The New International Encyclopædia/Constitutional Union Party

CONSTITUTIONAL UNION PARTY. A party, formed chiefly out of the remnants of the Know-Nothing and Whig parties, which met in convention at Baltimore in May, 1860, and nominated John Bell (q.v.) and Edward Everett (q.v.), for President and Vice-President, respectively, on a platform which declared simply for “the Constitution of the country, the union of the States, and the enforcement of the laws.” The party carried Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and cast a popular vote of about 600,000, and an electoral vote of 39, in the ensuing election. After this campaign the party virtually went out of existence. It was also known as the ‘Bell-Everett party.’