THROUGHOUT ITS HISTORY, TENNESSEE HAS BEEN A MODERATE STATE. FOCUSING ON THE ANTEBELLUM PERIOD, INCLUDING THE POLITICAL PARTY SYSTEM (DESCRIBE THE BASIC BELIEFS OF EACH) IN TENNESSEE,
By 1836 both Whigs and Democrats were fully organized, and for the next decade and a half the two parties fiercely competed for national, state, and local offices. Until 1852 Whigs won the majority of national and state elections, but the two parties were remarkably well matched. The breakup of the national Whig Party in the early 1850s shifted the advantage to the Democrats, but throughout the rest of the decade Whigs, sometimes under the guise of other parties such as the Know-Nothings, continued to compete effectively for office. The term "Democrat" was first used in the 1830s, about the time the opposition Whig party was formed by Henry Clay, who had been a devoted Jeffersonian.
The Democratis Party resembled the previous Republican party especially in terms of a Jeffersonian anti-elite rhetoric of opposition to "aristocracy," distrust of banks (and paper money), and faith in "the people". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_Democratic_Party According to Fisher (1997), it favored limited government, the restriction of business privileges, and the protection of the common people from economic exploitation. Andrew Johnson was the leader of the East Tennessee Democrats. http://uncpress.unc.edu/chapters/fisher_war.html
The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. The party was formed to oppose the policies of President Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party. In particular, the Whigs supported the supremacy of Congress over the Executive Branch and favored a program of modernization and economic development. Their name was chosen to echo the American Whigs of the 1770s who fought for independence. The Whig Party counted among its members such national political luminaries as Daniel Webster, William Henry Harrison, and their pre-eminent leader, Henry Clay of Kentucky. In addition to Harrison, the Whig Party also counted 4 war heroes among its ranks, including Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. Its Illinois leader was Abraham Lincoln. The party was ultimately destroyed by the question of whether to allow the expansion of slavery to the territories. Deep fissures in the party on this question led the party to run Winfield Scott over its own incumbent President Fillmore in the U.S. presidential election of 1852. The Whig Party never elected another President. Its leaders quit politics (as Lincoln did temporarily) or changed parties. The voter base defected to the nativist Know-Nothing Party, Republican Party, various coalition parties in some states, and even to the Democrats. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Whig_Party
The Republican Party was re-established in 1854 by a coalition of former Whigs, Northern Democrats, and Free-Soilers who opposed the expansion of slavery and held a vision for modernizing the United States. The new party was created as an act of defiance against what activists denounced as the Slave Power -the powerful class of slaveholders who were conspiring to control the federal government and to spread slavery nationwide. The party founders adopted the name "Republican," echoing the 1776 Republicanism in the United States values of civic virtue and opposition to aristocracy and corruption. And, it harkened back to the party's lineage to Jefferson's early Republican Party of 1792. The new party emphasized a vision of modernizing higher education, banking, railroads, industry, and cities, while promising free homesteads to farmers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_%28United_States%29
According to Fisher (1997), Tennessee's three sections competed with each other for political dominance, revenues, and funding for internal improvements. From the state's founding to the first decade of the nineteenth century East Tennessee supplied most of the state's governors, controlled the state legislature, and monopolized at least one Senate seat. But in 1812 rapid population growth and congressional redistricting threw the advantage to Middle Tennessee. The subsequent political decline of East Tennessee, symbolized by the removal of the state capital from Knoxville to Nashville, was deep and painful. Between 1819 and 1860 only a single candidate from the eastern counties, Andrew Johnson, reached the governor's chair, and after 1840 East Tennessee lost its claim to one Senate seat. Three defeats late in the antebellum period particularly embittered East Tennessee Whig leaders. In both 1851 and 1853 T. A. R. Nelson, one of East Tennessee's most respected Whig leaders, was a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat, but both times the state legislature instead selected a Middle Tennessee candidate. Then, in 1857, John Netherland lost badly to Isham G. Harris in the governor's race, a defeat that further emphasized East Tennessee's political weakness. http://uncpress.unc.edu/chapters/fisher_war.html

2. ...THE GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS (DESCRIBE THEM), AND ECONOMIC DIVISIONS (DESCRIBE THEM) EXPLAIN WHY?
According to Fisher (1997), the separation of Tennessee into three regions, West, Middle, and East, is central to the state's history. East and Middle Tennessee had originated as separate enterprises and had functioned independently for two decades. West Tennessee was not settled until the 1820s, and its frontier heritage was still evident in 1860. Following geography and history, the constitution of 1834 established three "grand divisions" for purposes of taxation, appropriations, and some political appointments. Many religious denominations organized three separate conferences in Tennessee, one for each division. Even the state's railroad lines did not link its divisions together, but instead tied each section to markets and transportation centers in neighboring states.
