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Whig Party (United States)

The Whig Party was a conservative[13] political party that existed in the United States during the mid-19th century.[13] Alongside the slightly larger Democratic Party, it was one of the two major parties in the United States between the late 1830s and the early 1850s as part of the Second Party System.[14] Four presidents (William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore) were affiliated with the Whig Party for at least part of their terms. Other prominent members of the Whig Party include Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Rufus Choate, William Seward, John J. Crittenden, and John Quincy Adams. The Whig base of support was centered among entrepreneurs, professionals, planters, social reformers, devout Protestants (particularly evangelicals), and the emerging urban middle class. It had much less backing from poor farmers and unskilled workers.

Whig Party
LeaderHenry Clay
Daniel Webster
William Henry Harrison
Zachary Taylor
FounderHenry Clay
Founded1833; 191 years ago (1833)[1]
Dissolved1856; 168 years ago (1856)[2]
Merger ofNational Republican Party
Anti-Masonic Party
Preceded byNational Republican Party
Anti-Masonic Party
Nullifier Party (minority)
Federalist Party
Succeeded byRepublican Party
American Party
Opposition Party
Constitutional Union Party
HeadquartersWashington, D.C.
NewspaperThe American Review
Ideology
Colors  Blue   Buff
Seats in the Senate
29 / 52
(1841–1843, peak)
Seats in the House of Representatives
142 / 242
(1841, peak)

The party was hostile toward Manifest destiny, territorial expansion into Texas and the Southwest, and the Mexican–American War. It disliked strong presidential power as exhibited by Jackson and Polk, and preferred congressional dominance in lawmaking. Members advocated modernization, meritocracy, the rule of law, protections against majority tyranny, and vigilance against executive tyranny. They favored an economic program known as the American System, which called for a protective tariff, federal subsidies for the construction of infrastructure, and support for a national bank. The party was active in both the Northern United States and the Southern United States and did not take a strong stance on slavery, but Northern Whigs tended to be less supportive than their Democratic counterparts.

The Whigs emerged in the 1830s in opposition to President Andrew Jackson, pulling together former members of the National Republican Party, the Anti-Masonic Party, and disaffected Democrats. The Whigs had some weak links to the defunct Federalist Party, but the Whig Party was not a direct successor to that party and many Whig leaders, including Henry Clay, had aligned with the rival Democratic-Republican Party. In the 1836 presidential election, four different regional Whig candidates received electoral votes, but the party failed to defeat Jackson's chosen successor, Martin Van Buren. Whig nominee William Henry Harrison unseated Van Buren in the 1840 presidential election, but died just one month into his term. Harrison's successor, John Tyler, a former Democrat, broke with the Whigs in 1841 after clashing with Clay and other Whig Party leaders over economic policies such as the re-establishment of a national bank.

Clay clinched his party's nomination in the 1844 presidential election but was defeated by Democrat James K. Polk, who subsequently presided over the Mexican–American War. Whig nominee Zachary Taylor won the 1848 presidential election, but Taylor died in 1850 and was succeeded by Millard Fillmore. Fillmore, Clay, Daniel Webster, and Democrat Stephen A. Douglas led the passage of the Compromise of 1850, which helped to defuse sectional tensions in the aftermath of the Mexican–American War for a time. Nonetheless, the Whigs suffered a decisive defeat in the 1852 presidential election partly due to sectional divisions within the party. The Whigs collapsed following the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1854, with most Northern Whigs eventually joining the anti-slavery Republican Party and most Southern Whigs joining the nativist American Party and later the Constitutional Union Party. The last vestiges of the Whig Party faded away after the start of the American Civil War, but Whig ideas remained influential for decades. During the Lincoln Administration, ex-Whigs dominated the Republican Party and enacted much of their American System. Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Rutherford B. Hayes, Chester A. Arthur, and Benjamin Harrison were Whigs before switching to the Republican Party, from which they were elected to office.[15] It is considered the primary predecessor party of the modern-day Republicans.[16]

Background edit

 
John Quincy Adams, the 6th president, became a Whig congressman later in his career.

During the 1790s, the first major U.S. parties arose in the form of the Federalist Party, led by Alexander Hamilton, and the Democratic-Republican Party, led by Thomas Jefferson. After 1815, the Democratic-Republicans emerged as the sole major party at the national level but became increasingly polarized. A nationalist wing, led by Henry Clay, favored policies such as the Second Bank of the United States and the implementation of a protective tariff. A second group, the Old Republicans, opposed these policies, instead favoring a strict interpretation of the Constitution and a weak federal government.[17]

In the 1824 presidential election, Speaker of the House Henry Clay, Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, and General Andrew Jackson all sought the presidency as members of the Democratic-Republican Party.[18] Crawford favored state sovereignty and a strict constructionist view of the Constitution, while Clay and Adams favored high tariffs and the national bank;[19] regionalism played a central role, with Jackson strongest in the West. Jackson won a plurality of the popular and electoral vote in the 1824 election, but not a majority. The House of Representatives had to decide. Speaker Clay supported Adams, who was elected as president by the House, and Clay was appointed as Secretary of State. Jackson called it a "corrupt bargain".[20]

 
Henry Clay, a founder of the Whig Party in the 1830s and its 1844 presidential nominee

In the years following the 1824 election, former members of the Democratic-Republican Party split into hostile factions. Supporters of President Adams and Clay joined with many former Federalists such as Daniel Webster to form a group informally known as the "Adams party".[21] Meanwhile, supporters of Jackson, Crawford, and Vice President John C. Calhoun joined to oppose the Adams administration's nationalist agenda, becoming informally known as "Jacksonians".[21] Due in part to the superior organization (by Martin Van Buren) of the Jacksonians, Jackson defeated Adams in the 1828 presidential election, taking 56 percent of the popular vote.[22] Clay became the leader of the National Republican Party, which opposed President Jackson. By the early 1830s, the Jacksonians organized into the new Democratic Party.[23]

Despite Jackson's decisive victory in the 1828 election, National Republicans initially believed that Jackson's party would collapse once Jackson took office. Vice President Calhoun split from the administration in 1831, but differences over the tariff prevented Calhoun's followers from joining the National Republicans.[23] Meanwhile, the Anti-Masonic Party formed following the disappearance and possible murder of William Morgan in 1826.[24] The Anti-Masonic movement, strongest in the Northeast, gave rise to or expanded the use of many innovations which became accepted practice among other parties, including nominating conventions and party newspapers.[25] Clay rejected overtures from the Anti-Masonic Party, and his attempt to convince Calhoun to serve as his running mate failed, leaving the opposition to Jackson split among different leaders when the National Republicans nominated Clay for president.[24]

Hoping to make the national bank a key issue of the 1832 election, the National Republicans convinced national bank president Nicholas Biddle to request an extension of the national bank's charter, but their strategy backfired when Jackson successfully portrayed his veto of the recharter as a victory for the people against an elitist institution.[26] Jackson won another decisive victory in the 1832 presidential election, taking 55 percent of the national popular vote and 88 percent of the popular vote in the slave states south of Kentucky and Maryland.[27] Clay's defeat discredited the National Republican Party, encouraging those opposed to Jackson to seek to create a more effective opposition party.[28] Jackson by 1832 was determined to destroy the bank (the Second Bank of the United States), which Whigs supported.[29][30]

History edit

Creation, 1833–1836 edit

 
Daniel Webster, a leading Whig from New England

Shortly after Jackson's re-election, South Carolina passed a measure to "nullify" the Tariff of 1832, beginning the Nullification Crisis. Jackson strongly denied the right of South Carolina to nullify federal law, but the crisis was resolved after Congress passed the Tariff of 1833.[31] The Nullification Crisis briefly scrambled the partisan divisions that had emerged after 1824, as many within the Jacksonian coalition opposed President Jackson's threats of force against South Carolina, while some opposition leaders like Daniel Webster supported them.[32] In South Carolina and other states, those opposed to Jackson began to form small "Whig" parties.[31] The Whig label implicitly compared "King Andrew" to King George III, the King of Great Britain at the time of the American Revolution.[33]

Jackson's decision to remove government deposits from the national bank[a] ended any possibility of a Webster-Jackson alliance and helped to solidify partisan lines.[36] The removal of the deposits drew opposition from both pro-bank National Republicans and states' rights Southerners like Willie Person Mangum of North Carolina, the latter of whom accused Jackson of flouting the Constitution.[37] In late 1833, Clay began to hold a series of dinners with opposition leaders in order to settle on a candidate to oppose Martin Van Buren, the likely Democratic nominee in the 1836 presidential election. While Jackson's opponents could not agree on a single presidential candidate, they coordinated in the Senate to oppose Jackson's initiatives.[38] Historian Michael Holt writes that the "birth of the Whig Party" can be dated to Clay and his allies taking control of the Senate in December 1833.[1]

The National Republicans, including Clay and Webster, formed the core of the Whig Party, but many Anti-Masons like William H. Seward of New York and Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania also joined. Several prominent Democrats defected to the Whigs, including Mangum, former Attorney General John Berrien, and John Tyler of Virginia.[33] The Whig Party's first major action was to censure Jackson for the removal of the national bank deposits, thereby establishing opposition to Jackson's executive power as the organizing principle of the new party.[9]

In doing so, the Whigs were able to shed the elitist image that had persistently hindered the National Republicans.[39] Throughout 1834 and 1835, the Whigs successfully incorporated National Republican and Anti-Masonic state-level organizations and established new state party organizations in Southern states like North Carolina and Georgia.[40] The Anti-Masonic heritage to the Whigs included a distrust of behind-the-scenes political maneuvering by party bosses, instead of encouraging direct appeals to the people through gigantic rallies, parades, and rhetorical rabble-rousing.[41]

Rise, 1836–1841 edit

 
William Henry Harrison, a two-time presidential candidate who became the first Whig president in 1841 but died just one month into office

Early successes in various states made many Whigs optimistic about victory in 1836, but an improving economy bolstered Van Buren's standing ahead of the election.[42] The Whigs also faced the difficulty of uniting former National Republicans, Anti-Masons, and states' rights Southerners around one candidate, and the party suffered an early blow when Calhoun announced that he would refuse to support any candidate opposed to the doctrine of nullification.[43] Northern Whigs cast aside both Clay and Webster in favor of General William Henry Harrison, a former senator who had led U.S. forces in the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe.[44]

Though he had not previously been affiliated with the National Republicans, Harrison indicated that he shared the party's concerns over Jackson's executive power and favored federal investments in infrastructure.[44] Southern Whigs coalesced around Senator Hugh Lawson White, a long-time Jackson ally who opposed Van Buren's candidacy.[45] Ultimately, Van Buren won a majority of the electoral and popular vote in the 1836 election, though the Whigs improved on Clay's 1832 performance in the South and West.[46]

Shortly after Van Buren took office, an economic crisis known as the Panic of 1837 struck the nation.[47] Land prices plummeted, industries laid-off employees, and banks failed. According to historian Daniel Walker Howe, the economic crisis of the late 1830s and early 1840s was the most severe recession in U.S. history until the Great Depression.[48] Van Buren's economic response centered on establishing the Independent Treasury system, essentially a series of vaults that would hold government deposits.[49] As the debate over the Independent Treasury continued, William Cabell Rives and some other Democrats who favored a more activist government defected to the Whig Party, while Calhoun and his followers joined the Democratic Party.[50] Whig leaders agreed to hold the party's first national convention in December 1839 in order to select the Whig presidential nominee.[51]

 
William Henry Harrison defeated Martin Van Buren in the 1840 presidential election, thereby becoming the first Whig president

By early 1838, Clay had emerged as the front-runner due to his support in the South and his spirited opposition to Van Buren's Independent Treasury.[52] A recovering economy convinced other Whigs to support Harrison, who was generally seen as the Whig candidate best able to win over Democrats and new voters.[53] With the crucial support of Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania and Thurlow Weed of New York, Harrison won the presidential nomination on the fifth ballot of the 1839 Whig National Convention.[54]

For vice president, the Whigs nominated John Tyler, a former states' rights Democrat selected for the Whig ticket primarily because other Southern supporters of Clay refused to serve as Harrison's running mate.[55] Log cabins and hard cider became the dominant symbols of the Whig campaign as the party sought to portray Harrison as a man of the people.[56] The Whigs also assailed Van Buren's handling of the economy and argued that traditional Whig policies such as the restoration of a national bank and the implementation of protective tariff rates would help to restore the economy.[57] With the economy still in a downturn, Harrison decisively defeated Van Buren, taking a wide majority of the electoral vote and just under 53 percent of the popular vote.[58]

Harrison and Tyler, 1841–1845 edit

 
President John Tyler clashed with congressional Whigs and was expelled from the party.

With the election of the first Whig presidential administration in the party's history, Clay and his allies prepared to pass ambitious domestic policies such as the restoration of the national bank, the distribution of federal land sales revenue to the states, a national bankruptcy law, and increased tariff rates.[59] Harrison died just one month into his term, thereby elevating Vice President Tyler to the presidency.[60] Tyler had never accepted much of the Whig economic program and he soon clashed with Clay and other congressional Whigs.[60] In August 1841, Tyler vetoed Clay's national bank bill, holding that the bill was unconstitutional.[61]

Congress passed a second bill based on an earlier proposal made by Treasury Secretary Ewing that was tailored to address Tyler's constitutional concerns, but Tyler vetoed that bill as well.[62] In response, every Cabinet member but Webster resigned, and the Whig congressional caucus expelled Tyler from the party on September 13, 1841.[63] The Whigs later began impeachment proceedings against Tyler, but they ultimately declined to impeach him because they believed that his likely acquittal would devastate the party.[64]

Beginning in mid-1842, Tyler increasingly began to court Democrats, appointing them to his Cabinet and other positions.[65] At the same time, many Whig state organizations repudiated the Tyler administration and endorsed Clay as the party's candidate in the 1844 presidential election.[66] After Webster resigned from the Cabinet in May 1843 following the conclusion of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, Tyler made the annexation of Texas his key priority. The annexation of Texas was widely viewed as a pro-slavery initiative as it would add another slave state to the union, and most leaders of both parties opposed opening the question of annexation in 1843 due to the fear of stoking the debate over slavery. Tyler was nonetheless determined to pursue annexation because he believed that the British conspired to abolish slavery in Texas[b] and because he saw the issue as a means to reelection, either through the Democratic Party or through a new party.[68] In April 1844, Secretary of State John C. Calhoun reached a treaty with Texas providing for the annexation of that country.[69]

Clay and Van Buren, the two front-runners for major-party presidential nominations in the 1844 election, both announced their opposition to annexation, and the Senate blocked the annexation treaty.[70] To the surprise of Clay and other Whigs, the 1844 Democratic National Convention rejected Van Buren in favor of James K. Polk and established a platform calling for the acquisition of both Texas and Oregon Country.[71] Having won the presidential nomination at the 1844 Whig National Convention unopposed, Clay and other Whigs were initially confident that they would defeat the divided Democrats and their relatively obscure candidate.[72]

However, Southern voters responded to Polk's calls for annexation, while in the North, Democrats benefited from the growing animosity towards the Whig Party among Catholic and foreign-born voters.[73] Ultimately, Polk won the election, taking 49.5% of the popular vote and a majority of the electoral vote; the swing of just over one percent of the vote in New York would have given Clay the victory.[74]

Polk and the Mexican–American War, 1845–1849 edit

 
Zachary Taylor served in the Mexican–American War and later won the 1848 presidential election as the Whig nominee.
 
