Following the collapse of the Whig Party in 1854 and the Democratic Party’s splintering in 1860, American political parties have nearly collapsed numerous times.

The Whig Party, organized in 1834 by cobbling together various factions, was therefore an odd bunch. Some of its members, such as Clay, had been lifelong Democratic-Republicans, ...

THE OLD WHIG PARTY LETTER FROM MR. FILLMORE. Share full article. May 12, 1860. Credit... The New York Times Archives. See the article in its original context from May 12, 1860, Page 10 Buy Reprints.

The Whig Party, the more conservative of the two major U.S. political parties in the mid-19th century, had a sizable anti-slavery contingent, particularly in the northern states, but the party ...

The 19th-century Whigs present an appealing prototype for moderate Democrats seeking a way out of their paralysis and for Republicans impatient with, or horrified by, the Trump ascendancy.

In 1854, in Ripon, Wisconsin; Jackson, Michigan; and Aurora, a new, rather centrist Republican Party emerged to oppose the extension of slavery to the North, replacing a Whig Party divided on the ...