Question

What effect did the issue of slavery have on political parties in the 1850s

Answer 1

Slavery was an issue during the Philadelphia (Constitutional) Convention. The issue was resolved by guaranteeing the right to own slave by constitutional fiat. The right is protected at Article I, sections 2 and 9, Article IV, section 2 and by Amendments IV, V, IX and X. The only way slavery could be abolished was by state law or by Constitutional Amendment.

Answer 2

Slavery was THE great debate of the 1850's as was the question of continuing a union that threatened the lives and property of the South. It caused Lincoln's election in 1860 and fueled the movement to secession and war. Slavery was the dividing point over which there was a limit to the compromises that could be effected. It clearly drove the decade as it had shaped the whole century.