The United States settled the Texas-Mexico border and acquired portions of seven current states in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Portions of present-day Arizona and New Mexico were later acquired in the 1853 Gadsden Purchase.

In the final weeks of Tyler's presidency, a small group of Southern Whigs joined with congressional Democrats to pass a joint resolution providing for the annexation of Texas, and Texas subsequently became a state in 1845.[75] Following the annexation of Texas, Polk began preparations for a potential war with Mexico, which still regarded Texas as a part of its republic and contended that Texas's true southern border was the Nueces River rather than the Rio Grande.[76] After a skirmish known as the Thornton Affair broke out on the northern side of the Rio Grande,[77] Polk called on Congress to declare war against Mexico, arguing that Mexico had invaded American territory by crossing the Rio Grande.[78]

Many Whigs argued that Polk had provoked war with Mexico by sending a force under General Zachary Taylor to the Rio Grande, but only a minority of Whigs voted against the declaration of war as they feared that opposing the war would be politically unpopular.[79] Polk received the declaration of war against Mexico and also pushed through the restoration of the Independent Treasury System and a bill that reduced tariffs; opposition to the passage of these Democratic policies helped to reunify and reinvigorate the Whigs.[80]

In August 1846, Polk asked Congress to appropriate $2 million (~$58.6 million in 2022) in hopes of using that money as a down payment for the purchase of California in a treaty with Mexico.[81] Democratic Congressman David Wilmot of Pennsylvania offered an amendment known as the Wilmot Proviso, which would ban slavery in any newly acquired lands.[82] The Wilmot Proviso passed the House with the support of both Northern Whigs and Northern Democrats, breaking the normal pattern of partisan division in congressional votes, but it was defeated in the Senate.[83]

Nonetheless, clear divisions remained between the two parties on territorial acquisitions, as most Democrats joined Polk in seeking to acquire vast tracts of land from Mexico, but most Whigs opposed territorial growth.[84] In February 1848, Mexican and U.S. negotiators reached the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which provided for the cession of Alta California and New Mexico.[85] Despite Whig objections to the acquisition of Mexican territory, the treaty was ratified with the support of a majority of the Democratic and Whig senators; Whigs voted for the treaty largely because ratification brought the war to an immediate end.[86]

 
A political cartoon satirizing the candidacy of either Zachary Taylor or Winfield Scott in the 1848 presidential election

During the war, Whig leaders like John J. Crittenden of Kentucky began to look to General Taylor as a presidential candidate in the hopes that the party could run on Taylor's personal popularity rather than economic issues.[87] Taylor's candidacy faced significant resistance in the Whig Party due to his lack of public commitment to Whig policies and his association with the Mexican–American War.[88] In late 1847, Clay emerged as Taylor's main opponent for the Whig nomination, appealing especially to Northern Whigs with his opposition to the war and the acquisition of new territory.[89]

With strong backing from slave state delegates, Taylor won the presidential nomination on the fourth ballot of the 1848 Whig National Convention.[90] For vice president, the Whigs nominated Millard Fillmore of New York, a pro-Clay Northerner.[91] Anti-slavery Northern Whigs disaffected with Taylor joined with Democratic supporters of Martin Van Buren and some members of the Liberty Party to found the new Free Soil Party; the party nominated a ticket of Van Buren and Whig Charles Francis Adams Sr. and campaigned against the spread of slavery into the territories.[92]

The Whig campaign in the North received a boost when Taylor released a public letter in which he stated that he favored Whig principles and would defer to Congress after taking office, thereby reassuring some wavering Whigs.[93] During the campaign, Northern Whig leaders touted traditional Whig policies like support for infrastructure spending and increased tariff rates,[94] but Southern Whigs largely eschewed economic policy, instead emphasizing that Taylor's status as a slaveholder meant that he could be trusted on the issue of slavery more so than Democratic candidate Lewis Cass of Michigan.[95] Ultimately, Taylor won the election with a majority of the electoral vote and a plurality of the popular vote. Taylor improved on Clay's 1844 performance in the South and benefited from the defection of many Democrats to Van Buren in the North.[96]

Taylor and Fillmore, 1849–1853 edit

 
Millard Fillmore, the last Whig president

Reflecting the Taylor administration's desire to find a middle ground between traditional Whig and Democratic policies, Secretary of the Treasury William M. Meredith issued a report calling for an increase in tariff rates, but not to the levels seen under the Tariff of 1842.[97] Even Meredith's moderate policies were not adopted, and, partly due to the strong economic growth of the late 1840s and late 1850s, traditional Whig economic stances would increasingly lose their salience after 1848.[98] When Taylor assumed office, the organization of state and territorial governments and the status of slavery in the Mexican Cession remained the major issue facing Congress.[99]

To sidestep the issue of the Wilmot Proviso, the Taylor administration proposed that the lands of the Mexican Cession be admitted as states without first organizing territorial governments; thus, slavery in the area would be left to the discretion of state governments rather than the federal government.[100] In January 1850, Senator Clay introduced a separate proposal which included the admission of California as a free state, the cession by Texas of some of its northern and western territorial claims in return for debt relief, the establishment of New Mexico and Utah territories, a ban on the importation of slaves into the District of Columbia for sale, and a more stringent fugitive slave law.[101]

 
Gen. Winfield Scott, the unsuccessful Whig candidate in the 1852 presidential election

Taylor died in July 1850 and was succeeded by Vice President Fillmore.[102] In contrast to John Tyler, Fillmore's legitimacy and authority as president were widely accepted by members of Congress and the public.[103] Fillmore accepted the resignation of Taylor's entire Cabinet[104] and appointed Whig leaders like Crittenden, Thomas Corwin of Ohio, and Webster, whose support for the Compromise had outraged his Massachusetts constituents.[105] With the support of Fillmore and an impressing bipartisan and bi-sectional coalition, a Senate bill providing for a final settlement of Texas's borders won passage shortly after Fillmore took office.[106]

The Senate quickly moved onto the other major issues, passing bills that provided for the admission of California, the organization of New Mexico Territory, and the establishment of a new fugitive slave law.[107] Passage of what became known as the Compromise of 1850 soon followed in the House of Representatives.[108] Though the future of slavery in New Mexico, Utah, and other territories remained unclear, Fillmore himself described the Compromise of 1850 as a "final settlement" of sectional issues.[109]

Following the passage of the Compromise of 1850, Fillmore's enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 became the central issue of his administration.[110] The Whig Party became badly split between pro-Compromise Whigs like Fillmore and Webster and anti-Compromise Whigs like William Seward, who demanded the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act.[111]

Though Fillmore's enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act made him unpopular among many in the North, he retained considerable support in the South. Meanwhile, Secretary Webster had long coveted the presidency and, though in poor health, planned a final attempt to gain the White House.[112] A third candidate emerged in the form of General Winfield Scott, who won the backing of many Northerners but whose association with Senator William Seward made him unacceptable to Southern Whigs.[112]

On the first presidential ballot of the 1852 Whig National Convention, Fillmore received 133 of the necessary 147 votes, while Scott won 131 and Webster won 29. Fillmore and Webster's supporters were unable to broker a deal to unite behind either candidate, and Scott won the nomination on the 53rd ballot.[113] The 1852 Democratic National Convention nominated a dark horse candidate in the form of former New Hampshire senator Franklin Pierce, a Northerner sympathetic to the Southern view on slavery.[114]

As the Whig and Democratic national conventions had approved similar platforms, the 1852 election focused largely on the personalities of Scott and Pierce.[115] The 1852 elections proved to be disastrous for the Whig Party, as Scott was defeated by a wide margin and the Whigs lost several congressional and state elections.[116] Scott amassed more votes than Taylor had in most Northern states, but Democrats benefited from a surge of new voters in the North and the collapse of Whig strength in much of the South.[117]

Collapse edit

Despite their decisive loss in the 1852 elections, most Whig leaders believed the party could recover during the Pierce presidency in much the same way that it had recovered under President Polk.[118] However, the strong economy still prevented the Whig economic program from regaining salience, and the party failed to develop an effective platform on which to campaign.[119] The debate over the 1854 Kansas–Nebraska Act, which effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise by allowing slavery in territories north of the 36°30′ parallel, shook up traditional partisan alignments.[120]

Across the Northern states, opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act gave rise to anti-Nebraska coalitions consisting of Democrats focused on this opposition along with Free Soilers and Whigs. In Michigan and Wisconsin, these two coalitions labeled themselves as the Republican Party, but similar groups in other states initially took on different names.[121] Like their Free Soil predecessors, Republican leaders generally did not call for the abolition of slavery but instead sought to prevent the extension of slavery into the territories.[122]

Another political coalition appeared in the form of the nativist and anti-Catholic Know Nothing movement, which eventually organized itself into the American Party.[120] Both the Republican Party and the Know-Nothings portrayed themselves as the natural Whig heirs in the battle against Democratic executive tyranny, but the Republicans focused on the "Slave Power" and the Know-Nothings focused on the supposed danger of mass immigration and a Catholic conspiracy. While the Republican Party almost exclusively appealed to Northerners, the Know-Nothings gathered many adherents in both the North and South; some individuals joined both groups even while they remained part of the Whig Party or the Democratic Party.[123]

Congressional Democrats suffered huge losses in the mid-term elections of 1854, as voters provided support to a wide array of new parties opposed to the Democratic Party.[124] Though several successful congressional candidates had campaigned only as Whigs, most congressional candidates who were not affiliated with the Democratic Party had campaigned either independently of the Whig Party or in collusion with another party.[125] As cooperation between Northern and Southern Whigs increasingly appeared to be impossible, leaders from both sections continued to abandon the party.[126] Though he did not share the nativist views of the Know-Nothings, in 1855 Fillmore became a member of the Know-Nothing movement and encouraged his Whig followers to join as well.[127] In September 1855, Seward led his faction of Whigs into the Republican Party, effectively marking the end of the Whig Party as an independent and significant political force.[2] Thus, the 1856 presidential election became a three-sided contest between Democrats, Know-Nothings, and Republicans.[128]

The Know Nothing National Convention nominated Fillmore for president, but disagreements over the party platform's stance on slavery caused many Northern Know-Nothings to abandon the party.[129] Meanwhile, the 1856 Republican National Convention chose John C. Frémont as the party's presidential candidate.[130] The defection of many Northern Know-Nothings, combined with the caning of Charles Sumner and other events that stoked sectional tensions, bolstered Republicans throughout the North.[131] During his campaign, Fillmore minimized the issue of nativism, instead of attempting to use his campaign as a platform for unionism and a revival of the Whig Party.[132]

Seeking to rally support from Whigs who had yet to join another party, Fillmore and his allies organized the sparsely-attended 1856 Whig National Convention, which nominated Fillmore for president.[133] Ultimately, Democrat James Buchanan won the election with a majority of the electoral vote and 45 percent of the popular vote; Frémont won most of the remaining electoral votes and took 33 percent of the popular vote, while Fillmore won 22 percent of the popular vote and just eight electoral votes. Fillmore largely retained Taylor and Scott voters in the South, but most former Whigs in the North voted for Frémont rather than Fillmore.[134]

Fillmore's American Party collapsed after the 1856 election, and many former Whigs who refused to join the Democratic Party or the Republican Party organized themselves into a loose coalition known as the Opposition Party.[135] For the 1860 presidential election, Senator John J. Crittenden and other unionist conservatives formed the Constitutional Union Party.[136] The party nominated a ticket consisting of John Bell, a long-time Whig senator, and Edward Everett, who had succeeded Daniel Webster as Fillmore's Secretary of State.[137] With the nomination of two former Whigs, many regarded the Constitutional Union Party as a continuation of the Whig Party; one Southern newspaper called the new party the "ghost of the old Whig Party".[138]

The party campaigned on preserving the union and took an official non-stance on slavery.[139] The Constitutional Union ticket won a plurality of the vote in three states, but Bell finished in fourth place in the national popular vote behind Republican Abraham Lincoln, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and pro-Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge.[140] In the North, most former Whigs, including the vast majority of those who had voted for Fillmore in 1856, voted for Lincoln in 1860.[141]

In the secession crisis that followed Lincoln's election, Southern Democrats generally led secession efforts, while Southern former Whigs generally opposed immediate secession.[142] During the American Civil War, former Whigs formed the core of a "proto-party" in the Confederacy that was opposed to the Jefferson Davis administration.[143] In the Reconstruction Era, many former Whigs tried to regroup in the South, calling themselves "conservatives" and hoping to reconnect with ex-Whigs in the North. Thus in Virginia and elsewhere moderate, nationalist, and economically innovative ex-Whigs used the party name “Conservative” in order to avoid identification with the Democratic Party.[144] The Conservative Party ultimately merged into the Democratic Party in the South, but ex-Whigs continued to promote modernization policies such as large-scale railroad construction and the founding of public schools.[145][page needed]

The Whig Party vanished after the 1850s, but Whiggism, as a modernizing policy orientation persisted for decades.[146] It played a major role in shaping the modernizing policies of the state governments during Reconstruction.[145][page needed] During the Lincoln Administration, ex-Whigs dominated the Republican Party and enacted much of their American System. Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Rutherford B. Hayes, Chester A. Arthur, and Benjamin Harrison were Whigs before switching to the Republican Party, from which they were elected to office. In the long run, the United States adopted Whiggish economic policies coupled with a Democratic strong presidency.[15]

Ideology and policies edit

 
Whig journalist Horace Greeley

Whig thought edit

Historian Frank Towers writes that "Democrats stood for the 'sovereignty of the people' as expressed in popular demonstrations, constitutional conventions, and majority rule as a general principle of governing, whereas Whigs advocated the rule of law, written and unchanging constitutions, and protections for minority interests against majority tyranny."[147] Historian Daniel Walker Howe argues the Whigs were modernizers, "who attached a great deal of importance to protecting property, maintaining social order, and preserving a distinct cultural heritage, three characteristic conservative concerns".[5] The Whigs themselves adopted the word "conservative", which they associated with "'law and order', social caution, and moral restraint".[13] Political scientists John H. Aldrich and John D. Griffin note that the labeling of Whig ideology as conservative is "somewhat [counterintuitive] for those who associate a small role for government rather than a pro-business orientation with conservatism".[148]

Historian John Ashworth writes that the two parties were polarized on important questions of economic development, describing their competition as a "clash of democracy with capitalism".[149] Whigs held that the government had a duty to promote economic prosperity for the people, especially during economic downturns.[6] The Whigs further believed that individual regions of the country lacked the capital necessary for economic growth, and thus the federal government should subsidize large infrastructure projects and promote policies to facilitate the operations of banks and corporations.[7]

Democrats, by contrast, argued that government action would inevitably favor the privileged few; thus, Democrats held that government should intervene in the economy as little as possible, especially at the federal level.[6] Gregory Bowen notes that the two parties were polar opposite and highly ideological: "At the heart of Democratic ideology was a militant egalitarianism [for white men], which contrasted sharply with the Whigs' support for equality of opportunity to produce a meritocratic society."[150] Democrats glorified individualism while Whigs said it was a dangerous impulse that must be subordinated to the greater good of an organic society; they called for individuals to restrain themselves and focus on doing their duty.[151]

