A History of the Republican PartyPlatt, George Washington
History
A History of the Republican Party
Platt, George Washington
Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- ) -- History
to prohibit slavery in any territory, and that any attempt to do so
would be a violation of constitutional rights and lead to a dissolution
of the Union. No vote was ever taken on this resolution, and it was
nothing more than a deliberate attempt to force the issue with the
North.
The Thirtieth Congress met December 6, 1847, and had among its members
Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, and Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, the
former elected as a Whig and the latter as a Democrat; in the Senate
Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, took his seat for the first time in
that body. Opposition to the war was strong, and it was finally closed
by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed February 2, 1848; by its
terms vast stretches of new territory were acquired by the United
States. This land had been free soil by the Laws of Mexico since 1827,
but the South, as a matter of course, expected, and had planned, to make
it slave soil, and she was determined to oppose to the utmost any
attempt to keep slavery out of this new territory; the North was equally
determined that it should remain free. The campaign of 1848 came on with
the question undecided. The Democratic Convention nominated Lewis Cass,
of Michigan, and adopted a platform similar to those of 1840 and 1844,
but nothing was said about slavery in the new territory. The Whigs
nominated Major-General Zachary Taylor, of Louisiana, for President, and
Millard Fillmore, of New York, for Vice-President, and their Convention
adjourned without adopting any platform at all.
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