American Constitutional Union Party

By Crusader1307

The American Constitutional Union Party – founded in 1860, was once a ''Third Party'' alternative in the ''arena'' of US Politics. The short lived Party consisted of former Southern Whigs, who refused to identify with the then recently created Republican Party of Lincoln or Democrats. The primary ideology of The Constitutional Unionists was that they wished to avoid the looming threat of Civil War over the Institution of Slavery in The South. As such, many in The Party – while not subscribing to Slavery outright in The Southern States, they followed the growing US Constitutional Amendment advancement which gave all future States (Territories), the right to ''decide for themselves''. They also wished to advance a Presidential Candidate who would codify such in The US Constitution.getting

While this form of appeasement was still seen as unfavorable with Southern Democrats, it was thought that those Politicians would embrace it as a means of destabilizing a strong Centralized Government (Washington DC), with hopes of the overall collapse of The Republican Party and a reversal to pre-1783 governing. Tennessee's John Bell and Edward Everett (Massachusetts), were selected as President and Vice-Presidential nominees. Showing poorly in the overall Election polls and largely ignored due to The Bombardment of Fort Sumter, South Carolina (which ushered in The American Civil War in 1861), The Party collapsed into The Republicans after all after Sumter.