Howe characterizes the Whigs' anti-individualism as an "Aristotlean" desire to perfect human nature by subordinating animal impulses to reason and self-control. Historian John Burt expands on Howe's argument, noting that Whigs "saw unmediated expressions of popular will in roughly the same way as they saw unmediated compulsions of appetite...[a]s a person driven by appetites is not free but the slave of the body, so a polity driven by popular will is not free but the slave of whatever urgencies drive King Numbers". The Whigs opposed President Jackson because they saw him as a demagogue recklessly exploiting the will of the majority, and they supported a strong Congress as a means of restraining that will within the bounds of a stable, constitutional framework.[152]

Despite their differences, both parties sought to portray themselves as the true protectors of an American political tradition of equality and self-government.[4] Though their Democratic rivals cast them as a continuation of the Federalists, the Whig Party's ideology was rooted in the agenda proposed by Clay and other nationalist Democratic-Republican Party leaders in the aftermath of the War of 1812. Many of these nationalist ideas were influenced by the economic program of Federalist leader Alexander Hamilton, but after the War of 1812 they were also supported by President James Madison, one of the founders of the Democratic-Republican Party.[17]

Unlike their Democratic rivals, many Whigs held an aversion to party organization that was rooted in a traditional American wariness of political parties. Whig opposition to parties waned after the 1830s, but many leading Whigs, including Webster and John Quincy Adams, never fully gave up their independence in favor of a party label.[153] The Whigs were also deeply committed to preventing executive tyranny, which they saw as an existential threat to republican self-government.[10]

Whig thought was typically rooted in evangelical Christianity, as expressed in the Second Great Awakening. Whigs linked moral progress and material progress— each needed the other. They supported Protestant religiosity and missions while being fearful of Catholics. Whigs believed that a higher stage of morality would be achieved when America brought wealth and opportunity to everyone. Colleges and public schools would promote upward social mobility, discouraging immorality and dissipation. The rapid business expansion was good, not the moral danger Democrats warned about.[154] One Whig, Horace Mann, played a pivotal role in establishing a public school system in Massachusetts that would be emulated by most states.[155]

Whig policies edit

 
John J. Crittenden, an influential Whig leader who later established the short-lived Constitutional Union Party to contest the election of 1860

The Whigs celebrated Clay's vision of the American System, which promoted rapid economic and industrial growth in the United States through support for a national bank, high tariffs, a distribution policy, and federal funding for infrastructure projects.[156] After the Second Bank of the United States lost its federal charter in 1836, the Whigs favored the restoration of a national bank that could provide a uniform currency, ensure a consistent supply of credit, and attract private investors.[157] Through high tariffs, Clay and other Whigs hoped to generate revenue and encourage the establishment of domestic manufacturing, thereby freeing the United States from dependence on foreign imports.[158]

High tariffs were also designed to prevent a negative balance of trade and prevent the flow of currency and credit from the country.[7] Whigs generally opposed Democratic efforts to reduce federal land prices, implement a "preemption" policy that would allow squatters the right to purchase land before it came to auction and transfer ownership of western lands to the states. Instead, Whigs favored a "distribution" policy that would distribute revenues from federal land sales to the states;[159] states could then invest that money in education, infrastructure projects, and other priorities.[160] The Whigs supported federally-financed internal improvements on the belief that only the federal government could construct the transportation system necessary for uniting the country commercially and culturally.[161]

Aside from the Whig economic program, various other issues confronted the Whig Party. Temperance never became a purely partisan issue between Whigs and Democrats, but Whigs tended to be more favorable to state prohibition laws than were Democrats.[162] Similarly, opinions on immigration did not break down strictly on party lines, but Whigs tended to have less favorable views towards immigration, partly because most recent immigrants aligned with the Democratic Party.[163]

In the mid-1840s, a group of Whigs unsuccessfully pushed a bill that would have implemented new paperwork requirements for naturalization and monitored the movements of immigrants in the United States more closely. The unwillingness of Whig leaders to push for more far-reaching changes, such as an extension of the five-year naturalization period, encouraged some Whigs to join nativist third parties.[164]

Whigs were less in favor of expansionism than their Democratic counterparts, and Whigs tended to oppose the Mexican–American War and the acquisition of new territories like Cuba.[165] John Mack Faragher writes that Democrats sought to balance the rising power of industrialization in the United States by following "Thomas Jefferson's vision of establishing agriculture in the new territories", while Whigs were content to develop the country within its present borders and feared that expansion would cause a divisive debate over slavery in the territories.[166]

Base of support edit

 
U.S. presidential election results from 1828 to 1852. Darker shades of blue indicate states that generally voted for the Democratic Party, while darker shades of yellow/brown indicate states that generally voted for the Whig or National Republican Party.

Political scientist A. James Reichley writes that the Democrats and Whigs were "political institutions of a kind that had never existed before in history" because they commanded mass membership among voters and continued to function between elections.[167] Both parties drew support from voters of various classes, occupations, religions, and ethnicities.[168] Nonetheless, the Whig Party was based among middle-class conservatives.[169][incomplete short citation] The central fault line between the parties concerned the emerging market economy, as Whigs embraced the economic and social changes caused by the market economy and Democrats rejected them.[170]

Whigs drew strength from the economic elites in both Northern cities and Southern plantation regions, but they also attracted support from other classes in most cities.[170] In many states, local rivalries pushed groups into one party or the other, though areas that favored internal improvements tended to favor Whigs. Catholics overwhelmingly voted Democrat, while Protestants were split between the two parties. Recent Irish and German immigrants generally supported the Democrats, but recent immigrants from England, Scotland, and Wales tended to support the Whigs.[171]

Although the Whigs and the rival Democratic Party established party structures that were unprecedented in terms of mass membership and continued functionality, both parties were still essentially coalitions of state party organizations and lacked strong cohesion at the national level.[172] The Whigs built on the strength of National Republicans and the Anti-Masonic Party to build up party organizations in Delaware, Maryland, and much of New England.[173]

Appealing to voters with a mix of economic and social policies, the Whigs established capable party organizations in Northeastern states like New York and Pennsylvania.[174] Unlike the Federalists and the National Republicans, the Whigs were competitive in the South, building strong state parties in Tennessee and Kentucky, and competitive parties in Louisiana, Georgia, and Virginia.[175] By emphasizing their moral conservatism, the Whigs were also able to expand into the Northwest and win elections in a state like Ohio and Indiana.[176] The Whigs were generally not as competitive in Democratic strongholds like New Hampshire,[177] Maine, Illinois, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, and Texas.[178]

Party leaders edit

 
Charles Sumner, an anti-slavery "Conscience Whig" who later joined the Republican Party
 
Edward Everett, a pro-South "Cotton Whig"

Henry Clay of Kentucky was the congressional leader of the party from the time of its formation in 1833 until his resignation from the Senate in 1842, and he remained an important Whig leader until his death in 1852.[179] His frequent rival for leadership of the party was Daniel Webster, who represented Massachusetts in the Senate and served as Secretary of State under three Whig presidents.[180] Clay and Webster each repeatedly sought the Whig presidential nomination, but, excepting Clay's nomination in 1844, the Whigs consistently nominated individuals who had served as generals, specifically William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, and Winfield Scott. Harrison, Taylor, John Tyler, and Millard Fillmore all served as president, though Tyler was expelled from the Whig Party shortly after taking office in 1841. Benjamin Robbins Curtis was the lone Whig to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States,[181] though later Supreme Court justices like John Marshall Harlan affiliated with the Whig Party early in their career before joining the Court as members of another party.[182]

During the time of the party's existence, numerous other Whig leaders emerged, including Truman Smith of Connecticut, who Holt describes as "the Whigs' closest equivalent to a modern national party chairman" for his efforts to raise money, deliver the Whig message, and build up the party nationwide.[183] In New York, William Seward and Thurlow Weed established an influential organization and competed with Millard Fillmore's faction of the party.[184] John M. Clayton of Delaware and John C. Crittenden of Kentucky were important border state Whigs who were influential in the Taylor administration.[185]

Supreme Court Justice John McLean of Ohio commanded a following in the party and was a perennial aspirant for the Whig presidential nomination, but he maintained his independence from the party and never ran for office as a Whig candidate.[186] Thomas Corwin of Ohio emerged in the 1840s as a leading opponent of the Mexican–American War, and he later served as Fillmore's Secretary of the Treasury.[187] William Cabell Rives of Virginia joined the Whig Party over dissatisfaction with Van Buren's handling of the Independent Treasury, and he became a prominent conservative Whig.[188]

In Georgia, future Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens and Robert Toombs competed for influence with their intra-party rival, John M. Berrien.[189] Future Republican President Abraham Lincoln served a single term as a Whig congressman representing Illinois.[190]

One strength of the Whigs was a superb network of newspapers—their leading editor was Horace Greeley of the powerful New-York Daily Tribune.[citation needed] The Boston Atlas, under the leadership of Richard Haughton and Richard Hildreth, also emerged as an important Whig paper.[191] Influenced by the writings of Thomas Malthus and David Ricardo, Henry Charles Carey became the leading Whig economist in the 1830s. Other prominent Whig-aligned intellectuals and public figures include journalist John G. Palfrey of the North American Review, novelist John P. Kennedy, and historian William H. Prescott.[192]

Factions edit

The Whigs suffered greatly from factionalism throughout their existence as well as weak party loyalty that stood in contrast to the strong party discipline that was the hallmark of a tight Democratic Party organization.[193] Forged out of opposition to Jackson's perceived executive tyranny, the early Whig Party was divided between former National Republicans who favored federal measures to promote economic development and Southern states' rights advocates who wished to keep federal intervention in the economy to a minimum.[194] By the 1840s, Southern Whigs like John M. Berrien of Georgia and John Botts of Virginia endorsed interventionist measures, but other Southern Whigs like William Cabell Rives of Virginia actively sought to shift the party away from economic nationalism.[195]

The Whig Party faced persistent sectional divisions regarding slavery. Northern Whigs tended to be more anti-slavery than Northern Democrats, but during the 1830s Southern Whigs tended to more pro-slavery than their Democratic counterparts.[196] By the late 1840s, Southern Democrats had become more insistent regarding the expansion of slavery, and more open to the prospect of secession than their Whig counterparts.[197] Northern Whigs divided into two major factions concerning slavery: the anti-slavery Conscience Whigs and the pro-South Cotton Whigs. While the "Consciences" were noted for their moral opposition to slavery–many, like John Quincy Adams, brought over their crusading fervor from Anti-Masonic days[198]

The other faction was tied to the cotton-based textile industry, which depended on Southern cotton. They de-emphasized the slavery issue. In Massachusetts, notable Consciences included Charles Sumner, Henry Wilson and Charles Francis Adams while the Cottons were led by such figures as Edward Everett, Robert C. Winthrop and Abbott Lawrence.[199] During the mid-1850s, several Conscience leaders played an important role in the founding of the Republican Party.[200]

Legacy edit

 
Portrait depicting President Abraham Lincoln as young Whig congressman painted by Ned Bittinger
 
John Marshall Harlan, who began his career as a Whig officeholder, served on the Supreme Court from 1877 to 1911.

Historical reputation edit

Historian Allen C. Guelzo writes that "no major political movement ... has suffered more sheer dismissal, more impatient contempt at the hands of political historians than the American Whigs". Guelzo traces the start of this "dismissal" to the writings of Henry Adams, who dismissed the Whigs as bereft of ideas, and through to the writings of historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., who labeled the period during which the Whigs were active as the "Age of Jackson".[201] The Whigs' historical reputation began to recover with the publication of The Political Culture of the American Whigs by historian Daniel Walker Howe in 1979. Rather than accepting the traditional understanding of the Whigs as Eastern elitists who sought to exploit the masses, Howe cast the Whigs as "sober, industrious, thrifty people" who sought to promote industrialization and national unity.[202]

In today's American political discourse, historians and pundits often cite the Whig Party as an example of a political party that lost its followers and reason for being, as in the expression "going the way of the Whigs",[203] a term referred to by Donald Critchlow in his book, The Conservative Ascendancy: How the GOP Right Made Political History. Critchlow points out that the application of the term by Republicans in the Republican Party of 1974 may have been a misnomer—the old Whig party enjoyed more political support before its demise than the Republican Party in the aftermath of Nixon's resignation.[204]

Namesakes edit

After the dissolution of the Whig Party, the term Whig remained part of the name of various newspapers, including the Quincy Herald-Whig. Several ephemeral small parties in the United States, including the Florida Whig Party[205] and the "Modern Whig Party",[206] have adopted the Whig name. In Liberia, the True Whig Party was named in direct emulation of the American Whig Party. The True Whig Party was founded in 1869 and it dominated politics in Liberia from 1878 until 1980.[207]

In popular culture edit

Two alternative history works depicting histories where the Confederacy won the American Civil War include a Whig Party having a major role in the postbellum world. In Ward Moore's Bring the Jubilee, a revived Whig Party is one of the two main parties of the rump United States, being the right-wing party whose platform reflects an acceptance of the United States' humbled status following its defeat in the War of Southern Independence. Conversely, in Harry Turtledove's Southern Victory Series a Whig Party emerges as the dominant political party of an independent Confederacy, representing the interests of the plantocratic elite and dominating Confederate politics until the rise of the Freedom Party following the First Great War.

Electoral history edit

Presidential tickets edit

Election Ticket Electoral results
Presidential nominee Running mate Popular vote Electoral votes Ranking
1836 William Henry Harrison Francis Granger 36.6%
73 / 294
2
Hugh Lawson White John Tyler 9.7%
26 / 294
3
Daniel Webster Francis Granger 2.7%
14 / 294
4
Willie Person Mangum John Tyler 0%
11 / 294
5
1840 William Henry Harrison John Tyler 52.9%
234 / 294
1
1844 Henry Clay Theodore Frelinghuysen 48.1%
105 / 275
2
1848 Zachary Taylor Millard Fillmore 47.3%
163 / 290
1
1852 Winfield Scott William Alexander Graham 43.9%
42 / 296
2
1856 Millard Fillmore[c] Andrew Jackson Donelson 21.5%
8 / 296
3

Congressional representation edit

Congress Years Senate[208] House of Representatives[209] President
Total Democrats Whigs Others Vacancies Total Democrats Whigs Others Vacancies
25th 1837–1839 52 35 17 242 128 100 14 Martin Van Buren
26th 1839–1841 52 30 22 242 125 109 8
27th 1841–1843 52 22 29 1 242 98 142 2 John Tyler[d]
28th 1843–1845 52 23 29 223 147 72 4
29th 1845–1847 58 34 22 2 228 142 79 7 James K. Polk
30th 1847–1849 60 38 21 1 230 110 116 4
31st 1849–1851 62 35 25 2 233 113 108 11 1 Zachary Taylor[e]
32nd 1851–1853 62 36 23 3 233 127 85 21 Millard Fillmore
33rd 1853–1855 62 38 22 2 234 157 71 6 Franklin Pierce
Congress Years Total Democrats Opposition Others Vacancies Total Democrats Opposition Others Vacancies President
34th 1855–1857 62 39 21 2 234 83 100 51 Franklin Pierce

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Though Jackson had vetoed a re-charter bill, the bank still retained federal deposits at the start of his second term.[34] The national bank's federal charter expired in 1836.[35]
  2. ^ In actuality, the government of British Prime Minister Robert Peel had little interest in pushing abolitionism in Texas.[67]
  3. ^ Fillmore and Donelson ran on the American Party ticket in the 1856 United States presidential election, though they were also nominated by a rump group of Whigs at the 1856 Whig National Convention.
  4. ^ Whig President William Henry Harrison died April 4, 1841, one month into his term, and was succeeded by John Tyler, who served for the remainder of the term. Tyler had been elected as vice president on the Whig ticket, but he became an independent after the Whigs expelled him from the party in 1841.
  5. ^ President Taylor died July 9, 1850, about one year and four months into the term, and was succeeded by Millard Fillmore, who served for the remainder of the term.

