Appeal of the Independent Democrats
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The Appeal of the Independent Democrats (the full title was "Appeal of the Independent Democrats in Congress to the People of the United States") was a
manifesto A manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus or promotes a ...
issued in January 1854, in response to the introduction into the United States Senate of the Kansas–Nebraska Bill. The Appeal was signed by then-prominent American politicians
Salmon Chase Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus '' Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus ''Oncorhynchu ...
,
Charles Sumner Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811March 11, 1874) was an American statesman and United States Senator from Massachusetts. As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the anti-slavery forces in the state and a leader of th ...
, Joshua Giddings,
Edward Wade Edward Wade (November 22, 1802 – August 13, 1866) was an American lawyer and politician who served four terms as a U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1853 to 1861. He was the brother of Benjamin Franklin Wade. Biography Born in West Springf ...
, Gerrit Smith and
Alexander De Witt Alexander De Witt (April 2, 1798 – January 13, 1879) was a 19th-century American politician from the state of Massachusetts. Born in New Braintree, Massachusetts, De Witt worked in textile manufacturing in Oxford, Massachusetts. Active in pol ...
. Chase and Giddings were concerned that the bill repealed the
Missouri Compromise The Missouri Compromise was a federal legislation of the United States that balanced desires of northern states to prevent expansion of slavery in the country with those of southern states to expand it. It admitted Missouri as a Slave states an ...
, opening the proposed new territories of Kansas and Nebraska to slavery. The Appeal stated: Chase reviewed the history of the Missouri Compromise and argued that it had been accepted by the North only with the expectation that most of the remaining territory from the
Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase (french: Vente de la Louisiane, translation=Sale of Louisiana) was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or ap ...
would remain as free territory. Realizing that the Missouri Compromise was "canonized in the hearts of the American people", he called for both religious and political action in order to defeat the bill.Foner p. 94–95 The Appeal was originally published in the Cincinnati ''Gazette'' and widely reprinted by other newspapers throughout the country. Historian Eric Foner wrote, "Historians have tended to agree that the 'Appeal' was one of the most effective pieces of political propaganda in our history." Chase's description of an aggressive Slave Power came to be accepted in much of the North. Historian
Allan Nevins Joseph Allan Nevins (May 20, 1890 – March 5, 1971) was an American historian and journalist, known for his extensive work on the history of the Civil War and his biographies of such figures as Grover Cleveland, Hamilton Fish, Henry Ford, and J ...
wrote that Chase's language was often "grossly exaggerated" and used as an example the claim that the bill would "permanently subjugate the whole country to the yoke of a slaveholding despotism." Nevins argued that the Appeal did much to arouse Southern resentment against the anti-slavery opponents of the bill.Nevins p. 112 By portraying the bill as pro-slavery aggression by Southerners against the North, it preempted Senator Stephen Douglas's planned justification of the measure as an embodiment of popular sovereignty and forced most Southern Whigs in Congress to support the measure. The ''Appeal'' launched the "anti-Nebraska" movement, later organized into the Republican Party.


Background

The "Appeal of the Independent Democrats" was written on January 19, 1854. The entire document was written by: S. P. Chase, Charles Sumner, J. R. Giddings, Edward Wade, Gerritt Smith, and Alexander De Witt. The document was a response to the passing of a bill that wanted to organize the Territory of Nebraska. The men all banded together to write it, because they were strong believers that this bill should not have been passed. They provided what they thought were sufficient reasons as to why history showed that slavery was awful, and how the passing of the bill would only help slavery.


Notes


References

* Foner, Eric. ''Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War.'' (1970) * Neely, Jr., Mark E. “The Kansas-Nebraska Act in American Political Culture: The Road to Bladensburg and the Appeal of the Independent Democrats,” in ''The Nebraska-Kansas Act of 1854,'' ed by. John R. Wunder and Joann M. Ross (U of Nebraska Press, 2008) pp 13-46. * Nevins, Allan. ''Ordeal of the Union: A House Dividing 1852-1857.'' (1947)


External links

* "Appeal of the Independent Democrats." Teaching American History, teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/appeal-of-the-independent-democrats/. Accessed 23 May 2017.
Full text of the "Declaration"
pp 144–52
Appeal of the Independent Democrats
{{Authority control Works about American slavery Republican Party (United States) 1854 in the United States 1854 documents