History lesson——the Whigs in 1852 nominated Gen. Winfield Scott for president. The North and South had become so polarized over the slavery issue that the Whigs were no longer able to make a broad national appeal on the basis of “unalterable attachment to the Constitution and the Union.”
Scott collected just 42 electoral votes as many southern Whigs flocked to the banner of the states’ rights oriented Democratic Party. By 1854 most northern Whigs had joined the newly formed Republican Party. To the extent that the party continued to exist, it commanded support only in the border states.
Many of the last remaining Whigs found a niche in the Know-Nothing Party during the second
half of the 1850s and then backed the Constitutional Union Party as the country split apart in 1860.
Liz - that might be a great name for the current Democrat party - the 'know nothing' party. Kinda fits.