Pro-slavery forces ferrying Missouri voters to the Kansas shore to vote against free soil
the, 1850s. Hand-colored woodcut of a 19th-century illustration
Never Trumpers Will Want to Read This History Lesson
In the 1850s, disaffected Democrats made the wrenching choice to leave their party to save American democracy. Here’s what happened.
I was educated a Democrat from my boyhood,” a Republican delegate confided to his colleagues at Iowa’s constitutional convention in 1857. “Faithfully, I did adhere to that party until I could no longer act with it. Many things did I condemn ere I left that party, for my love of party was strong. And when I did, at last, feel compelled to separate from my old Democratic friends, it was like tearing myself away from old home associations.”
