrats candidate, Douglas was the Northern Democrats candidate,

The United States War against Mexico was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 about the U.S. annexation of Texas, which Mexico still considered part of their territory. American forces occupied New Mexico and California, and then invaded parts of Northeastern and Northwestern Mexico. Another American army captured Mexico City, which ended the war with a U.S victory. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo specified the major consequence of the war: the forced Mexican Cession of the territories of Alta California and New Mexico to the U.S. in exchange for $15 million. Mexico accepted the loss of Texas. American territorial expansion to the Pacific coast had been the goal of President James K. Polk, the leader of the Democratic Party. However, the war was extremely controversial with the Whig Party, anti-imperialists and anti-slavery elements, who all strongly opposed. Several American deaths and high monetary costs were also criticized. The political aftermath of the war increased the slavery issue in the U.S., leading to intense debates that pointed toward the Civil War. The Compromise of 1850 provided a brief relief for the U.S. The Compromise of 1850 was a consisted of five bills passed in the United States in September of 1850. It defused a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North regarding the status of territories acquired during the

Jackson was the president during the war. In the election of 1844, Henry Clay (who was a Whig candidate) lost to President Harrison. Several Democratic presidents followed; such as, President John Tyler and James K. Polk. The solution to the population problems that the west was finding was solved by Henry Clay. The Compromise of 1850 admitted California as a free state. New Mexico and Utah had a doctrine established of popular sovereignty. Popular sovereignty allowed the states to choose whether or not to accept slaves or not. The boundary was settled in Texas. The slave trade in Washington D.C. was abolished. A stricter Fugitive Slave Law was placed. President Taylor died and Millard Fillmore (a Whig) came to power. Clearer political parties were drawn. A clear Northern Whig, Southern Whig, Northern Democrat, and Southern democratic line would be seen. Clay died in 1852. This hurt the Whig party in the election of 1852. By this election, the Whig party had separated into the Cotton Whigs and Conscience Whig. The Cotton Whigs leaned toward southern opinion and the Conscience Whigs leaned towards abolitionist opinion. Their main disagreement involved expansion and whether states should be a slave state or not. The Whig’s candidate was Scott and the democratic candidate was Pierce. The Democrats won. Stephen Douglas desired to pass the Kansas- Nebraska Act. This act