How did the issue of slavery lead to a new political party

The Whig party, which was fractured by sectionalism and the Compromise of 1850, was destroyed by nativistic politics. For a time, hostility to immigrants was enough to strengthen the American Party, but northerners were still worried about the expansion of slavery into the west and the growing strength of the Democrat Party. A new party, the Republican Party, replaced the Whig Party. The Election of 1856 was different from previous elections. The distinctions between the parties and their candidates were made based on their positions on the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This election placed the political economy of slavery against the political economy of free labor. The issue was forced into the nation’s political dialog by the presence of a new political party, the Republican Party