The Slavery Issue Divides the American Party

Millard Fillmore’s dismal showing in 1856 signaled the disintegration of the Know-Nothing movement and the American Party. Although many factors led to the party’s rapid decline, including its inability to get its legislation passed and its members' frequent involvement in riots and street violence, the main reason centered on the national debate over slavery and its extension into the territories.

A map showing the division between slave and free states and territories in 1850.

The American Party, like many other organizations at the time, was divided over slavery. Northern Know-Nothings had long opposed slavery. In Massachusetts, the American Party was at the forefront of the political struggle against the expansion of slavery.

When the American Party took over the Massachusetts legislature in 1854, the representatives passed a resolution declaring that the Fugitive Slave Act violated the 10th Amendment and then passed a comprehensive personal liberty law. In fact, seven other northern states passed similar liberty laws.

Read about both the Fugitive Slave Act and Massachusetts’ personal liberty law below and then answer the questions.

Fugitive Slave Act	Massachusetts’ Personal Liberty Law
U.S. government must assist slaveowners in their pursuit of escaped slaves. Commissioners, appointed by federal judges, could issue warrants to slaveowners, slave catchers, or U.S. marshals to arrest suspected fugitive slaves but no arrest warrants were required. Any Black person, free or enslaved, could be sent south solely on the affidavit of anyone claiming to be their owner. All U.S. citizens and U.S. marshals were required to assist in carrying out the Fugitive Slave law, whether living in a slave state or not. Any person who interfered with an arrest, attempted a rescue, or aided or hid a fugitive slave could be fined $1,000 and sentenced to six months in jail. At a hearing before a commissioner—not a judge or jury—the accused fugitive slave was prohibited from testifying in their own defense. The commissioner was paid $10 if a fugitive was returned to slavery but only $5 if the fugitive was freed.	Massachusetts authorities were forbidden from detaining runaways without the right of habeas corpus. Each detainee required to receive a jury trial. State courts prohibited from participating in fugitive slave cases. State jails forbidden from housing escaped slaves. All Massachusetts officials prohibited from participating in fugitive slave cases. Any federal official who certified the return of a fugitive slave would be disqualified from holding state office. State courts banned any lawyer who represented a claimant in a fugitive slave case.

Fugitive Slave Act

Massachusetts’ Personal Liberty Law

U.S. government must assist slaveowners in their pursuit of escaped slaves.
Commissioners, appointed by federal judges, could issue warrants to slaveowners, slave catchers, or U.S. marshals to arrest suspected fugitive slaves but no arrest warrants were required.
Any Black person, free or enslaved, could be sent south solely on the affidavit of anyone claiming to be their owner.
All U.S. citizens and U.S. marshals were required to assist in carrying out the Fugitive Slave law, whether living in a slave state or not.
Any person who interfered with an arrest, attempted a rescue, or aided or hid a fugitive slave could be fined $1,000 and sentenced to six months in jail.
At a hearing before a commissioner—not a judge or jury—the accused fugitive slave was prohibited from testifying in their own defense.
The commissioner was paid $10 if a fugitive was returned to slavery but only $5 if the fugitive was freed.

Massachusetts authorities were forbidden from detaining runaways without the right of habeas corpus.
Each detainee required to receive a jury trial.
State courts prohibited from participating in fugitive slave cases.
State jails forbidden from housing escaped slaves.
All Massachusetts officials prohibited from participating in fugitive slave cases.
Any federal official who certified the return of a fugitive slave would be disqualified from holding state office.
State courts banned any lawyer who represented a claimant in a fugitive slave case.

At the American Party’s 1855 convention in Philadelphia, the delegates from Massachusetts and the other New England states, as well as those from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, walked out when the party’s national leadership refused to condemn slavery. Antislavery American Party members joined the Republican Party, while proslavery members flocked to the Democratic Party. This split of the American Party along sectional lines crippled it from within.

By 1859 the Know-Nothing movement had lost support in all but a few Northern and border states and was no longer of any significance on the national stage.