Changes+in+Political+Parties

===In the early 1850s, the battle over slavery and the possible extension of slavery into western territories divided the Whigs into proslavery, pro-compromise, and anti-compromise Whigs. === ===Some Whigs left their party. Others stuck with it until it was no longer able to field candidates for national or other elections. But where would they go? In the political culture of the antebellum era, in which parties often literally fought over elections, alienated Whigs were unlikely to simply move to the Democratic party. ===

===** Over the next four years, from 1856 to 1860, many issues polarized American politics and positions on slavery even further. During this period, Buchanan’s second term, Americans read about violent civil war in “Bleeding Kansas,” about John Brown’s raid on the federal arsenal in Harper’s Ferry Virginia and his subsequent hanging for treason against the state of Virginia, and other pursued stories. These were issues about which it was difficult to remain neutral. Northerners claimed that the South was using illicit, unconstitutional means to force slavery on the nation. Southerners protested that the North was trying to strangle slavery and stuff northern evangelical values down southern throats **===