Page 351 - American Stories, A History of the United States

14.1 Read the Document Massachusetts defies the Fugitive Slave
Act (1855)

14.2

14.3

CAutioN! This abolitionist broadside was printed in response to a ruling that fugitive slave Thomas Sims must
be returned to his master in Georgia.

Democratic allegiance, and nativist Whigs sat out the election to protest their party’s
disregard of their cultural prejudices.
But the main cause for Scott’s crushing defeat was the support he lost in the South
when he allied himself with the dominant northern antislavery wing of the party, led by
Senator William Seward of New York. Democrat Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire, a
colorless nonentity compared to his rival, swept the Deep South and edged out Scott in
most of the free states. (See Table 14.2). The outcome revealed that the Whig party lacked
a program that would distinguish it from the Democrats and appeal to voters in both
sections of the country. The Whigs had declined to such an extent that even a war hero
like General Scott could not give the party a victory the way Taylor had four years earlier.
Despite their overwhelming victory in 1852, the Democrats had reasons for anxiety
about their supporters’ loyalty. Because the major parties had ceased to offer clear-cut
Quick Check alternatives to the electorate, voter apathy or alienation was growing. The Democrats
Why did the democrats win the won majorities in both North and South in 1852 primarily because the public viewed
election of 1852, and why were they them as the most reliable supporters of the Compromise of 1850, not because of firm
uneasy despite this victory?
party allegiance.
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