References edit

  1. ^ a b Holt (1999), pp. 26–27.
  2. ^ a b Holt (1999), pp. 947–949.
  3. ^ "Whig Party". history.com. History. November 20, 2019. Retrieved March 3, 2022. The Whigs were an opposition party formed to challenge Jacksonian Democrats, thereby launching the 'second party system' in America, but they were far from a single-issue party.
  4. ^ a b Holt (1999), p. 70
  5. ^ a b Howe (1979), pp. 183, 210
  6. ^ a b c Holt (1999), pp. 66–67
  7. ^ a b c Holt (1999), p. 685
  8. ^ "Anerican System". U-S-History.com. Retrieved March 3, 2022. A plan to strengthen and unify the nation, the American System was advanced by the Whig Party and a number of leading politicians including Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun and John Quincy Adams.
  9. ^ a b Holt (1999), pp. 27–28.
  10. ^ a b Holt (1999), p. 952
  11. ^ Farmer (2008), p.155
  12. ^ "Jacksonian democracy". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved June 11, 2022. Whigs voted against and Democrats approved an independent treasury, an aggressive foreign policy, and expansionism.
  13. ^ a b c Reichley (2000), p. 80
  14. ^ Sean Trainor, Gale Researcher Guide for: The Second Party System (Gale, Cengage Learning, 2018).
  15. ^ a b Kalb, Deborah (2015). Guide to U.S. Elections. CQ Press. ISBN 978-1-4833-8038-4.
  16. ^ "Major American Political Parties of the 19th Century". Norwich University Online. Retrieved July 4, 2022. ...The Democratic-Republican and Whig parties are considered the predecessors of today's Democratic and Republican parties, respectively.
  17. ^ a b Holt (1999), pp. 2–3
  18. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 5–6
  19. ^ Howe 2007, pp. 203–204
  20. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 6–7
  21. ^ a b Holt (1999), pp. 7–8
  22. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 8–9
  23. ^ a b Holt (1999), pp. 10–11
  24. ^ a b Cole 1993, pp. 139–141.
  25. ^ Arthur Goldwag, The New Hate: A History of Fear and Loathing on the Populist Right (2012) p. 172.
  26. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 15–16
  27. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 17–18
  28. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 18–19
  29. ^ Sean Wilentz says, "Jackson's decision to destroy the Second Bank of the United States caught some of his own supporters by surprise." Sean Wilentz, Andrew Jackson (2007) p 74.
  30. ^ Hargreaves 1985, pp. 20–21
  31. ^ a b Holt (1999), p. 20.
  32. ^ Cole 1993, pp. 178–180.
  33. ^ a b Cole 1993, pp. 211–213.
  34. ^ Cole 1993, pp. 190–193.
  35. ^ Cole 1993, pp. 209–211.
  36. ^ Cole 1993, pp. 202–203.
  37. ^ Holt (1999), p. 24.
  38. ^ Holt (1999), p. 26.
  39. ^ Holt (1999), p. 30.
  40. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 34–35.
  41. ^ Sean Wilentz, The Politicians and the Egalitarians: The Hidden History of American Politics (2017) p 141.
  42. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 36–37.
  43. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 38–39.
  44. ^ a b Holt (1999), pp. 40–42.
  45. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 42–43.
  46. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 45–46.
  47. ^ Holt (1999), p. 61.
  48. ^ Howe 2007, pp. 504–505.
  49. ^ Wilson 1984, pp. 58–62.
  50. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 67–68.
  51. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 92–93.
  52. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 93–94.
  53. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 97–98.
  54. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 102–103.
  55. ^ Holt (1999), p. 104.
  56. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 105–107.
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  58. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 112–113.
  59. ^ Holt (1999), p. 126.
  60. ^ a b Holt (1999), pp. 127–128.
  61. ^ May, pp. 68–71.
  62. ^ Howe (2007), pp. 591–592.
  63. ^ Holt (1999), p. 137.
  64. ^ Peterson, pp. 169–170.
  65. ^ Holt (1999), p. 150.
  66. ^ Holt (1999), p. 149.
  67. ^ Howe (2007), pp. 677–678.
  68. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 169–170.
  69. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 170–171.
  70. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 171–172.
  71. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 172–173.
  72. ^ Holt (1999), p. 173.
  73. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 200–203.
  74. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 194–195.
  75. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 220–221.
  76. ^ Merry (2009), pp. 188–189.
  77. ^ Merry (2009), pp. 240–242.
  78. ^ Merry (2009), pp. 244–245.
  79. ^ Holt (1999), p. 233.
  80. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 233–234.
  81. ^ Merry (2009), pp. 283–285.
  82. ^ Merry (2009), pp. 286–289.
  83. ^ McPherson, pp. 53–54.
  84. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 252–253.
  85. ^ Merry (2009), pp. 424–426.
  86. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 310–311.
  87. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 246–247, 269.
  88. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 258–260.
  89. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 277–280.
  90. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 323–326.
  91. ^ Smith 1988, pp. 22–23.
  92. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 333–334, 339.
  93. ^ Holt (1999), p. 361.
  94. ^ Holt (1999), p. 365.
  95. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 356–357.
  96. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 368–370.
  97. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 445–448.
  98. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 685–686.
  99. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 389–390.
  100. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 437–438.
  101. ^ Smith 1988, pp. 111–112.
  102. ^ Smith 1988, pp. 157–158.
  103. ^ "VP Millard Fillmore". United States Senate. Retrieved February 27, 2017..
  104. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 524–525.
  105. ^ Finkelman, pp. 73–78.
  106. ^ Bordewich, pp. 306–313.
  107. ^ Bordewich, pp. 314–316, 329.
  108. ^ Smith 1988, pp. 188–189.
  109. ^ McPherson (1998), pp. 75–76.
  110. ^ Finkelman, pp. 85–88, 103–104.
  111. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 552–553.
  112. ^ a b Smith 1988, pp. 239–244.
  113. ^ Smith 1988, pp. 244–247.
  114. ^ Smith 1988, pp. 237–239, 244.
  115. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 726–727.
  116. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 754–755.
  117. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 756–760.
  118. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 763–764.
  119. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 776–777.
  120. ^ a b Holt (1999), pp. 804–805, 809–810.
  121. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 841–842.
  122. ^ McPherson (1988), p. 129.
  123. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 843–846.
  124. ^ McPherson (1988), pp. 129–130.
  125. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 877–878.
  126. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 907–910.
  127. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 911–913.
  128. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 961–962.
  129. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 963–965.
  130. ^ Gara (1991), pp. 168–174.
  131. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 966–967.
  132. ^ Gara (1991), pp. 175–176.
  133. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 976–978.
  134. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 978–980.
  135. ^ Parks (1950), p. 346
  136. ^ Green (2007), pp. 232–233
  137. ^ Green (2007), pp. 234–236
  138. ^ Egerton (2010), pp. 99–100
  139. ^ Green (2007), pp. 237–238
  140. ^ Green (2007), p. 251
  141. ^ Holt (1999), p. 980
  142. ^ Holt (1999), p. 984
  143. ^ McPherson (1988), p. 691
  144. ^ Jack P. Maddex Jr. (2018). The Virginia Conservatives, 1867–1879: A Study in Reconstruction Politics. U of North Carolina Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-1469648101.
  145. ^ a b Alexander (1961).
  146. ^ The last elected politician as a Whig, was Robert Miller Patton who was the 20th Governor of the U.S. state of Alabama from 1865 to 1868.
  147. ^ Frank Towers, "Mobtown's Impact on the Study of Urban Politics in the Early Republic". Maryland Historical Magazine 107 (Winter 2012) pp. 469–75, p. 472, citing Robert E, Shalhope, The Baltimore Bank Riot: Political Upheaval in Antebellum Maryland (2009) p. 147.
  148. ^ Aldrich & Griffin (2018), p. 60
  149. ^ John Ashworth, Agrarians and Aristocrats: Party Political Ideology in the United States, 1837–1846 (1987) p. 131.
  150. ^ Bowen (1988), p. 34
  151. ^ Bowen (1988), p. 34.
  152. ^ Burt, John (2013). Lincoln's Tragic Pragmatism: Lincoln, Douglas, and Moral Conflict. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. pp. 213–215.
  153. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 30–31
  154. ^ Richard Carwardine, Evangelicals and Politics in Antebellum America (1993) pp. 89, 106–107.
  155. ^ Mark Groen, "The Whig Party and the Rise of Common Schools, 1837–1854", American Educational History Journal Spring/Summer 2008, Vol. 35 Issue 1/2, pp. 251–260
  156. ^ Donald T. Critchlow and Philip R. VanderMeer (2012). The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Political and Legal History. Oxford UP. pp. 280, 358–59, 381–83. ISBN 978-0199754618.
  157. ^ Holt (1999), p. 131
  158. ^ Klotter 2018, pp. 85–87.
  159. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 135–136
  160. ^ Klotter 2018, pp. 220–221.
  161. ^ Klotter 2018, pp. 89–91.
  162. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 689–690
  163. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 691–692
  164. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 228–229
  165. ^ Holt (1999), p. 739
  166. ^ , John Mack Faragher et al. Out of Many: A History of the American People, (2nd ed. 1997) page 413
  167. ^ Reichley (2000), pp. 84–85
  168. ^ Holt (1999), p. 115
  169. ^ Howe (1984), p. 212
  170. ^ a b Holt (1999), pp. 115–116
  171. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 117–118
  172. ^ Reichley (2000), pp. 84–85, 93
  173. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 34–35, 52
  174. ^ Reichley (2000), p. 87
  175. ^ Reichley (2000), pp. 79–80
  176. ^ Reichley (2000), pp. 81–82
  177. ^ Reichley (2000), p. 74
  178. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 50, 213–215
  179. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 26–27, 146,
  180. ^ Holt (1999), pp. , 325
  181. ^ Huebner, Timothy S. (2003). The Taney Court: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy. ABC-CLIO. p. 97. ISBN 978-1576073681.
  182. ^ Luxenberg, Steve (2019). Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America's Journey from Slavery to Segregation. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 34–35. ISBN 978-0393239379.
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  184. ^ Holt (1999), p. 506
  185. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 407–410
  186. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 261–262
  187. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 265–266
  188. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 67–68, 287–288
  189. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 286–287
  190. ^ Holt (1999), p. 288
  191. ^ Wilentz (2005), p. 483
  192. ^ Wilentz (2005), pp. 488–491
  193. ^ Lynn Marshall. "The Strange Stillbirth of the Whig Party", American Historical Review, (1967) 72#2 pp. 445–68 online.
  194. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 28–29
  195. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 286–288
  196. ^ Holt (1999), p. 44
  197. ^ Holt (1999), pp. 463–464
  198. ^ Wilentz, (2016) p. 145.
  199. ^ John R. McKivigan (1999). Abolitionism and American Politics and Government. Taylor & Francis. p. 120. ISBN 978-0815331070.
  200. ^ Louis Sandy Maisel; Mark D. Brewer (2008). Parties and Elections in America: The Electoral Process. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 38. ISBN 978-0742547643.
  201. ^ Guelzo (2001), pp. 71–73
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  203. ^ Donald T. Critchlow, The Conservative Ascendancy: How the GOP Right Made Political History (2007) p. 103. Additional examples are of online.
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  205. ^ "The Florida Whig Party". Retrieved September 22, 2014.
  206. ^ "Is it time for a new political party?". Retrieved September 22, 2014.
  207. ^ Dominik Zaum; Christine Cheng (2011). Corruption and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding: Selling the Peace?. Routledge. p. 133. ISBN 978-1136635922.
  208. ^ "Party Division". United States Senate.
  209. ^ "Party Divisions of the House of Representatives, 1789 to Present". United States House of Representatives.

Works cited edit

  • Aldrich, John H.; Griffin, John D. (2018). Why Parties Matter: Political Competition and Democracy in the American South. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226495378.
  • Bergeron, Paul H. (1986). The Presidency of James K. Polk. University of Kansas Press. ISBN 978-0-7006-0319-0.
  • Bordewich, Fergus M. (2012). America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1439124604.
  • Bowen, Gregory L., "Antebellum Parties and Party Systems". Australasian Journal of American Studies (1988) 7#2 pp. 33–40 online
  • Cole, Donald B. (1993). The Presidency of Andrew Jackson. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0-7006-0600-9.
  • Egerton, Doulas R. (2010). Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election that Brought on the Civil War. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1596916197.
  • Farmer, Brian (2008). American Conservatism: History, Theory and Practice. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1443802765.
  • Finkelman, Paul (2011). Millard Fillmore. The American Presidents. Times Books. ISBN 978-0-8050-8715-4.
  • Gara, Larry (1991). The Presidency of Franklin Pierce. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0-7006-0494-4.
  • Green, Don (Summer 2007). "Constitutional Unionists: The Party that Tried to Stop Lincoln and Save the Union". The Historian. 69 (2): 231–253. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6563.2007.00179.x. JSTOR 24453660. S2CID 144630622.
  • Guelzo, Allen C. (2001). "Review of The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War by Michael Holt". Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association. 22 (2). JSTOR 20149018.
  • Hargreaves, Mary W.M. (1985). The Presidency of John Quincy Adams. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0700602728.
  • Holt, Michael F. (1999). The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505544-6.
  • Howe, Daniel Walker (1979). The Political Culture of the American Whigs. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-35478-4.
  • Howe, Daniel Walker (2007). What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-1-4332-6019-3.
  • Klotter, James C. (2018). Henry Clay: The Man Who Would Be President. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0190498047.
  • May, Gary (2008). John Tyler. Times Books. ISBN 978-0805082388.
  • Merry, Robert W. (2009). A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War, and the Conquest of the American Continent. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-9743-1.
  • McPherson, James (2003) [1988]. The Illustrated Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-974390-2.
  • Parks, Joseph (1950). John Bell of Tennessee. Louisiana State University Press. OCLC 1470349.
  • Parsons, Lynn H. (2009). The Birth of Modern Politics: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and the Election of 1828. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199754243.
  • Peterson, Norma Lois (1989). The Presidencies of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-0400-5.
  • Reichley, A. James (2000) [1992]. The Life of the Parties: A History of American Political Parties (Paperback ed.). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 0-7425-0888-9.
  • Smith, Elbert B. (1988). The Presidencies of Zachary Taylor & Millard Fillmore. The American Presidency. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-0362-6.
  • Wilentz, Sean (2005). The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-05820-4.
  • Wilson, Major L. (1984). The Presidency of Martin Van Buren. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0700602384.

