Читать книгу American Civil War For Dummies - Keith D. Dickson - Страница 36

The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act illustrates how divisive the issue of slavery in new territories had become to the two dominant political parties. Northern Democrats, especially, paid a heavy political price for their support of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. The Northern Democrats who had supported the measure in the House and Senate (and had given the bill the margin of victory to ensure its passage) were roundly defeated in the next congressional elections as outraged Northern voters turned to other parties more in line with their antislavery views. The Democratic Party became more allied with the view of the South alone. The Whigs lost support as Southern members deserted them to join the Democrats. Northern Whigs lost members to other splinter parties that rose up in protest to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. One such group, the Free Soil Party, which grew to prominence in 1848, supported the Wilmot Proviso (see Chapter 1) that endorsed no extension of slavery into new territories. The new party attracted dissatisfied Democrats, antislavery Whigs, and others generally disaffected with abolitionist radicalism. Free Soilers were closely connected to the free labor ideology (see Chapter 1 also), reflecting an interest in limiting the expansion of slavery into the territories, but not necessarily an interest in offering Blacks any special advantages. In other words, free soil for many in the party was intended for whites only.