The Democrats and Republicans before the Civil War Essay

The Democrats and Republicans before the Civil War - Essay ExampleCongressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina badly beat abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane after the latter made an impassioned destination about the deteriorating situation in the disputed state of Kansas, where hostilities had exploded around the issue of slavery ( shed blood Kansas).The republican Party curriculum (Cooper 3639), resolutely promoting the interests of the Southern slaveholders, was explicit in its calls for limited federal government powerfulnesss -- in effect placing more authority in the hands of individual states. A hatful of the opening statement that stated it would be inexpedient and dangerous for the Federal government to exercise suspicious constitutional powers left very little mystery regarding the remaining thrust of the document.Adopting a strict constructionist version of the Constitution, the Democrats further posited that general powers were not gr anted to the central government in relation to commerce, to conduct improvements, or to assume debt for the individual states. Also addressed were the national administrations right to disperse coin from public lands or to charter a national bank.All of the aforementioned matters had a direct boot on the ultimate ability of the central government to exercise any overarching powers to control individual states, oddly on the slavery question. A weak, non-invasive, decentralized government was exactly what Southern politicians desired.While the Democratic platform gradually worked up to addressing the issue of slavery directly, the Republican Party immediately got to the heart of the matter (Cooper 3940). Right at the outset, their platform declared that Kansas should be admitted to the Union as a free state.Refuting the Democratic Partys desire for a weak Federal government, the Republicans declared that the Constitution conferred sovereign power to Congress over the