The Union Party was a

proslavery Proslavery is support for slavery. It is sometimes found in the thought of ancient philosophers, religious texts, and in American and British writings especially before the American Civil War but also later through the 20th century. Arguments in ...

, unionist

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

during the early 1850s. It was one of two main political parties in the

slave states In the United States before 1865, a slave state was a state in which slavery and the internal or domestic slave trade were legal, while a free state was one in which they were prohibited. Between 1812 and 1850, it was considered by the slave s ...

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, and

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

, alongside the Southern Rights Party. The Georgia affiliate was known as the Constitutional Union Party. The party was organized to support the

Compromise of 1850 The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that temporarily defused tensions between slave and free states during the years leading up to the American Civil War. Designe ...

. While some figures such as

Daniel Webster Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the 14th and 19th United States Secretary of State, U.S. secretary o ...

predicted a sweeping

political realignment A political realignment is a set of sharp changes in party-related ideology, issues, leaders, regional bases, demographic bases, and/or the structure of powers within a government. In the fields of political science and political history, this is ...

in which the Union Party would unite all those in favor of the Compromise measures, no national organization ever emerged. The party disbanded following acceptance of the Compromise by the Southern Rights leaders, with most former Unionists returning to their previous partisan allegiances. Events following the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...

fueled rising tensions between the free and slave states, as proslavery

fire-eaters In American history, the Fire-Eaters were a loosely aligned group of radical pro-secession Democrats in the antebellum South who urged the separation of the slave states into a new nation, in which chattel slavery and a distinctive "Southern ci ...

threatened

secession Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...

in response to the

Wilmot Proviso The Wilmot Proviso was an unsuccessful 1846 proposal in the United States Congress to ban slavery in territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican–American War. The conflict over the Wilmot Proviso was one of the major events leading to the ...

. The crisis fractured the existing party system and produced an alliance between unionist Democrats and Whigs in the Lower South who sought to avert a

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

and defeat their intrapartisan rivals. Unionists were especially active in the 1851 elections, when Union parties elected 14 members to the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

and won governorships in Georgia and

. The acquiescence of the Southern Rights leaders to the Compromise after 1851 removed the need for a dedicated Union Party. Many Whigs who had supported the Union Party movement subsequently joined the Democratic Party, while most Union Democrats returned to their former political allegiance. In states where Union parties were organized, Unionists supported preservation of the

federal Union A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governing status of the co ...

and opposed an independent

Southern Confederacy The Confederate States of America (CSA), also known as the Confederate States (C.S.), the Confederacy, or Dixieland, was an List of historical unrecognized states and dependencies, unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United State ...

. Ardently proslavery, they rejected secession as

unconstitutional In constitutional law, constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applic ...

and ruinous to the interests of the slave states. Instead, they advocated a policy of conditional unionism wherein the slave states would remain loyal to the national government so long as the free states agreed to abide by the Compromise and abstain from any future attacks on slavery. While they opposed immediate secession, Unionists did not rule it out in the future should Southern demands go unheeded. Many who had been Unionists in the 1850s would go on to serve in the Confederate government during the Civil War, including

Alexander H. Stephens Alexander Hamilton Stephens (February 11, 1812 – March 4, 1883) was an American politician who served as the first and only Vice President of the Confederate States of America, vice president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865, and l ...

, who served as vice president of the Confederacy from 1861 to 1865.

Electoral history

Presidential tickets

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{Whig Party (United States) Unionist Party (United States) Political parties in the United States Unionism

Electoral history

Presidential tickets

See also

Notes

Bibliography