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Difficulty: MediumPolitical Realignment and the Election of 1860

"The first duty of Whigs... is to defeat the election of the geographical candidate... The Republican party is a party of one section of the Union, organized against the other... Its victory would be a victory of the North over the South... and it must lead to a dissolution of the Union."
— Rufus Choate, letter to the Maine Whig State Committee, 1856

Which of the following historical developments during the 1850s best explains the political realignment described in the excerpt?

  1. A
    The dispute over federal tariff policy, which divided Whigs along industrial and agricultural lines.
  2. B
    The implementation of popular sovereignty, which authorized the federal government to directly determine the slave status of new territories.
  3. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which destroyed the national unity of the Whig Party over the expansion of slavery.Answer
  4. D
    The economic integration of Northern and Southern states during the Market Revolution, which resolved regional disputes over the slave labor system.

Answer

The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which destroyed the national unity of the Whig Party over the expansion of slavery.
The correct answer is correct because the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, by allowing popular sovereignty in territories where slavery had been prohibited by the Missouri Compromise, fractured the Whig Party along sectional lines. Northern Whigs largely opposed the act and joined the newly formed Republican Party, while Southern Whigs supported it or moved toward the Democratic Party, leading to the collapse of the national Whig coalition and the rise of a sectional party system.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the stimulus excerpt.
The excerpt shows Rufus Choate, a Whig, warning that the Republican Party is a purely sectional ('geographical') party whose victory would divide the nation and destroy the Whig coalition.
Identifying the author's concern helps locate the specific causes of the mid-1850s political realignment.
2
Connect the excerpt to the historical context of the collapse of the Whig Party.
The Whig Party collapsed due to internal divisions over the expansion of slavery, particularly after the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.
Understanding the key legislation that split national parties is necessary to identify the correct cause of the realignment.
3
Evaluate the choices to select the best explanation.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act directly fractured the Whig Party along northern and southern lines, leading to the rise of the Republican Party.
This matches the political shift described by Choate, where the national Whig Party dissolved and was replaced by a northern sectional party.

Key Concept

Political Realignment and the Collapse of the Second Party System
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Topics

Political Realignment and the Election of 1860

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