The Formative Period
Democratic party was rent asunder, a large proportion of its members in the North refusing to sanction the Kansas-Nebraska bill. The Whig party practically went out of existence. The radical Free Soil party arose in considerable strength. Obviously the time was ripe for a new national organization which should grapple with the great issues rising dominant above all others which had been matters of contention between Whigs and Democrats. These latter issues had, indeed, existed from the beginning of the nation and were in themselves of great moment. The included questions of the tariff, banking, internal improvements such as roads and canals, the power of the President's veto and strict or liberal construction of the constitution. Some of them dated from the days of Hamilton and Jefferson; some of them have persisted until the present time. But at the middle of the last century far-seeing and thoughtful men perceived that all these were subordinate, for the time, to the two supreme issues of liberty and union. There was little use in debating what should be the policy of the nation until it was positively and permanently determined whether there was to be one nation or two. And if it was to remain one nation, all questions of economics must be held in abeyance to that of whether it was to be a nation of free or of slave labor. So, during the protracted debate in Congress over the Kansas-Nebraska bill, there arose an immeasurably wider and more significant discussion throughout the free states of the North as to what should be done to meet the menace of that measure.
The logic of events drew together men of three parties: Democrats, Whigs, and Free Soilers; together with many humanitarians who had not been closely
10
