Major issues shaping the political parties in 1850?

The Whig Party formed in 1832 as a group of people from different parties that opposed President Andrew Jackson and his policies. One of these groups was the National Republicans. Their leaders included Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John Quincy Adams. The Whig Party broke up over the issue of slavery. The Kansas-Nebraska of 1854 divided the Whigs. The Northern Whigs joined the Republican Party, the Southern Whigs joined the Democratic Party or the Constitutional Union Party by 1860.

The Republican Party dates from 1854 over opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. The bill permitted slavery in the new teritories of Kansas and Nebraska if the people voted for it. The Republican Party grew out of antislavery meetings held throughout the North. Their first candidate for president was John Fremont , who was defeated in the election of 1856.

The Liberty Party was the first political party in the U.S. to give most of its attention to the slavery question. James G. Birney and the poet John Greenleaf Whittier were the leading supporters of the group. The Party nominated Birney unsuccessfully for president in 1940. In 1848 the Party met in Buffalo with other groups to form the Free Soil Party.

The Free Soil Party was a political group organized in Buffalo, N.Y. in 1848. The Party opposed the extension of slavery in the territories and the admission of slave states to the Union. Martin Van Buren became the free Soiler's candidate for president in 1848. Their campaign slogan was "Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men". Before the election of 1856 the remnants of the Free Soil Party joined the newly formed republican Party.

The Know-Nothings were members of certain secret societies that flourished in the U.S. from 1852 to 1860. They were opposed to immigration and the election or appointment of Roman Catholics and foreign-born people to official positions. They were opposed to the Catholic Church. The Know-Nothings formed the American Party, also called the Know-Nothing Party. They split up over the issue of slavery.

So you see the main issue of the day was the issue of slavery and if it should be allowed to spread in the territories. I hope that this has been a help to you.

The right to beat one's wife (at the time wives were women-born-women) if she burned the rabbit stew.