Further reading edit

  • Alexander, Thomas B. (August 1961). "Persistent Whiggery in the Confederate South, 1860–1877". Journal of Southern History. 27 (3): 305–329. doi:10.2307/2205211. JSTOR 2205211.
  • Atkins, Jonathan M.; "The Whig Party versus the "spoilsmen" of Tennessee", The Historian, Vol. 57, 1994]
  • Barkan, Elliott R. "The Emergence of a Whig Persuasion: Conservatism, Democratism, and the New York State Whigs." New York History 52.4 (1971): 367–395. online
  • Brands, H. W. (2018). Heirs of the Founders: The Epic Rivalry of Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0385542548.
  • Brauer, Kinley. Cotton Versus Conscience; Massachusetts Whig Politics and Southwestern Expansion, 1843–1848.[ISBN missing]
  • Beveridge, Albert J. (1928). Abraham Lincoln, 1809–1858, vol. 1, ch. 4–8.
  • Brown, Thomas (1985). Politics and Statesmanship: Essays on the American Whig Party.
  • Burnham, Walter Dean. "Lessons for 2016 from the smashup of the Second Party System and the War of the Whig succession". USApp–American Politics and Policy Blog (2016). online
  • Carpenter, Daniel, and Benjamin Schneer. "Party formation through petitions: The Whigs and the Bank War of 1832–1834". Studies in American Political Development 29.2 (2015): 213–234.
  • Carroll, E. Malcolm. Origins of the Whig Party (1925) online
  • Cole, Arthur Charles (1913). The Whig Party in the South.
  • Foner, Eric (1970). Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-501352-2.
  • Formisano, Ronald P. (Winter 1969). "Political Character, Antipartyism, and the Second Party System". American Quarterly. 21 (4): 683–709. doi:10.2307/2711603. JSTOR 2711603.
  • Formisano, Ronald P. (June 1974). "Deferential-Participant Politics: The Early Republic's Political Culture, 1789–1840". American Political Science Review. 68 (2): 473–87. doi:10.2307/1959497. JSTOR 1959497. S2CID 146879756.
  • Formisano, Ronald P. (1983). The Transformation of Political Culture: Massachusetts Parties, 1790s–1840s. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-503124-5.
  • Gerring, John. Party Ideologies in America, 1828–1996 (1998).
  • Gienap, William E. The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852–1856 (Harvard University Press, 1987)
  • Hammond, Bray. Banks and Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War (1960), Pulitzer prize; the standard history. Pro-Bank
  • Holt, Michael F. (1992). Political Parties and American Political Development: From the Age of Jackson to the Age of Lincoln. LSU Press. ISBN 0-8071-2609-8.
  • Howe, Daniel Walker (1973). The American Whigs: An Anthology. Wiley. ISBN 978-0471416708. primary sources
  • Howe, Daniel Walker (March 1991). "The Evangelical Movement and Political Culture during the Second Party System". Journal of American History. 77 (4): 1216–39. doi:10.2307/2078260. JSTOR 2078260.
  • Husch, Gail E. "George Caleb Bingham's The County Election: Whig Tribute to the Will of the People." Critical Issues in American Art (Routledge, 2018) pp. 77–92.
  • Kruman, Marc W. (Winter 1992). "The Second Party System and the Transformation of Revolutionary Republicanism". Journal of the Early Republic. 12 (4): 509–37. doi:10.2307/3123876. JSTOR 3123876.
  • Marshall, Lynn. (January 1967). "The Strange Stillbirth of the Whig Party". American Historical Review. 72 (2): 445–68. doi:10.2307/1859236. JSTOR 1859236.
  • McCormick, Richard P. (1966). The Second American Party System: Party Formation in the Jacksonian Era. W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-00680-8.
  • Mueller, Henry R.; The Whig Party in Pennsylvania, (1922) online
  • Nevins, Allan. The Ordeal of the Union (1947) vol 1: Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847–1852; vol 2. A House Dividing, 1852–1857. highly detailed narrative of national politics
  • Ormsby, Robert McKinley (1859). A History of the Whig Party, Crosby, Nichols & Company, Boston, 377 pages; e-book.
  • Pearson, Joseph W. The Whigs' America: Middle-Class Political Thought in the Age of Jackson and Clay (University Press of Kentucky, 2020). excerpt
  • Pegg, Herbert Dale (1932). The Whig Party in North Carolina, Colonial Press, 223 pages; Book.
  • Poage, George Rawlings. Henry Clay and the Whig Party (1936)
  • Remini, Robert V. (1991). Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-31088-4. online
  • Remini, Robert V. (1997). Daniel Webster. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-04552-8.
  • Renda, Lex. "The Dysfunctional Party: Collapse of the New Jersey Whigs, 1849–1853," New Jersey History 116 (Spring/Summer, 1998), 3–57.
  • Riddle, Donald W. (1948). Lincoln Runs for Congress.
  • Schlesinger, Arthur Meier, Jr. ed. History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–2000 (various multivolume editions, latest is 2001).
  • Schurz, Carl (1899). Life of Henry Clay: American Statesmen. Houghton, Mifflin. vol. 2.
  • Shade, William G. (1983). "The Second Party System". In Paul Kleppner (ed.). Evolution of American Electoral Systems.
  • Sharp, James Roger. The Jacksonians Versus the Banks: Politics in the States after the Panic of 1837 (1970)
  • Silbey, Joel H. (1991). The American Political Nation, 1838–1893. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-1878-4.
  • Silbey, Joel H. (2014). A Companion to the Antebellum Presidents 1837–1861. Wiley. ISBN 978-1118609293.
  • Smith, Craig R. "Daniel Webster's Epideictic Speaking: A Study in Emerging Whig Virtues"
  • Trainor, Sean. Gale Researcher Guide for: The Second Party System (Gale, Cengage Learning, 2018).
  • Van Deusen, Glyndon G. "Some Aspects of Whig Thought and Theory in the Jacksonian Period." American Historical Review 63.2 (1958): 305–322. online
  • Van Deusen, Glyndon G. (1953). Horace Greeley, Nineteenth-Century Crusader. online
  • Van Deusen, Glyndon (1973). "The Whig Party". In Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (ed.). History of U.S. Political Parties. Chelsea House Publications. pp. 1:331–63. ISBN 0-7910-5731-3.
  • Van Deusen, Glyndon G. The Jacksonian Era: 1828–1848 (1959) online
  • Van Deusen, Glyndon G. The life of Henry Clay (1979) online
  • Van Deusen, Glyndon G. Thurlow Weed, Wizard of the Lobby (1947) online
  • Williams, Max R. "The Foundations of the Whig Party in North Carolina: A Synthesis and a Modest Proposal." North Carolina Historical Review 47.2 (1970): 115–129. online
  • Wilson, Major L. Space, Time, and Freedom: The Quest for Nationality and the Irrepressible Conflict, 1815–1861 (1974) intellectual history of Whigs and Democrats

External links edit

  • Whig Party in Virginia in Encyclopedia Virginia.
  • The American Presidency Project, contains the text of the national platforms that were adopted by the national conventions (1844–1856).
  • "Whig Party" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
  • Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Whig Party" . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.