According to Fisher (1997), East Tennessee's position in the antebellum South was ambivalent in regards to economic stability. For example, the mountain ranges that enclose this area on all sides cut East Tennessee off from ready communication with other regions, created a sense of isolation, and produced a set of distinct economic and cultural characteristics. East Tennessee was relatively poor in comparison with other parts of the Confederacy, and staple crop agriculture was largely absent. It relied little on slavery, and there are indications that by 1860 a free labor ideology had begun to take hold. At the same time, East Tennessee's rural structure was similar to that of other regions of the state, its manufacturing sector was still small, and its transportation systems provided links not with the North but rather with its Southern neighbors. Further, East Tennessee's political leaders, both Whig and Democrat, proudly identified themselves as Southerners, defended the institution of slavery, and supported Southern interests in Congress. Location was a main reason for economic divisions. For example, East Tennessee's location in the Appalachians did not in itself separate it from the rest of the South. Thus, according to Fisher (1997), East Tennessee lagged significantly behind the rest of the state in wealth. In 1860 the aggregate wealth (real plus personal property) per capita was only $454. However, Fisher (1997) points out that agriculture in East Tennessee was highly diversified i.e. East Tennessee farmers raised considerable quantities of wheat, corn, oats, hay, and fruit, grazed large herds of cattle and hogs, and kept honeybees and silkworms. Farms ranged in size from small subsistence plots to large market enterprises, and agricultural practices varied widely. Holdings in the river valleys were intensively cultivated, and some farmers employed advanced agricultural methods and bred high-quality livestock. Conversely, most of the land in the mountain counties remained in pasture and timber, and unfenced grazing was common. In 1860, for example, 57 percent of East Tennessee families owned land, and the majority of farms were in the range of fifty to two hundred acres. As well, the manufacturing sector in East Tennessee grew rapidly in the late antebellum period and was just beginning to transform the region's economy. Most production was limited to basic processing of the region's resources, and grain mills, iron and copper works, lumber mills, and alcohol distilleries were common http://uncpress.unc.edu/chapters/fisher_war.html
In 1860 the aggregate wealth (real plus personal property) per capita was only $454. By contrast, the per capita aggregate wealth in Middle and West Tennessee was $934 and $1,243, respectively. The highest per capita wealth in East Tennessee was $730, in Jefferson County, while the top figures for Middle and West Tennessee were $2,600 and $3,300. However, Fisher (197) warns that these figures must be used with caution. Land values, for example, reflected a wide range of factors, including agricultural potential, demand, capital availability, population density, transportation facilities, and the market for commodities produced. Likewise, levels of wealth in the antebellum South were closely linked to both slaveholding and land values, and they may reveal very little about actual income levels or standard of living. Nonetheless, and as Fisher (1997) points out, these figures suggest sharp economic and social differences between East Tennessee and the rest of the state. http://uncpress.unc.edu/chapters/fisher_war.html
Thus, the divides reflected location and population density, but also reflected the political leadership and the shrewdness of the leader. Fisher (1997) points out, for example, that in its early years Tennessee was a Republican state, for most inhabitants despised the Federalist Party for its perceived advocacy of Eastern interests at the expense of the frontier. Politics were based on faction rather than party, and for three decades two Republican contingents competed with each other for office. The first, based in Middle Tennessee, was led by William Blount, the former governor of the Southwest Territory and the state's first senator. The second faction was headed by John Sevier, a land speculator who rose to prominence as a militia leader in the wars against the Cherokee. Fisher (1997) argues that this group found most of its support in East Tennessee, and initially it dominated state politics. Sevier skillfully parlayed military fame into votes, and he served as governor from 1795 through 1801 and 1805 through 1809. But Middle Tennessee's population rapidly overtook East Tennessee's (reflected in higher economic growth than the East for example), and by 1815 the Blount faction had ousted Sevier. Blount was aided not only by demographics but also by superior talent, particularly Willie Blount, Felix Grundy, Sam Houston, and most importantly Andrew Jackson. By contrast, Sevier was followed by less prominent and less politically shrewd figures such as William Carroll and John Williams. http://uncpress.unc.edu/chapters/fisher_war.html
According to Fisher (1997), the Whigs in East and West Tennessee frequently allied against Democratic Middle Tennessee, but representatives from the middle counties nonetheless tended to dominate the state legislature. Political loyalties in antebellum Tennessee were tenacious, and between 1836 and 1852 the vote of most counties could be predicted with great accuracy. But the reasons for party preference are less clear. The most thorough studies of voter behavior in antebellum Tennessee, fisher (1997) argues, have concluded that the most significant factors influencing voting were residence and occupation. Town-based groups, such as merchants and lawyers, and residents of more economically developed rural areas tended to support the Whig Party. Democrats, conversely, controlled rural areas not experiencing significant economic change (East Tennessee). This pattern changed somewhat in the late antebellum period. After 1854 merchants, lawyers, and other urban professionals tended to drift out of Whig ranks in West Tennessee, while making up an increasingly large percentage of the Whig Party in East Tennessee. During this same period new voters in West Tennessee tended to join the Democratic Party, but in East Tennessee favored the Whigs. These trends reflected the increasing influence of the sectional crisis on voting in Tennessee. All these connections were tenuous, however, and local factors may have been more influential http://uncpress.unc.edu/chapters/fisher_war.html
Thus, the political party's main views were reflected in economic trends.
2. EXPLAIN WHY TENNESSEE TOOK SO LONG TO SECEDE FROM THE UNION AND JOIN THE CONFEDERACY.
In April and May 1861, four more slave states seceded and joined the Confederacy: Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Basically, it took longer for Tennessee to join because of the great political and economic divides between the North and the South, who were Union loyalists. Divides in slavery ideology was a main contributing factor that delayed joining the confederacy. For example, much of the political battle in the 1850s focused on the expansion of slavery into the newly created territories. Both North and South assumed that if slavery could not expand it would wither and die. Well-founded Southern fears of losing control of the Federal government to antislavery forces, and northern fears that the slave power already controlled the government, brought the crisis to a head in the late 1850s. These divides delayed joining confederacy. The fear of modernization was another factor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War
Also see more detail at http://uncpress.unc.edu/chapters/fisher_war.html.

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