History of American Politics, Parties, Part IX: The Politics of War 1854 began the destruction of the Second American Party System. When Democrats fought to accept Kansas as a slave state, they were able to claim the mantle of the slavery party. Southern Whigs who supported slavery just as strongly began abandoning their party rather than looking soft on the institution. With the Whig Party crumbling, Northern Whigs began shopping around for a new party and many of them joined with the newly created Republican Party.When the 1820 Compromise was repealed to allow the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, many Whigs were furious and joined with anti-slavery Democrats and members of the small Liberty Party to form the new Republican Party - the same Republican Party we have today.This party differed from all its predecessors in two major ways. It was a sectional party that only had membership from the North — mostly old Whigs. Although the new Republican Party had similar planks in their platforms as their Whig colleagues, their primary issue was stopping the expansion of slavery into new territories. Another element that set this party apart from previous ones was that a percentage of its members were part of the new abolitionist movement which for the first time called slavery a moral sin that needed eradication.With what will be known as the Third American Party System of Democrats and Republicans, ideologies began to change.New beliefs become visible While Democrats remained the classic liberals of small government and liberty, they were now the ones pushing to protect the institution of slavery — much like modern conservatives wanting a small government and to protect tradition.Republicans on the other hand closely mirrored modern liberals as they wanted big government to enact change. Being old Whigs, they desired positive (large) government to protect the nation’s economic future with high tariffs and banks, but also use the government to eliminate what the party called “the twin relics of barbarism: Polygamy and Slavery.” The new party started small, running its first candidate in 1856, and only received 33% of the popular vote. But it was still more than the combined ticket of the Know Nothings and the dead carcass of the Whig Party. Yet four years later the Republicans’ fortunes changed.In 1860, the nation was a tinderbox ready to explode. Slavery was no longer off the table in Congress as a new breed of abolitionist ...