whig, party, united, states, whig, party, conservative, political, party, that, existed, united, states, during, 19th, century, alongside, slightly, larger, democratic, party, major, parties, united, states, between, late, 1830s, early, 1850s, part, second, pa. The Whig Party was a conservative 13 political party that existed in the United States during the mid 19th century 13 Alongside the slightly larger Democratic Party it was one of the two major parties in the United States between the late 1830s and the early 1850s as part of the Second Party System 14 Four presidents William Henry Harrison John Tyler Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore were affiliated with the Whig Party for at least part of their terms Other prominent members of the Whig Party include Henry Clay Daniel Webster Rufus Choate William Seward John J Crittenden and John Quincy Adams The Whig base of support was centered among entrepreneurs professionals planters social reformers devout Protestants particularly evangelicals and the emerging urban middle class It had much less backing from poor farmers and unskilled workers Whig PartyLeaderHenry ClayDaniel WebsterWilliam Henry HarrisonZachary TaylorFounderHenry ClayFounded1833 191 years ago 1833 1 Dissolved1856 168 years ago 1856 2 Merger ofNational Republican PartyAnti Masonic PartyPreceded byNational Republican PartyAnti Masonic PartyNullifier Party minority Federalist PartySucceeded byRepublican PartyAmerican PartyOpposition PartyConstitutional Union PartyHeadquartersWashington D C NewspaperThe American ReviewIdeologyAnti Jacksonianism 3 American nationalism 4 5 Economic nationalism 6 7 American System 8 Parliamentarism 9 10 Traditionalist conservatism 11 Anti expansionism 12 Colors Blue BuffSeats in the Senate29 52 1841 1843 peak Seats in the House of Representatives142 242 1841 peak Politics of the United StatesPolitical partiesElectionsThe party was hostile toward Manifest destiny territorial expansion into Texas and the Southwest and the Mexican American War It disliked strong presidential power as exhibited by Jackson and Polk and preferred congressional dominance in lawmaking Members advocated modernization meritocracy the rule of law protections against majority tyranny and vigilance against executive tyranny They favored an economic program known as the American System which called for a protective tariff federal subsidies for the construction of infrastructure and support for a national bank The party was active in both the Northern United States and the Southern United States and did not take a strong stance on slavery but Northern Whigs tended to be less supportive than their Democratic counterparts The Whigs emerged in the 1830s in opposition to President Andrew Jackson pulling together former members of the National Republican Party the Anti Masonic Party and disaffected Democrats The Whigs had some weak links to the defunct Federalist Party but the Whig Party was not a direct successor to that party and many Whig leaders including Henry Clay had aligned with the rival Democratic Republican Party In the 1836 presidential election four different regional Whig candidates received electoral votes but the party failed to defeat Jackson s chosen successor Martin Van Buren Whig nominee William Henry Harrison unseated Van Buren in the 1840 presidential election but died just one month into his term Harrison s successor John Tyler a former Democrat broke with the Whigs in 1841 after clashing with Clay and other Whig Party leaders over economic policies such as the re establishment of a national bank Clay clinched his party s nomination in the 1844 presidential election but was defeated by Democrat James K Polk who subsequently presided over the Mexican American War Whig nominee Zachary Taylor won the 1848 presidential election but Taylor died in 1850 and was succeeded by Millard Fillmore Fillmore Clay Daniel Webster and Democrat Stephen A Douglas led the passage of the Compromise of 1850 which helped to defuse sectional tensions in the aftermath of the Mexican American War for a time Nonetheless the Whigs suffered a decisive defeat in the 1852 presidential election partly due to sectional divisions within the party The Whigs collapsed following the passage of the Kansas Nebraska Act in 1854 with most Northern Whigs eventually joining the anti slavery Republican Party and most Southern Whigs joining the nativist American Party and later the Constitutional Union Party The last vestiges of the Whig Party faded away after the start of the American Civil War but Whig ideas remained influential for decades During the Lincoln Administration ex Whigs dominated the Republican Party and enacted much of their American System Presidents Abraham Lincoln Rutherford B Hayes Chester A Arthur and Benjamin Harrison were Whigs before switching to the Republican Party from which they were elected to office 15 It is considered the primary predecessor party of the modern day Republicans 16 Contents 1 Background 2 History 2 1 Creation 1833 1836 2 2 Rise 1836 1841 2 3 Harrison and Tyler 1841 1845 2 4 Polk and the Mexican American War 1845 1849 2 5 Taylor and Fillmore 1849 1853 3 Collapse 4 Ideology and policies 4 1 Whig thought 4 2 Whig policies 5 Base of support 5 1 Party leaders 5 2 Factions 6 Legacy 6 1 Historical reputation 6 2 Namesakes 6 3 In popular culture 7 Electoral history 7 1 Presidential tickets 7 2 Congressional representation 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 10 1 Works cited 11 Further reading 12 External linksBackground editFurther information First Party System and Presidency of John Quincy Adams nbsp John Quincy Adams the 6th president became a Whig congressman later in his career During the 1790s the first major U S parties arose in the form of the Federalist Party led by Alexander Hamilton and the Democratic Republican Party led by Thomas Jefferson After 1815 the Democratic Republicans emerged as the sole major party at the national level but became increasingly polarized A nationalist wing led by Henry Clay favored policies such as the Second Bank of the United States and the implementation of a protective tariff A second group the Old Republicans opposed these policies instead favoring a strict interpretation of the Constitution and a weak federal government 17 In the 1824 presidential election Speaker of the House Henry Clay Secretary of the Treasury William H Crawford Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and General Andrew Jackson all sought the presidency as members of the Democratic Republican Party 18 Crawford favored state sovereignty and a strict constructionist view of the Constitution while Clay and Adams favored high tariffs and the national bank 19 regionalism played a central role with Jackson strongest in the West Jackson won a plurality of the popular and electoral vote in the 1824 election but not a majority The House of Representatives had to decide Speaker Clay supported Adams who was elected as president by the House and Clay was appointed as Secretary of State Jackson called it a corrupt bargain 20 nbsp Henry Clay a founder of the Whig Party in the 1830s and its 1844 presidential nomineeIn the years following the 1824 election former members of the Democratic Republican Party split into hostile factions Supporters of President Adams and Clay joined with many former Federalists such as Daniel Webster to form a group informally known as the Adams party 21 Meanwhile supporters of Jackson Crawford and Vice President John C Calhoun joined to oppose the Adams administration s nationalist agenda becoming informally known as Jacksonians 21 Due in part to the superior organization by Martin Van Buren of the Jacksonians Jackson defeated Adams in the 1828 presidential election taking 56 percent of the popular vote 22 Clay became the leader of the National Republican Party which opposed President Jackson By the early 1830s the Jacksonians organized into the new Democratic Party 23 Despite Jackson s decisive victory in the 1828 election National Republicans initially believed that Jackson s party would collapse once Jackson took office Vice President Calhoun split from the administration in 1831 but differences over the tariff prevented Calhoun s followers from joining the National Republicans 23 Meanwhile the Anti Masonic Party formed following the disappearance and possible murder of William Morgan in 1826 24 The Anti Masonic movement strongest in the Northeast gave rise to or expanded the use of many innovations which became accepted practice among other parties including nominating conventions and party newspapers 25 Clay rejected overtures from the Anti Masonic Party and his attempt to convince Calhoun to serve as his running mate failed leaving the opposition to Jackson split among different leaders when the National Republicans nominated Clay for president 24 Hoping to make the national bank a key issue of the 1832 election the National Republicans convinced national bank president Nicholas Biddle to request an extension of the national bank s charter but their strategy backfired when Jackson successfully portrayed his veto of the recharter as a victory for the people against an elitist institution 26 Jackson won another decisive victory in the 1832 presidential election taking 55 percent of the national popular vote and 88 percent of the popular vote in the slave states south of Kentucky and Maryland 27 Clay s defeat discredited the National Republican Party encouraging those opposed to Jackson to seek to create a more effective opposition party 28 Jackson by 1832 was determined to destroy the bank the Second Bank of the United States which Whigs supported 29 30 History editMain article History of the United States Whig Party Creation 1833 1836 edit Further information Presidency of Andrew Jackson and Second Party System nbsp Daniel Webster a leading Whig from New EnglandShortly after Jackson s re election South Carolina passed a measure to nullify the Tariff of 1832 beginning the Nullification Crisis Jackson strongly denied the right of South Carolina to nullify federal law but the crisis was resolved after Congress passed the Tariff of 1833 31 The Nullification Crisis briefly scrambled the partisan divisions that had emerged after 1824 as many within the Jacksonian coalition opposed President Jackson s threats of force against South Carolina while some opposition leaders like Daniel Webster supported them 32 In South Carolina and other states those opposed to Jackson began to form small Whig parties 31 The Whig label implicitly compared King Andrew to King George III the King of Great Britain at the time of the American Revolution 33 Jackson s decision to remove government deposits from the national bank a ended any possibility of a Webster Jackson alliance and helped to solidify partisan lines 36 The removal of the deposits drew opposition from both pro bank National Republicans and states rights Southerners like Willie Person Mangum of North Carolina the latter of whom accused Jackson of flouting the Constitution 37 In late 1833 Clay began to hold a series of dinners with opposition leaders in order to settle on a candidate to oppose Martin Van Buren the likely Democratic nominee in the 1836 presidential election While Jackson s opponents could not agree on a single presidential candidate they coordinated in the Senate to oppose Jackson s initiatives 38 Historian Michael Holt writes that the birth of the Whig Party can be dated to Clay and his allies taking control of the Senate in December 1833 1 The National Republicans including Clay and Webster formed the core of the Whig Party but many Anti Masons like William H Seward of New York and Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania also joined Several prominent Democrats defected to the Whigs including Mangum former Attorney General John Berrien and John Tyler of Virginia 33 The Whig Party s first major action was to censure Jackson for the removal of the national bank deposits thereby establishing opposition to Jackson s executive power as the organizing principle of the new party 9 In doing so the Whigs were able to shed the elitist image that had persistently hindered the National Republicans 39 Throughout 1834 and 1835 the Whigs successfully incorporated National Republican and Anti Masonic state level organizations and established new state party organizations in Southern states like North Carolina and Georgia 40 The Anti Masonic heritage to the Whigs included a distrust of behind the scenes political maneuvering by party bosses instead of encouraging direct appeals to the people through gigantic rallies parades and rhetorical rabble rousing 41 Rise 1836 1841 edit Further information Presidency of Martin Van Buren nbsp William Henry Harrison a two time presidential candidate who became the first Whig president in 1841 but died just one month into officeEarly successes in various states made many Whigs optimistic about victory in 1836 but an improving economy bolstered Van Buren s standing ahead of the election 42 The Whigs also faced the difficulty of uniting former National Republicans Anti Masons and states rights Southerners around one candidate and the party suffered an early blow when Calhoun announced that he would refuse to support any candidate opposed to the doctrine of nullification 43 Northern Whigs cast aside both Clay and Webster in favor of General William Henry Harrison a former senator who had led U S forces in the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe 44 Though he had not previously been affiliated with the National Republicans Harrison indicated that he shared the party s concerns over Jackson s executive power and favored federal investments in infrastructure 44 Southern Whigs coalesced around Senator Hugh Lawson White a long time Jackson ally who opposed Van Buren s candidacy 45 Ultimately Van Buren won a majority of the electoral and popular vote in the 1836 election though the Whigs improved on Clay s 1832 performance in the South and West 46 Shortly after Van Buren took office an economic crisis known as the Panic of 1837 struck the nation 47 Land prices plummeted industries laid off employees and banks failed According to historian Daniel Walker Howe the economic crisis of the late 1830s and early 1840s was the most severe recession in U S history until the Great Depression 48 Van Buren s economic response centered on establishing the Independent Treasury system essentially a series of vaults that would hold government deposits 49 As the debate over the Independent Treasury continued William Cabell Rives and some other Democrats who favored a more activist government defected to the Whig Party while Calhoun and his followers joined the Democratic Party 50 Whig leaders agreed to hold the party s first national convention in December 1839 in order to select the Whig presidential nominee 51 nbsp William Henry Harrison defeated Martin Van Buren in the 1840 presidential election thereby becoming the first Whig presidentBy early 1838 Clay had emerged as the front runner due to his support in the South and his spirited opposition to Van Buren s Independent Treasury 52 A recovering economy convinced other Whigs to support Harrison who was generally seen as the Whig candidate best able to win over Democrats and new voters 53 With the crucial support of Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania and Thurlow Weed of New York Harrison won the presidential nomination on the fifth ballot of the 1839 Whig National Convention 54 For vice president the Whigs nominated John Tyler a former states rights Democrat selected for the Whig ticket primarily because other Southern supporters of Clay refused to serve as Harrison s running mate 55 Log cabins and hard cider became the dominant symbols of the Whig campaign as the party sought to portray Harrison as a man of the people 56 The Whigs also assailed Van Buren s handling of the economy and argued that traditional Whig policies such as the restoration of a national bank and the implementation of protective tariff rates would help to restore the economy 57 With the economy still in a downturn Harrison decisively defeated Van Buren taking a wide majority of the electoral vote and just under 53 percent of the popular vote 58 Harrison and Tyler 1841 1845 edit Further information Presidency of John Tyler nbsp President John Tyler clashed with congressional Whigs and was expelled from the party With the election of the first Whig presidential administration in the party s history Clay and his allies prepared to pass ambitious domestic policies such as the restoration of the national bank the distribution of federal land sales revenue to the states a national bankruptcy law and increased tariff rates 59 Harrison died just one month into his term thereby elevating Vice President Tyler to the presidency 60 Tyler had never accepted much of the Whig economic program and he soon clashed with Clay and other congressional Whigs 60 In August 1841 Tyler vetoed Clay s national bank bill holding that the bill was unconstitutional 61 Congress passed a second bill based on an earlier proposal made by Treasury Secretary Ewing that was tailored to address Tyler s constitutional concerns but Tyler vetoed that bill as well 62 In response every Cabinet member but Webster resigned and the Whig congressional caucus expelled Tyler from the party on September 13 1841 63 The Whigs later began impeachment proceedings against Tyler but they ultimately declined to impeach him because they believed that his likely acquittal would devastate the party 64 Beginning in mid 1842 Tyler increasingly began to court Democrats appointing them to his Cabinet and other positions 65 At the same time many Whig state organizations repudiated the Tyler administration and endorsed Clay as the party s candidate in the 1844 presidential election 66 After Webster resigned from the Cabinet in May 1843 following the conclusion of the Webster Ashburton Treaty Tyler made the annexation of Texas his key priority The annexation of Texas was widely viewed as a pro slavery initiative as it would add another slave state to the union and most leaders of both parties opposed opening the question of annexation in 1843 due to the fear of stoking the debate over slavery Tyler was nonetheless determined to pursue annexation because he believed that the British conspired to abolish slavery in Texas b and because he saw the issue as a means to reelection either through the Democratic Party or through a new party 68 In April 1844 Secretary of State John C Calhoun reached a treaty with Texas providing for the annexation of that country 69 Clay and Van Buren the two front runners for major party presidential nominations in the 1844 election both announced their opposition to annexation and the Senate blocked the annexation treaty 70 To the surprise of Clay and other Whigs the 1844 Democratic National Convention rejected Van Buren in favor of James K Polk and established a platform calling for the acquisition of both Texas and Oregon Country 71 Having won the presidential nomination at the 1844 Whig National Convention unopposed Clay and other Whigs were initially confident that they would defeat the divided Democrats and their relatively obscure candidate 72 However Southern voters responded to Polk s calls for annexation while in the North Democrats benefited from the growing animosity towards the Whig Party among Catholic and foreign born voters 73 Ultimately Polk won the election taking 49 5 of the popular vote and a majority of the electoral vote the swing of just over one percent of the vote in New York would have given Clay the victory 74 Polk and the Mexican American War 1845 1849 edit Further information Presidency of James K Polk nbsp Zachary Taylor served in the Mexican American War and later won the 1848 presidential election as the Whig nominee nbsp The United States settled the Texas Mexico border and acquired portions of seven current states in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Portions of present day Arizona and New Mexico were later acquired in the 1853 Gadsden Purchase In the final weeks of Tyler s presidency a small group of Southern Whigs joined with congressional Democrats to pass a joint resolution providing for the annexation of Texas and Texas subsequently became a state in 1845 75 Following the annexation of Texas Polk began preparations for a potential war with Mexico which still regarded Texas as a part of its republic and contended that Texas s true southern border was the Nueces River rather than the Rio Grande 76 After a skirmish known as the Thornton Affair broke out on the northern side of the Rio Grande 77 Polk called on Congress to declare war against Mexico arguing that Mexico had invaded American territory by crossing the Rio Grande 78 Many Whigs argued that Polk had provoked war with Mexico by sending a force under General Zachary Taylor to the Rio Grande but only a minority of Whigs voted against the declaration of war as they feared that opposing the war would be politically unpopular 79 Polk received the declaration of war against Mexico and also pushed through the restoration of the Independent Treasury System and a bill that reduced tariffs opposition to the passage of these Democratic policies helped to reunify and reinvigorate the Whigs 80 In August 