Breakdown of the 2nd party system Flashcards
Topic sentence
Other historians such as Hugh Tulloch argue that the breakdown of the 2nd party system was the main reason for the outbreak of civil war.
Evidence 1
The 2nd Party system involved the existence of two opposing parties, the democrats and the Whigs who were both an assortment of state parties which came together every four years to nominate a presidential candidate, devise a national platform and try to coordinate campaign activities. Stephan A Douglas’ Kansas Nebraska Act, issued on 30th May 1854, contributed to the breakdown of the 2nd party system. The settling of Nebraska had been an ongoing issue as Nebraska lay between the North and South, there was also widespread fear that it would upset the balance between free and slave states. The Act proposed the idea that Nebraska should be organised as a single territory and its status should be decided through popular sovereignty. Douglas stated that the states formed from Nebraska would be organised and accepted into the union “with or without slavery as their constitution may prescribe as the time of their admission”. Additionally, Douglas’ Kansas - Nebraska Act substituted the Missouri compromise, an act which maintained the balance of free and slave states, for popular sovereignty. This caused a sectional divide between the Democratic Party because it set Northern and Southern democrats against each other. Northern democrats believed that the Kansas - Nebraska act was evidence of a ‘slave power’ conspiracy and southerners did not see it like this. In the 1854 presidential election, democrats lost all of their seats in the North, however retained 63 of their previously held 67 seats in the South.
Evidence 2
Additionally, a growth in ethnocultural ( anti - immigration, anti Catholicism) issues led to a breakdown of the 2nd party system. In the late 1840s and early 1850s immigration was increasing growing. For example around 3 million immigrants entered the USA between 1845 and 1854 with many of them being German and Irish Catholics. In turn, this led to a growth in the nativist issue as Native born Americans feared that German and Irish Catholics threatened their traditional US values. Democrats on the other had were less likely to soften to the nativist approach because majority of Irish and German Catholics supported them, this lost them support. The Whigs also lost support because they failed to cash in to the growth of nativism as they feared of alienating native voters and also tried to gain some of the immigration votes because they thought they could win them over
Analysis
This led to the outbreak of civil war because with the breakdown of the 2nd party system came the growth of Republicans, a party who opposed the expansion of slavery. The republicans made it clear that they were opposed to the ‘slave power’ conspiracy which led to a sectional divide because Northerns supported the growth of republicans as they were against the expansion of slavery, however southerners opposed the growth of republicans because they wanted slavery to expand. The Republican victory in 1860 convinced many Southern fire -eaters that secession was worthwhile. In the late 1860s to early 1861 several Southern states began to secede from the Union. Historian James McPherson argues “…this law [the Kansas-Nebraska Act] may have been the most important single event pushing the nation toward civil war. Kansas-Nebraska finished off the Whig party and gave birth to a new, entirely northern Republican party.”
Counter analysis
However, some Republicans were most unwilling to work with nativists of any sort. Some, such as ABRAHAM LINCOLN, denounced nativism, viewing it as bigotry and a red-herring taking away focus from the key issue facing the nation – the expansion of slavery, as Farmer argues, “In 1854-55, it was still far from certain which issue, anti- slavery or anti-immigration would dominate the political agenda.
Evaluation
To evaluate the breakdown of the 2nd party system was highly important in explaining the outbreak of Civil War. The decreasing support for the most prominent parties at the time, the Whigs and the Democrats meant that Americans had to cast their votes elsewhere. On this backdrop the Republicans grew and won the 1860 presidential election. This caused an extreme sectional divide and historian Hugh Tulloch argues “perhaps the collapse of the 2nd party system reflected only too well the collapse of consensus in the 1850s and the effective response of many to the collapse
