ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by political splintering,

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an occupational hazard when trying to remodel a country's foundation.

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All right. What led to the splintering of

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political parties shown in the image?

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This one, right here. What happened?

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And here are your potential answers. [ ding ]

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[ mumbling ]

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All right, well, let's think about it.

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Well, four major candidates in the running for

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a presidential election isn't something we see

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too often, at least these days.

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And it was pretty unusual for 1860, as well.

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Just prior to the election, the two-party system stood strong,

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but something must've driven the wedge that pulled them apart.

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All right, did the splintering of political parties arise out of

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B - debates over additional amendments

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to the Constitution? Hmm.

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Well, there certainly were concerns over amending

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the Constitution, but this answer feels a little bit vague.

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Let's see if we can find something that hits a little bit harder.

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Could the political divide have resulted from C -

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disagreements over granting women the right to vote?

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Well, while both the women's suffrage movement and the

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growth of western territories were on citizens' minds,

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there was something much louder hammering away

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at our nation's conscience. Yeah.

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That eliminates C and D.

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Which means that the splintering of political parties occurred

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because of A - sectional concerns

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over slavery and the rise of nativism.

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By 1860, people were

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quite literally at each other's throats over the issue

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of slavery. With vocal disagreements over abolition,

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as well as an increase in anti-immigrant sentiment,

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the Democrats split into two pieces

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and a new Constitutional Union Party,

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or CUP, like that, appeared,

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resulting in a four-way election.

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So A hits the nail on the head.

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With Lincoln's election, the country also split in two,

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resulting in the bloodiest war in our nation's history.

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Maybe they shouldn't have let those wounds fester. [ ding ding ]

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