1846 Polk asked Congress to appropriate 2 million 58 6 million in 2022 in hopes of using that money as a down payment for the purchase of California in a treaty with Mexico 81 Democratic Congressman David Wilmot of Pennsylvania offered an amendment known as the Wilmot Proviso which would ban slavery in any newly acquired lands 82 The Wilmot Proviso passed the House with the support of both Northern Whigs and Northern Democrats breaking the normal pattern of partisan division in congressional votes but it was defeated in the Senate 83 Nonetheless clear divisions remained between the two parties on territorial acquisitions as most Democrats joined Polk in seeking to acquire vast tracts of land from Mexico but most Whigs opposed territorial growth 84 In February 1848 Mexican and U S negotiators reached the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which provided for the cession of Alta California and New Mexico 85 Despite Whig objections to the acquisition of Mexican territory the treaty was ratified with the support of a majority of the Democratic and Whig senators Whigs voted for the treaty largely because ratification brought the war to an immediate end 86 nbsp A political cartoon satirizing the candidacy of either Zachary Taylor or Winfield Scott in the 1848 presidential electionDuring the war Whig leaders like John J Crittenden of Kentucky began to look to General Taylor as a presidential candidate in the hopes that the party could run on Taylor s personal popularity rather than economic issues 87 Taylor s candidacy faced significant resistance in the Whig Party due to his lack of public commitment to Whig policies and his association with the Mexican American War 88 In late 1847 Clay emerged as Taylor s main opponent for the Whig nomination appealing especially to Northern Whigs with his opposition to the war and the acquisition of new territory 89 With strong backing from slave state delegates Taylor won the presidential nomination on the fourth ballot of the 1848 Whig National Convention 90 For vice president the Whigs nominated Millard Fillmore of New York a pro Clay Northerner 91 Anti slavery Northern Whigs disaffected with Taylor joined with Democratic supporters of Martin Van Buren and some members of the Liberty Party to found the new Free Soil Party the party nominated a ticket of Van Buren and Whig Charles Francis Adams Sr and campaigned against the spread of slavery into the territories 92 The Whig campaign in the North received a boost when Taylor released a public letter in which he stated that he favored Whig principles and would defer to Congress after taking office thereby reassuring some wavering Whigs 93 During the campaign Northern Whig leaders touted traditional Whig policies like support for infrastructure spending and increased tariff rates 94 but Southern Whigs largely eschewed economic policy instead emphasizing that Taylor s status as a slaveholder meant that he could be trusted on the issue of slavery more so than Democratic candidate Lewis Cass of Michigan 95 Ultimately Taylor won the election with a majority of the electoral vote and a plurality of the popular vote Taylor improved on Clay s 1844 performance in the South and benefited from the defection of many Democrats to Van Buren in the North 96 Taylor and Fillmore 1849 1853 edit Further information Presidency of Zachary Taylor and Presidency of Millard Fillmore nbsp Millard Fillmore the last Whig presidentReflecting the Taylor administration s desire to find a middle ground between traditional Whig and Democratic policies Secretary of the Treasury William M Meredith issued a report calling for an increase in tariff rates but not to the levels seen under the Tariff of 1842 97 Even Meredith s moderate policies were not adopted and partly due to the strong economic growth of the late 1840s and late 1850s traditional Whig economic stances would increasingly lose their salience after 1848 98 When Taylor assumed office the organization of state and territorial governments and the status of slavery in the Mexican Cession remained the major issue facing Congress 99 To sidestep the issue of the Wilmot Proviso the Taylor administration proposed that the lands of the Mexican Cession be admitted as states without first organizing territorial governments thus slavery in the area would be left to the discretion of state governments rather than the federal government 100 In January 1850 Senator Clay introduced a separate proposal which included the admission of California as a free state the cession by Texas of some of its northern and western territorial claims in return for debt relief the establishment of New Mexico and Utah territories a ban on the importation of slaves into the District of Columbia for sale and a more stringent fugitive slave law 101 nbsp Gen Winfield Scott the unsuccessful Whig candidate in the 1852 presidential electionTaylor died in July 1850 and was succeeded by Vice President Fillmore 102 In contrast to John Tyler Fillmore s legitimacy and authority as president were widely accepted by members of Congress and the public 103 Fillmore accepted the resignation of Taylor s entire Cabinet 104 and appointed Whig leaders like Crittenden Thomas Corwin of Ohio and Webster whose support for the Compromise had outraged his Massachusetts constituents 105 With the support of Fillmore and an impressing bipartisan and bi sectional coalition a Senate bill providing for a final settlement of Texas s borders won passage shortly after Fillmore took office 106 The Senate quickly moved onto the other major issues passing bills that provided for the admission of California the organization of New Mexico Territory and the establishment of a new fugitive slave law 107 Passage of what became known as the Compromise of 1850 soon followed in the House of Representatives 108 Though the future of slavery in New Mexico Utah and other territories remained unclear Fillmore himself described the Compromise of 1850 as a final settlement of sectional issues 109 Following the passage of the Compromise of 1850 Fillmore s enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 became the central issue of his administration 110 The Whig Party became badly split between pro Compromise Whigs like Fillmore and Webster and anti Compromise Whigs like William Seward who demanded the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act 111 Though Fillmore s enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act made him unpopular among many in the North he retained considerable support in the South Meanwhile Secretary Webster had long coveted the presidency and though in poor health planned a final attempt to gain the White House 112 A third candidate emerged in the form of General Winfield Scott who won the backing of many Northerners but whose association with Senator William Seward made him unacceptable to Southern Whigs 112 On the first presidential ballot of the 1852 Whig National Convention Fillmore received 133 of the necessary 147 votes while Scott won 131 and Webster won 29 Fillmore and Webster s supporters were unable to broker a deal to unite behind either candidate and Scott won the nomination on the 53rd ballot 113 The 1852 Democratic National Convention nominated a dark horse candidate in the form of former New Hampshire senator Franklin Pierce a Northerner sympathetic to the Southern view on slavery 114 As the Whig and Democratic national conventions had approved similar platforms the 1852 election focused largely on the personalities of Scott and Pierce 115 The 1852 elections proved to be disastrous for the Whig Party as Scott was defeated by a wide margin and the Whigs lost several congressional and state elections 116 Scott amassed more votes than Taylor had in most Northern states but Democrats benefited from a surge of new voters in the North and the collapse of Whig strength in much of the South 117 Collapse editFurther information Presidency of Franklin Pierce History of the United States Republican Party Beginnings and Third Party System Despite their decisive loss in the 1852 elections most Whig leaders believed the party could recover during the Pierce presidency in much the same way that it had recovered under President Polk 118 However the strong economy still prevented the Whig economic program from regaining salience and the party failed to develop an effective platform on which to campaign 119 The debate over the 1854 Kansas Nebraska Act which effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise by allowing slavery in territories north of the 36 30 parallel shook up traditional partisan alignments 120 Across the Northern states opposition to the Kansas Nebraska Act gave rise to anti Nebraska coalitions consisting of Democrats focused on this opposition along with Free Soilers and Whigs In Michigan and Wisconsin these two coalitions labeled themselves as the Republican Party but similar groups in other states initially took on different names 121 Like their Free Soil predecessors Republican leaders generally did not call for the abolition of slavery but instead sought to prevent the extension of slavery into the territories 122 Another political coalition appeared in the form of the nativist and anti Catholic Know Nothing movement which eventually organized itself into the American Party 120 Both the Republican Party and the Know Nothings portrayed themselves as the natural Whig heirs in the battle against Democratic executive tyranny but the Republicans focused on the Slave Power and the Know Nothings focused on the supposed danger of mass immigration and a Catholic conspiracy While the Republican Party almost exclusively appealed to Northerners the Know Nothings gathered many adherents in both the North and South some individuals joined both groups even while they remained part of the Whig Party or the Democratic Party 123 Congressional Democrats suffered huge losses in the mid term elections of 1854 as voters provided support to a wide array of new parties opposed to the Democratic Party 124 Though several successful congressional candidates had campaigned only as Whigs most congressional candidates who were not affiliated with the Democratic Party had campaigned either independently of the Whig Party or in collusion with another party 125 As cooperation between Northern and Southern Whigs increasingly appeared to be impossible leaders from both sections continued to abandon the party 126 Though he did not share the nativist views of the Know Nothings in 1855 Fillmore became a member of the Know Nothing movement and encouraged his Whig followers to join as well 127 In September 1855 Seward led his faction of Whigs into the Republican Party effectively marking the end of the Whig Party as an independent and significant political force 2 Thus the 1856 presidential election became a three sided contest between Democrats Know Nothings and Republicans 128 The Know Nothing National Convention nominated Fillmore for president but disagreements over the party platform s stance on slavery caused many Northern Know Nothings to abandon the party 129 Meanwhile the 1856 Republican National Convention chose John C Fremont as the party s presidential candidate 130 The defection of many Northern Know Nothings combined with the caning of Charles Sumner and other events that stoked sectional tensions bolstered Republicans throughout the North 131 During his campaign Fillmore minimized the issue of nativism instead of attempting to use his campaign as a platform for unionism and a revival of the Whig Party 132 Seeking to rally support from Whigs who had yet to join another party Fillmore and his allies organized the sparsely attended 1856 Whig National Convention which nominated Fillmore for president 133 Ultimately Democrat James Buchanan won the election with a majority of the electoral vote and 45 percent of the popular vote Fremont won most of the remaining electoral votes and took 33 percent of the popular vote while Fillmore won 22 percent of the popular vote and just eight electoral votes Fillmore largely retained Taylor and Scott voters in the South but most former Whigs in the North voted for Fremont rather than Fillmore 134 Fillmore s American Party collapsed after the 1856 election and many former Whigs who refused to join the Democratic Party or the Republican Party organized themselves into a loose coalition known as the Opposition Party 135 For the 1860 presidential election Senator John J Crittenden and other unionist conservatives formed the Constitutional Union Party 136 The party nominated a ticket consisting of John Bell a long time Whig senator and Edward Everett who had succeeded Daniel Webster as Fillmore s Secretary of State 137 With the nomination of two former Whigs many regarded the Constitutional Union Party as a continuation of the Whig Party one Southern newspaper called the new party the ghost of the old Whig Party 138 The party campaigned on preserving the union and took an official non stance on slavery 139 The Constitutional Union ticket won a plurality of the vote in three states but Bell finished in fourth place in the national popular vote behind Republican Abraham Lincoln Democrat Stephen A Douglas and pro Southern Democrat John C Breckinridge 140 In the North most former Whigs including the vast majority of those who had voted for Fillmore in 1856 voted for Lincoln in 1860 141 In the secession crisis that followed Lincoln s election Southern Democrats generally led secession efforts while Southern former Whigs generally opposed immediate secession 142 During the American Civil War former Whigs formed the core of a proto party in the Confederacy that was opposed to the Jefferson Davis administration 143 In the Reconstruction Era many former Whigs tried to regroup in the South calling themselves conservatives and hoping to reconnect with ex Whigs in the North Thus in Virginia and elsewhere moderate nationalist and economically innovative ex Whigs used the party name Conservative in order to avoid identification with the Democratic Party 144 The Conservative Party ultimately merged into the Democratic Party in the South but ex Whigs continued to promote modernization policies such as large scale railroad construction and the founding of public schools 145 page needed The Whig Party vanished after the 1850s but Whiggism as a modernizing policy orientation persisted for decades 146 It played a major role in shaping the modernizing policies of the state governments during Reconstruction 145 page needed During the Lincoln Administration ex Whigs dominated the Republican Party and enacted much of their American System Presidents Abraham Lincoln Rutherford B Hayes Chester A Arthur and Benjamin Harrison were Whigs before switching to the Republican Party from which they were elected to office In the long run the United States adopted Whiggish economic policies coupled with a Democratic strong presidency 15 Ideology and policies edit nbsp Whig journalist Horace GreeleyWhig thought edit Historian Frank Towers writes that Democrats stood for the sovereignty of the people as expressed in popular demonstrations constitutional conventions and majority rule as a general principle of governing whereas Whigs advocated the rule of law written and unchanging constitutions and protections for minority interests against majority tyranny 147 Historian Daniel Walker Howe argues the Whigs were modernizers who attached a great deal of importance to protecting property maintaining social order and preserving a distinct cultural heritage three characteristic conservative concerns 5 The Whigs themselves adopted the word conservative which they associated with law and order social caution and moral restraint 13 Political scientists John H Aldrich and John D Griffin note that the labeling of Whig ideology as conservative is somewhat counterintuitive for those who associate a small role for government rather than a pro business orientation with conservatism 148 Historian John Ashworth writes that the two parties were polarized on important questions of economic development describing their competition as a clash of democracy with capitalism 149 Whigs held that the government had a duty to promote economic prosperity for the people especially during economic downturns 6 The Whigs further believed that individual regions of the country lacked the capital necessary for economic growth and thus the federal government should subsidize large infrastructure projects and promote policies to facilitate the operations of banks and corporations 7 Democrats by contrast argued that government action would inevitably favor the privileged few thus Democrats held that government should intervene in the economy as little as possible especially at the federal level 6 Gregory Bowen notes that the two parties were polar opposite and highly ideological At the heart of Democratic ideology was a militant egalitarianism for white men which contrasted sharply with the Whigs support for equality of opportunity to produce a meritocratic society 150 Democrats glorified individualism while Whigs said it was a dangerous impulse that must be subordinated to the greater good of an organic society they called for individuals to restrain themselves and focus on doing their duty 151 Howe characterizes the Whigs anti individualism as an Aristotlean desire to perfect human nature by subordinating animal impulses to reason and self control Historian John Burt expands on Howe s argument noting that Whigs saw unmediated expressions of popular will in roughly the same way as they saw unmediated compulsions of appetite a s a person driven by appetites is not free but the slave of the body so a polity driven by popular will is not free but the slave of whatever urgencies drive King Numbers The Whigs opposed President Jackson because they saw him as a demagogue recklessly exploiting the will of the majority and they supported a strong Congress as a means of restraining that will within the bounds of a stable constitutional framework 152 Despite their differences both parties sought to portray themselves as the true protectors of an American political tradition of equality and self government 4 Though their Democratic rivals cast them as a continuation of the Federalists the Whig Party s ideology was rooted in the agenda proposed by Clay and other nationalist Democratic Republican Party leaders in the aftermath of the War of 1812 Many of these nationalist ideas were influenced by the economic program of Federalist leader Alexander Hamilton but after the War of 1812 they were also supported by President James Madison one of the founders of the Democratic Republican Party 17 Unlike their Democratic rivals many Whigs held an aversion to party organization that was rooted in a traditional American wariness of political parties Whig opposition to parties waned after the 1830s but many leading Whigs including Webster and John Quincy Adams never fully gave up their independence in favor of a party label 153 The Whigs were also deeply committed to preventing executive tyranny which they saw as an existential threat to republican self government 10 Whig thought was typically rooted in evangelical Christianity as expressed in the Second Great Awakening Whigs linked moral progress and material progress each needed the other They supported Protestant religiosity and missions while being fearful of Catholics Whigs believed that a higher stage of morality would be achieved when America brought wealth and opportunity to everyone Colleges and public schools would promote upward social mobility discouraging immorality and dissipation The rapid business expansion was good not the moral danger Democrats warned about 154 One Whig Horace Mann played a pivotal role in establishing a public school system in Massachusetts that would be emulated by most states 155 Whig policies edit Further information American System economic plan nbsp John J Crittenden an influential Whig leader who later established the short lived Constitutional Union Party to contest the election of 1860The Whigs celebrated Clay s vision of the American System which promoted rapid economic and industrial growth in the United States through support for a national bank high tariffs a distribution policy and federal funding for infrastructure projects 156 After the Second Bank of the United States lost its federal charter in 1836 the Whigs favored the restoration of a national bank that could provide a uniform currency ensure a consistent supply of credit and attract private investors 157 Through high tariffs Clay and other Whigs hoped to generate revenue and encourage the establishment of domestic manufacturing thereby freeing the United States from dependence on foreign imports 158 High tariffs were also designed to prevent a negative balance of trade and prevent the flow of currency and credit from the country 7 Whigs generally opposed Democratic efforts to reduce federal land prices implement a preemption policy that would allow squatters the right to purchase land before it came to auction and transfer ownership of western lands to the states Instead Whigs favored a distribution policy that would distribute revenues from federal land sales to the states 159 states could then invest that money in education infrastructure projects and other priorities 160 The Whigs supported federally