 Prior to the dissolution of the party, most had expected the Whigs would nominate Morehead at their own party's convention in April.Though Kentucky had only a small population of immigrants and Catholics, much of Morehead's campaign oratory was directed against these groups.Most of the state's immigrant and Catholic population resided in Louisville, and tensions there reached a climax with an anti-foreign riot known as "Bloody Monday" on August 6, 1855.