The Appeal of the Independent Democrats was a manifesto issued in January, 1854, was inspired by the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, then pending (see Kansas-Nebraska Act). The signers, led by Senator Salmon P. Chase, were members of the Free Soil Party. Chase had tried to convert Northern Democrats into a Wilmot Proviso. Now, by a master stroke, precisely timed, he helped to create the Republican party. The "Appeal" was sincere and effective, though it contained exaggerated statements and unsound prophecies relative to the possible influence of the Douglas measure on the spread of slavery. A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. ... 1854 (MDCCCLIV) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... This 1854 map shows slave states (grey), free states (red), and US territories (green) with Kansas in center (white). ... Salmon Portland Chase (January 13, 1808 – May 7, 1873) was an American politician and jurist in the Civil War era who served as Senator from Ohio, Governor of Ohio, as U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Abraham Lincoln, and Chief Justice of the United States. ... The Free Soil Party was a short-lived political party in the United States active in the 1848 and 1852 presidential elections, and in some state elections. ... The Wilmot Proviso, first suggested on August 8, 1846 in the House of Representatives and attached to many bills in the United States Congress, to outlaw slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico by the United States as a result of the recently begun Mexican-American War. ... For other uses, see Republican Party (disambiguation) or GOP (disambiguation). ... Slave redirects here. ...

Sources

• Congressional Globe, 33rd Congress, 1st Session, 281 282
• Dictionary of American History by James Truslow Adams, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940