Talk:Conscience Whigs

Clarification
"Conscience Whig" is not a generic term for anti-slavery Whigs, although it is occasionally used as such. It refers to a specific faction of Massachusetts Whigs, led by Sumner, C.F. Adams, Henry Wilson, and others, that broke from the main Whig party over slavery and supported the Free Soil Party in 1848. They are to be distinguished from the  "Cotton Whigs" like Abbott Lawrence, Edward Everett, and Robert C. Winthrop, who were seen as advocates of the textile industry and who thus were generally interested in close relations with the south and in de-emphasizing differences of opinion over slavery. I've pretty much entirely removed the old article and replaced it with a relatively short one that explains this. john k 05:31, 10 April 2007 (UTC)