Constitutional Union Party (United States)

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Constitutional Union Party (United States)

Not to be confused with the Constitution Party (United States)
Constitution Party (United States)

The Constitution Party is a conservative United States political party. It was founded as the U.S. Taxpayers' Party in 1992. The party's official name was changed to the Constitution Party in 1999; however, some state affiliate parties are known under different names....
.

The Constitutional Union Party (also known as the Bell-Everett Party in California) was a political party

Political party

A political party is a political organization that seeks to attain and maintain politics power within government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns....
in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
created in 1860. It was made up of conservative former Whigs who wanted to avoid disunion over the slavery

History of slavery in the United States

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Encyclopedia

The Constitutional Union Party (also known as the Bell-Everett Party in California) was a political party

Political party

A political party is a political organization that seeks to attain and maintain politics power within government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns....
in the United States

United States

History of slavery in the United States

Slavery in the United States began soon after British colonization of the Americas first settled Colony of Virginia in 1607 and lasted as a legal institution until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865....
issue. These former Whigs teamed up with former Know-Nothings to form the Constitutional Union Party. Its name comes from its extremely simple platform, a simple resolution "to recognize no political principle other than the Constitution...the Union...and the Enforcement of the Laws." They hoped that by failing to take a firm stand either for or against slavery or its extension, the issue could be pushed aside.

Beginnings

In short, the Constitutional Union Party united Whigs and Know-Nothings who were unwilling to join Democrats or the Republicans. Senator John J. Crittenden

John J. Crittenden

John Jordan Crittenden was an United States statesman from Kentucky. He twice served as United States Attorney General. He represented Kentucky in both houses of United States Congress and served as the state's seventeenth governor....
of Kentucky, Henry Clay

Henry Clay

Henry Clay, Sr. was a nineteenth-century United States statesman and orator who represented Kentucky in both the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate....
's successor in border-state Whiggery, set up a meeting among fifty conservative, pro-compromise congressmen in December 1859, which led to a convention in Baltimore the week of May 9, 1860, one week before the Republican Party convention.

1860 presidential election

The convention nominated John Bell

John Bell (Tennessee politician)

John Bell was a United States politician, attorney, and plantation owner. A wealthy slaveholder from Tennessee, Bell served in the United States Congress in both the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate....
of Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States United States. In 1796, it became the sixteenth state to join the United States....
for President

President of the United States

The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition....
and Edward Everett

Edward Everett

Edward Everett was a Whig Party politician from Massachusetts. Everett was elected to the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate, and also served as President of Harvard University, United States Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to United Kingdom, and Governor of Massachusetts before being appointed...
of Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a U.S. state located in the New England region of the Northeastern United States United States. It borders Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north....
for Vice President

Vice President of the United States

The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office in the United States of America created by the Constitution of the United States....
.

In the 1860 election, the Constitutional Unionists received the great majority of their votes from former southern Whigs. Although the party did not get 50% of the popular vote in any state, they won the electoral votes of three states, Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is an United States U.S. state on the East Coast of the United States of the Southern United States. The state is known as the "Old Dominion" and sometimes as "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of Lists of United States Presidents by place of birth#By state....
, Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a U.S. state located in the East Central United States of America. Kentucky is normally included in the group of Southern United States , but it is uncommonly included, geographically and culturally, in the Midwestern United States....
, and Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States United States. In 1796, it became the sixteenth state to join the United States....
, largely due to the split in Democratic votes between Stephen A. Douglas

Stephen A. Douglas

Stephen Arnold Douglas was an United States politician from the western state of Illinois, and was the History of the United States Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States in United States presidential election, 1860....
and John C. Breckinridge

John C. Breckinridge

John Cabell Breckinridge was a lawyer, United States House of Representatives, United States Senate from Kentucky, the 14th Vice President of the United States, Democratic Party candidate for President of the United States in United States presidential election, 1860, a Confederate States Army General officer in the American Civil War, and...
. Everett's home state of Massachusetts and California

California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
were the only non-slave states in which the party received more than 5% of the popular vote.

After 1860

The party and its purpose disappeared after 1860 as the southern states began to secede. Bell and many other Constitutional Unionists later supported the Confederacy during the Civil War, but backers of the party from north of the Carolinas tended to remain supporters of the Union. Constitutional Unionists were influential in the Wheeling Convention

Wheeling Convention

The 1861 Wheeling Convention was held at West Virginia Independence Hall in Wheeling, West Virginia. The convention was a series of two meetings that ultimately repealed the Ordinance of Secession passed by Virginia, thus establishing the Restored government of Virginia, which ultimately authorized the counties that organized the conve...
, which led to the creation of the Union loyalist state of West Virginia

West Virginia

West Virginia is a U.S. state in the Appalachian, Upland South, and Mid-Atlantic States regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia on the southeast, Kentucky on the southwest, Ohio on the northwest, and Pennsylvania and Maryland on the northeast....
, as well as in the declaration of the Kentucky State Legislature for the Union and winning Congressional elections in Kentucky

Kentucky in the Civil War

Kentucky was a Border states of key importance in the American Civil War. President of the United States Abraham Lincoln recognized the importance of the Commonwealth when he declared "I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky." In a September 1861 letter to Orville Hickman Browning, Lincoln wrote "I think to lose Kentucky is...
and Maryland

Maryland in the Civil War

Maryland, a slave state, was one of the Border states , straddling the Northern United States and U.S. southern states. Due to its location and a desire from both opposing factions to sway her population to their respective causes, Maryland played an important role in the American Civil War....
in June. In Missouri, many of the party joined the new Unconditional Union Party

Unconditional Union Party

The Unconditional Union Party was a loosely organized political entity during the American Civil War and the early days of Reconstruction era of the United States....
headed by Francis P. Blair, Jr.

Francis Preston Blair, Jr.

Francis Preston Blair, Jr. was an United States politician and Union Army general during the American Civil War. He represented Missouri in both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, and he was the USDemocrat nominee for Vice President of the United States in U.S....
and remained active in that state's efforts to remain in the Union by overthrowing the elected government of Claiborne Jackson.

Constitutional Union Party (United States)

Beginnings

1860 presidential election

After 1860

See also

External links