Conscience Whigs

Factions

The Whig Party faced persistent sectional divisions regarding slavery. Northern Whigs tended to be more antislavery than Northern Democrats, but during the 1830s Southern Whigs tended to be more supportive of slavery than their Democratic counterparts. By the late 1840s, Southern Democrats had become more insistent on slavery's expansion and more open to secession than Southern Whigs. Northern Whigs divided into factions concerning slavery, most famously the antislavery Conscience Whigs and the more conservative Cotton Whigs. The Conscience faction included figures such as John Quincy Adams who pressed the party to oppose measures protecting or expanding slavery, while Cotton Whigs prioritized party unity, commerce and accommodation with the South.