The Creation of a Three Party System
by With the election of 1848 there were three major political parties.
The second party system was in affect from 1837 to 1852, but heading into the election of 1848 this system was slightly altering. A major cause for this slight alteration would be because of the addition of the new Free Soil party. These three parties shared several similar ideas but what made them competing parties would be their disagreements in their positions on some major issues. Furthermore, from examining the election of 1848 it is possible to draw several conclusions about American politics and slavery based on the campaigns and parties.
The free soil party agreed with the Wilmot Proviso and did vote for it and they were generally anti-slavery too. However, there was a broad range of the extent to which the free soil party members were anti-slavery. Some free-soil party members were very radical and others were not very radical. Most free soilers believed free labor was more efficient then slave labor, slavery undermined manual work, and slavery inhibited education and social improvements. The Whig Party had a range of different types of people believing in different things. This was true for the Democratic Party too, this is because both parties had members from different regions of the United States of America, both parties had people from the North and the South.
Based on the 1848 election it is easy to tell American politics were drifting from party against party to section versus section. The Party systems were holding the country together, because each party had members from the North and the South, but this was changing. Instead it became the battle of sections and with it rose envy and jealousy. It can be seen that the positions in each party was not clearly defines because two very different Presidents, President Taylor and President Fillmore, were from the same party but had totally different positions. For example, President Taylor shifted in advantage towards the North while President Fillmore shifted in favor towards the south, and when President Taylor rejected Clay’s compromise of 1850 President Fillmore pushed it through Congress.
Liked it
