logo
Login Subscribe
Google Play App Store
  • News
    • Obituaries
    • Lifestyle
    • Opinions
  • Sports
  • E-edition
  • Calendar
  • Archives
  • Contact
    • Contact Us
    • Advertisers
    • Form Submission
    • About Us
    • News
      • Obituaries
      • Lifestyle
      • Opinions
    • Sports
    • E-edition
    • Calendar
    • Archives
    • Contact
      • Contact Us
      • Advertisers
      • Form Submission
      • About Us
History of American Political Parties, Part IX: The Politics of War
commentary
January 10, 2024
History of American Political 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When the 1820 Compromise was repealed to allow the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, many Whigs were furious and joined with anti-slavery Democrats and members of the small Liberty Party to form the new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 a 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 politicians refused to compromise on the subject. Where national parties once held the nation together, now they were part of the cause for separation. The Republican Party had grown, but still only in Northern states. Southerners warned that if a sectional president won the election, it would cause their downfall and so threatened secession. Tensions ran high as voters went to the polls to choose a new president.

The election of 1860 Going into the election, there was only one national party remaining. Republicans who nominated Abraham Lincoln only represented the North and ran on stopping the expansion of slavery.

Non-Democratic Southerners formed a makeshift party calling themselves Constitutional Unionists. They chose John Bell of Tennessee and ran on the platform of a constitutional compromise on slavery.

Democrats met in South Carolina to nominate their candidate. Going into the convention, Stephen Douglass was the leading candidate. At the meeting Southerners refused to support Douglass because he supported “popular sovereignty” (states should decide for themselves to be free or slave and Congress had to accept that decision) over the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision which found that states did not have the right to outlaw slavery.

When Douglass won the nomination, seven Deep South states walked out of the convention. Not wanting to break up the last national party, Democrats decided to meet three months later in Baltimore. However, Douglass once again won; so, this time 11 Southern states walked out and formed the Southern Democratic Party and ran a strong states rights candidate, John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky. Southern Democrats ran on the platform of a constitutional guarantee of slavery. With the breakup of the political glue that held the nation together and with Lincoln’s election, unity was replaced with secession and civil war.

Civil War defines parties

During the war, the South became a oneparty nation with the Democratic Party in complete control. The North remained a strongly two-party system, with both Democrats and Republicans.

Republicans were able to hold onto both Congress and the presidency during the war, including a second win for Lincoln. After the war, Democrats remained strong nationally but continued to play second fiddle to Republicans.

Between 1860 with and 1932 Republicans held the White House for all but the 16 years of Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson. That’s 56 years for Republicans and 16 for Democrats. Finally, in the 1896 election, Democrats were forced to change their ideology in an attempt to regain power.

James Finck is a professor of history at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. He may be reached at HistoricallySpeakingl 776@gmail.com.

Seminole survives Checotah 34-27
B:, sports
Seminole survives Checotah 34-27
By Rodney Haltom sports EDITOR 
September 10, 2025
The Seminole Chieftains were lucky to go home with a 34-27 win over the Checotah Wildcats Friday night. Checotah’s penalties that accumulated to over 100 yards. The Wildcats moved the football up and ...
Council votes to dismiss former Mayor Warren
A: Main, news
Council votes to dismiss former Mayor Warren
By JERRY FINK MANAGING EDITOR 
September 10, 2025
The Eufaula City Council removed former Mayor Todd Warren from the Council Monday night citing excessive absences. City minutes of past meetings presented to the Council showed that Warren missed the ...
Church celebrates 160th anniversary
A: Main, news
Church celebrates 160th anniversary
By JERRY FINK MANAGING EDITOR 
September 10, 2025
Decades before Oklahoma became a state in 1907; years before the first railroad track was laid in Indian Territory in 1870 and the year the Civil War ended, folks in a remote area of what is now McInt...
Mild weather, just what the festival ordered
A: Main, news
Mild weather, just what the festival ordered
By JERRY FINK MANAGING EDITOR 
September 10, 2025
Mayor James Hickman perhaps summarized best when he sent a letter of appreciation to Karen Weldin and the Vision Eufaula Board of Directors for one of the best Wine & Art Festivals held in the city. “...
9/11 – Never Forget
A: Main, news
9/11 – Never Forget
By JERRY FINK MANAGING EDITOR 
September 10, 2025
At about 7 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, I strolled into the Las Vegas Sun newsroom where I worked as an entertainment reporter. The room was quiet, a palpable feeling of dread filled the air as the f...
Margaret Floyd Homecoming Parade Marshal
A: Main, news
Margaret Floyd Homecoming Parade Marshal
September 10, 2025
Margaret Marie Vickery Floyd has been named the 2025 Eufaula High School Homecoming Parade Marshall. Born in 1927 in Ramona, she is the fourth greatgranddaughter of Chief McIntosh, and the mother of f...
ePaper
google_play
app_store
Editor Picks
A: Main, news
Ironhead Homecoming Friday
September 10, 2025
The Homecoming Weekend kicks off Friday, Sept.12, with a Pep Assembly at the Eufaula High School Auditorium at 9:30 a.m. followed by a parade at 1 p.m. The coronation of Homecoming Royalty takes place...
New library coordinator challenges Checotah
A: Main, news
New library coordinator challenges Checotah
By JERRY FINK MANAGING EDITOR 
September 10, 2025
September is Library Card Sign-up Month, and so the new coordinator of Eufaula Memorial Library is taking that opportunity to challenge the Jim Lucas Checotah Public Library to a competition to see wh...
Braddock Dobbs joins School Board
A: Main, news
Braddock Dobbs joins School Board
By JERRY FINK MANAGING EDITOR 
September 10, 2025
Braddock Dobbs, 31, son of the late Margaret Dobbs, who was on the Eufaula School Board for 15 years, is following in his mother’s footsteps. Monday night, Aug. 8, at its monthly meeting, the Board ap...
Drillers honor Eufaula veteran
news
Drillers honor Eufaula veteran
September 10, 2025
Former Army Sp4 Timothy Pickering of Eufaula was honored recently at the Driller Stadium in Tulsa as a “Hometown Hero,” a program that honors people who have had a lasting impact on the community. Pic...
news
Flea Pop-Up Market
September 10, 2025
Friday – Sunday, Sept.12-14 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., 210 N. Main St. Booth rental available. Call Mr. Printer at 918-689-5998, Jani at 918-839-8494 or Ricky at 918-424-9961. Prices for all three days: ...
Facebook

THE EUFAULA INDIAN JOURNAL
100 N. 2nd Street
Eufaula, OK 74432

(918) 689-2191

This site complies with ADA requirements

© 2023 THE EUFAULA INDIAN JOURNAL

  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Accessibility Policy