Opposition Party (United States)

Opposition Party (United States)

The Opposition Party in the United States is a label with two different applications in Congressional history, a plurality in Congress (c. 1854–58), and as a Third Party in the South (c. 1858–60).

The late 1850s saw political chaos during the fragmenting of the Second Party System of Jackson Democrats and Clay Whigs. The Democratic efforts to expand slavery into western territories, particularly Kansas, led to organized political opposition, which coalesced in Congress as the "Opposition Party."

As the Whig Party disintegrated, many local and regional parties grew up, some ideological, some geographic. When they realized their numbers in Congress, they began to caucus in the same way US political parties had arisen before the Jacksonian national party conventions. Scholars such as Martis have adopted a convention to explain the Congressional coordination of anti-Pierce and anti-Buchanan factions as the “Opposition Party”.

The Opposition Party as a third party in the South was made up of former Whigs, Know-Nothings and American politicians who were pro-union, anti-Kansas, that is, they were anti-slavery expansion. They sought a way to oppose Democrats in their states and in Congressional races. (Generally, Whigs opposed slavery morally, Know-Nothings and American party men wanted the west for Protestant whites.) In what scholars call a 'Third Party', these political activists organized, held party conventions, and elected members to Congress.