financed internal improvements on the belief that only the federal government could construct the transportation system necessary for uniting the country commercially and culturally 161 Aside from the Whig economic program various other issues confronted the Whig Party Temperance never became a purely partisan issue between Whigs and Democrats but Whigs tended to be more favorable to state prohibition laws than were Democrats 162 Similarly opinions on immigration did not break down strictly on party lines but Whigs tended to have less favorable views towards immigration partly because most recent immigrants aligned with the Democratic Party 163 In the mid 1840s a group of Whigs unsuccessfully pushed a bill that would have implemented new paperwork requirements for naturalization and monitored the movements of immigrants in the United States more closely The unwillingness of Whig leaders to push for more far reaching changes such as an extension of the five year naturalization period encouraged some Whigs to join nativist third parties 164 Whigs were less in favor of expansionism than their Democratic counterparts and Whigs tended to oppose the Mexican American War and the acquisition of new territories like Cuba 165 John Mack Faragher writes that Democrats sought to balance the rising power of industrialization in the United States by following Thomas Jefferson s vision of establishing agriculture in the new territories while Whigs were content to develop the country within its present borders and feared that expansion would cause a divisive debate over slavery in the territories 166 Base of support edit nbsp U S presidential election results from 1828 to 1852 Darker shades of blue indicate states that generally voted for the Democratic Party while darker shades of yellow brown indicate states that generally voted for the Whig or National Republican Party Political scientist A James Reichley writes that the Democrats and Whigs were political institutions of a kind that had never existed before in history because they commanded mass membership among voters and continued to function between elections 167 Both parties drew support from voters of various classes occupations religions and ethnicities 168 Nonetheless the Whig Party was based among middle class conservatives 169 incomplete short citation The central fault line between the parties concerned the emerging market economy as Whigs embraced the economic and social changes caused by the market economy and Democrats rejected them 170 Whigs drew strength from the economic elites in both Northern cities and Southern plantation regions but they also attracted support from other classes in most cities 170 In many states local rivalries pushed groups into one party or the other though areas that favored internal improvements tended to favor Whigs Catholics overwhelmingly voted Democrat while Protestants were split between the two parties Recent Irish and German immigrants generally supported the Democrats but recent immigrants from England Scotland and Wales tended to support the Whigs 171 Although the Whigs and the rival Democratic Party established party structures that were unprecedented in terms of mass membership and continued functionality both parties were still essentially coalitions of state party organizations and lacked strong cohesion at the national level 172 The Whigs built on the strength of National Republicans and the Anti Masonic Party to build up party organizations in Delaware Maryland and much of New England 173 Appealing to voters with a mix of economic and social policies the Whigs established capable party organizations in Northeastern states like New York and Pennsylvania 174 Unlike the Federalists and the National Republicans the Whigs were competitive in the South building strong state parties in Tennessee and Kentucky and competitive parties in Louisiana Georgia and Virginia 175 By emphasizing their moral conservatism the Whigs were also able to expand into the Northwest and win elections in a state like Ohio and Indiana 176 The Whigs were generally not as competitive in Democratic strongholds like New Hampshire 177 Maine Illinois Alabama Mississippi Arkansas Missouri and Texas 178 Party leaders edit nbsp Charles Sumner an anti slavery Conscience Whig who later joined the Republican Party nbsp Edward Everett a pro South Cotton Whig Henry Clay of Kentucky was the congressional leader of the party from the time of its formation in 1833 until his resignation from the Senate in 1842 and he remained an important Whig leader until his death in 1852 179 His frequent rival for leadership of the party was Daniel Webster who represented Massachusetts in the Senate and served as Secretary of State under three Whig presidents 180 Clay and Webster each repeatedly sought the Whig presidential nomination but excepting Clay s nomination in 1844 the Whigs consistently nominated individuals who had served as generals specifically William Henry Harrison Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott Harrison Taylor John Tyler and Millard Fillmore all served as president though Tyler was expelled from the Whig Party shortly after taking office in 1841 Benjamin Robbins Curtis was the lone Whig to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States 181 though later Supreme Court justices like John Marshall Harlan affiliated with the Whig Party early in their career before joining the Court as members of another party 182 During the time of the party s existence numerous other Whig leaders emerged including Truman Smith of Connecticut who Holt describes as the Whigs closest equivalent to a modern national party chairman for his efforts to raise money deliver the Whig message and build up the party nationwide 183 In New York William Seward and Thurlow Weed established an influential organization and competed with Millard Fillmore s faction of the party 184 John M Clayton of Delaware and John C Crittenden of Kentucky were important border state Whigs who were influential in the Taylor administration 185 Supreme Court Justice John McLean of Ohio commanded a following in the party and was a perennial aspirant for the Whig presidential nomination but he maintained his independence from the party and never ran for office as a Whig candidate 186 Thomas Corwin of Ohio emerged in the 1840s as a leading opponent of the Mexican American War and he later served as Fillmore s Secretary of the Treasury 187 William Cabell Rives of Virginia joined the Whig Party over dissatisfaction with Van Buren s handling of the Independent Treasury and he became a prominent conservative Whig 188 In Georgia future Confederate Vice President Alexander H Stephens and Robert Toombs competed for influence with their intra party rival John M Berrien 189 Future Republican President Abraham Lincoln served a single term as a Whig congressman representing Illinois 190 One strength of the Whigs was a superb network of newspapers their leading editor was Horace Greeley of the powerful New York Daily Tribune citation needed The Boston Atlas under the leadership of Richard Haughton and Richard Hildreth also emerged as an important Whig paper 191 Influenced by the writings of Thomas Malthus and David Ricardo Henry Charles Carey became the leading Whig economist in the 1830s Other prominent Whig aligned intellectuals and public figures include journalist John G Palfrey of the North American Review novelist John P Kennedy and historian William H Prescott 192 Factions edit The Whigs suffered greatly from factionalism throughout their existence as well as weak party loyalty that stood in contrast to the strong party discipline that was the hallmark of a tight Democratic Party organization 193 Forged out of opposition to Jackson s perceived executive tyranny the early Whig Party was divided between former National Republicans who favored federal measures to promote economic development and Southern states rights advocates who wished to keep federal intervention in the economy to a minimum 194 By the 1840s Southern Whigs like John M Berrien of Georgia and John Botts of Virginia endorsed interventionist measures but other Southern Whigs like William Cabell Rives of Virginia actively sought to shift the party away from economic nationalism 195 The Whig Party faced persistent sectional divisions regarding slavery Northern Whigs tended to be more anti slavery than Northern Democrats but during the 1830s Southern Whigs tended to more pro slavery than their Democratic counterparts 196 By the late 1840s Southern Democrats had become more insistent regarding the expansion of slavery and more open to the prospect of secession than their Whig counterparts 197 Northern Whigs divided into two major factions concerning slavery the anti slavery Conscience Whigs and the pro South Cotton Whigs While the Consciences were noted for their moral opposition to slavery many like John Quincy Adams brought over their crusading fervor from Anti Masonic days 198 The other faction was tied to the cotton based textile industry which depended on Southern cotton They de emphasized the slavery issue In Massachusetts notable Consciences included Charles Sumner Henry Wilson and Charles Francis Adams while the Cottons were led by such figures as Edward Everett Robert C Winthrop and Abbott Lawrence 199 During the mid 1850s several Conscience leaders played an important role in the founding of the Republican Party 200 Legacy editFurther information Third Party System and American School economics nbsp Portrait depicting President Abraham Lincoln as young Whig congressman painted by Ned Bittinger nbsp John Marshall Harlan who began his career as a Whig officeholder served on the Supreme Court from 1877 to 1911 Historical reputation edit Historian Allen C Guelzo writes that no major political movement has suffered more sheer dismissal more impatient contempt at the hands of political historians than the American Whigs Guelzo traces the start of this dismissal to the writings of Henry Adams who dismissed the Whigs as bereft of ideas and through to the writings of historian Arthur M Schlesinger Jr who labeled the period during which the Whigs were active as the Age of Jackson 201 The Whigs historical reputation began to recover with the publication of The Political Culture of the American Whigs by historian Daniel Walker Howe in 1979 Rather than accepting the traditional understanding of the Whigs as Eastern elitists who sought to exploit the masses Howe cast the Whigs as sober industrious thrifty people who sought to promote industrialization and national unity 202 In today s American political discourse historians and pundits often cite the Whig Party as an example of a political party that lost its followers and reason for being as in the expression going the way of the Whigs 203 a term referred to by Donald Critchlow in his book The Conservative Ascendancy How the GOP Right Made Political History Critchlow points out that the application of the term by Republicans in the Republican Party of 1974 may have been a misnomer the old Whig party enjoyed more political support before its demise than the Republican Party in the aftermath of Nixon s resignation 204 Namesakes edit After the dissolution of the Whig Party the term Whig remained part of the name of various newspapers including the Quincy Herald Whig Several ephemeral small parties in the United States including the Florida Whig Party 205 and the Modern Whig Party 206 have adopted the Whig name In Liberia the True Whig Party was named in direct emulation of the American Whig Party The True Whig Party was founded in 1869 and it dominated politics in Liberia from 1878 until 1980 207 In popular culture edit Two alternative history works depicting histories where the Confederacy won the American Civil War include a Whig Party having a major role in the postbellum world In Ward Moore s Bring the Jubilee a revived Whig Party is one of the two main parties of the rump United States being the right wing party whose platform reflects an acceptance of the United States humbled status following its defeat in the War of Southern Independence Conversely in Harry Turtledove s Southern Victory Series a Whig Party emerges as the dominant political party of an independent Confederacy representing the interests of the plantocratic elite and dominating Confederate politics until the rise of the Freedom Party following the First Great War Electoral history editPresidential tickets edit Further information List of United States National Republican and Whig Party presidential tickets and List of Whig National Conventions Election Ticket Electoral resultsPresidential nominee Running mate Popular vote Electoral votes Ranking1836 William Henry Harrison Francis Granger 36 6 73 294 2Hugh Lawson White John Tyler 9 7 26 294 3Daniel Webster Francis Granger 2 7 14 294 4Willie Person Mangum John Tyler 0 11 294 51840 William Henry Harrison John Tyler 52 9 234 294 11844 Henry Clay Theodore Frelinghuysen 48 1 105 275 21848 Zachary Taylor Millard Fillmore 47 3 163 290 11852 Winfield Scott William Alexander Graham 43 9 42 296 21856 Millard Fillmore c Andrew Jackson Donelson 21 5 8 296 3Congressional representation edit See also Party divisions of United States Congresses Congress Years Senate 208 House of Representatives 209 PresidentTotal Democrats Whigs Others Vacancies Total Democrats Whigs Others Vacancies25th 1837 1839 52 35 17 242 128 100 14 Martin Van Buren26th 1839 1841 52 30 22 242 125 109 8 27th 1841 1843 52 22 29 1 242 98 142 2 John Tyler d 28th 1843 1845 52 23 29 223 147 72 4 29th 1845 1847 58 34 22 2 228 142 79 7 James K Polk30th 1847 1849 60 38 21 1 230 110 116 4 31st 1849 1851 62 35 25 2 233 113 108 11 1 Zachary Taylor e 32nd 1851 1853 62 36 23 3 233 127 85 21 Millard Fillmore33rd 1853 1855 62 38 22 2 234 157 71 6 Franklin PierceCongress Years Total Democrats Opposition Others Vacancies Total Democrats Opposition Others Vacancies President34th 1855 1857 62 39 21 2 234 83 100 51 Franklin PierceSee also edit nbsp Modern history portal nbsp Politics portal nbsp United States portalSecond Party System American election campaigns in the 19th century List of political parties in the United States Political history in the United States Whig British political faction Notes edit Though Jackson had vetoed a re charter bill the bank still retained federal deposits at the start of his second term 34 The national bank s federal charter expired in 1836 35 In actuality the government of British Prime Minister Robert Peel had little interest in pushing abolitionism in Texas 67 Fillmore and Donelson ran on the American Party ticket in the 1856 United States presidential election though they were also nominated by a rump group of Whigs at the 1856 Whig National Convention Whig President William Henry Harrison died April 4 1841 one month into his term and was succeeded by John Tyler who served for the remainder of the term Tyler had been elected as vice president on the Whig ticket but he became an independent after the Whigs expelled him from the party in 1841 President Taylor died July 9 1850 about one year and four months into the term and was succeeded by Millard Fillmore who served for the remainder of the term References edit a b Holt 1999 pp 26 27 a b Holt 1999 pp 947 949 Whig Party history com History November 20 2019 Retrieved March 3 2022 The Whigs were an opposition party formed to challenge Jacksonian Democrats thereby launching the second party system in America but they were far from a single issue party a b Holt 1999 p 70 a b Howe 1979 pp 183 210 a b c Holt 1999 pp 66 67 a b c Holt 1999 p 685 Anerican System U S History com Retrieved March 3 2022 A plan to strengthen and unify the nation the American System was advanced by the Whig Party and a number of leading politicians including Henry Clay John C Calhoun and John Quincy Adams a b Holt 1999 pp 27 28 a b Holt 1999 p 952 Farmer 2008 p 155 Jacksonian democracy Encyclopaedia Britannica Retrieved June 11 2022 Whigs voted against and Democrats approved an independent treasury an aggressive foreign policy and expansionism a b c Reichley 2000 p 80 Sean Trainor Gale Researcher Guide for The Second Party System Gale Cengage Learning 2018 a b Kalb Deborah 2015 Guide to U S Elections CQ Press ISBN 978 1 4833 8038 4 Major American Political Parties of the 19th Century Norwich University Online Retrieved July 4 2022 The Democratic Republican and Whig parties are considered the predecessors of today s Democratic and Republican parties respectively a b Holt 1999 pp 2 3 Holt 1999 pp 5 6 Howe 2007 pp 203 204 Holt 1999 pp 6 7 a b Holt 1999 pp 7 8 Holt 1999 pp 8 9 a b Holt 1999 pp 10 11 a b Cole 1993 pp 139 141 Arthur Goldwag The New Hate A History of Fear and Loathing on the Populist Right 2012 p 172 Holt 1999 pp 15 16 Holt 1999 pp 17 18 Holt 1999 pp 18 19 Sean Wilentz says Jackson s decision to destroy the Second Bank of the United States caught some of his own supporters by surprise Sean Wilentz Andrew Jackson 2007 p 74 Hargreaves 1985 pp 20 21 a b Holt 1999 p 20 Cole 1993 pp 178 180 a b Cole 1993 pp 211 213 Cole 1993 pp 190 193 Cole 1993 pp 209 211 Cole 1993 pp 202 203 Holt 1999 p 24 Holt 1999 p 26 Holt 1999 p 30 Holt 1999 pp 34 35 Sean Wilentz The Politicians and the Egalitarians The Hidden History of American Politics 2017 p 141 Holt 1999 pp 36 37 Holt 1999 pp 38 39 a b Holt 1999 pp 40 42 Holt 1999 pp 42 43 Holt 1999 pp 45 46 Holt 1999 p 61 Howe 2007 pp 504 505 Wilson 1984 pp 58 62 Holt 1999 pp 67 68 Holt 1999 pp 92 93 Holt 1999 pp 93 94 Holt 1999 pp 97 98 Holt 1999 pp 102 103 Holt 1999 p 104 Holt 1999 pp 105 107 Holt 1999 pp 107 108 Holt 1999 pp 112 113 Holt 1999 p 126 a b Holt 1999 pp 127 128 May pp 68 71 Howe 2007 pp 591 592 Holt 1999 p 137 Peterson pp 169 170 Holt 1999 p 150 Holt 1999 p 149 Howe 2007 pp 677 678 Holt 1999 pp 169 170 Holt 1999 pp 170 171 Holt 1999 pp 171 172 Holt 1999 pp 172 173 Holt 1999 p 173 Holt 1999 pp 200 203 Holt 1999 pp 194 195 Holt 1999 pp 220 221 Merry 2009 pp 188 189 Merry 2009 pp 240 242 Merry 2009 pp 244 245 Holt 1999 p 233 Holt 1999 pp 233 234 Merry 2009 pp 283 285 Merry 2009 pp 286 289 McPherson pp 53 54 Holt 1999 pp 252 253 Merry 2009 pp 424 426 Holt 1999 pp 310 311 Holt 1999 pp 246 247 269 Holt 1999 pp 258 260 Holt 1999 pp 277 280 Holt 1999 pp 323 326 Smith 1988 pp 22 23 Holt 1999 pp 333 334 339 Holt 1999 p 361 Holt 1999 p 365 Holt 1999 pp 356 357 Holt 1999 pp 368 370 Holt 1999 pp 445 448 Holt 1999 pp 685 686 Holt 1999 pp 389 390 Holt 1999 pp 437 438 Smith 1988 pp 111 112 Smith 1988 pp 157 158 VP Millard Fillmore United States Senate Retrieved February 27 2017 Holt 1999 pp 524 525 Finkelman pp 73 78 Bordewich pp 306 313 Bordewich pp 314 316 329 Smith 1988 pp 188 189 McPherson 1998 pp 75 76 Finkelman pp 85 88 103 104 Holt 1999 pp 552 553 a b Smith 1988 pp 239 244 Smith 1988 pp 244 247 Smith 1988 pp 237 239 244 Holt 1999 pp 726 727 Holt 1999 pp 754 755 Holt 1999 pp 756 760 Holt 1999 pp 763 764 Holt 1999 pp 776 777 a b Holt 1999 pp 804 805 809 810 Holt 1999 pp 841 842 McPherson 1988 p 129 Holt 1999 pp 843 846 McPherson 1988 pp 129 130 Holt 1999 pp 877 878 Holt 1999 pp 907 910 Holt 1999 pp 911 913 Holt 1999 pp 961 962 Holt 1999 pp 963 965 Gara 1991 pp 168 174 Holt 1999 pp 966 967 Gara 1991 pp 175 176 Holt 1999 pp 976 978 Holt 1999 pp 978 980 Parks 1950 p 346 Green 2007 pp 232 233 Green 2007 pp 234 236 Egerton 2010 pp 99 100 Green 2007 pp 237 238 Green 2007 p 251 Holt 1999 p 980 Holt 1999 p 984 McPherson 1988 p 691 Jack P Maddex Jr 2018 The Virginia Conservatives 1867 1879 A Study in Reconstruction Politics U of North Carolina Press p 13 ISBN 978 1469648101 a b Alexander 1961 The last elected politician as a Whig was Robert Miller Patton who was the 20th Governor of the U S state of Alabama from 1865 to 1868 Frank Towers Mobtown s Impact on the Study of Urban Politics in the Early Republic Maryland Historical Magazine 107 Winter 2012 pp 469 75 p 472 citing Robert E Shalhope The Baltimore Bank Riot Political Upheaval in Antebellum Maryland 2009 p 147 Aldrich amp Griffin 2018 p 60 John Ashworth Agrarians and Aristocrats Party Political Ideology in the United States 1837 1846 1987 p 131 Bowen 1988 p 34 Bowen 1988 p 34 Burt John 2013 Lincoln s Tragic Pragmatism Lincoln Douglas and Moral Conflict Cambridge Massachusetts The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press pp 213 215 Holt 1999 pp 30 31 Richard Carwardine Evangelicals and Politics in Antebellum America 1993 pp 89 106 107 Mark Groen The Whig Party and the Rise of Common Schools 1837 1854 American Educational History Journal Spring Summer 2008 Vol 35 Issue 1 2 pp 251 260 Donald T Critchlow and Philip R VanderMeer 2012 The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Political and Legal History Oxford UP pp 280 358 59 381 83 ISBN 978 0199754618 Holt 1999 p 131 Klotter 2018 pp 85 87 Holt 1999 pp 135 136 Klotter 2018 pp 220 221 Klotter 2018 pp 89 91 Holt 1999 pp 689 690 Holt 1999 pp 691 692 Holt 1999 pp 228 229 Holt 1999 p 739 John Mack Faragher et al Out of Many A History of the American People 2nd ed 1997 page 413 Reichley 2000 pp 84 85 Holt 1999 p 115 Howe 1984 p 212 a b Holt 1999 pp 115 116 Holt 1999 pp 117 118 Reichley 2000 pp 84 85 93 Holt 1999 pp 34 35 52 Reichley 2000 p 87 Reichley 2000 pp 79 80 Reichley 2000 pp 81 82 Reichley 2000 p 74 Holt 1999 pp 50 213 215 Holt 1999 pp 26 27 146 Holt 1999 pp 325 Huebner Timothy S 2003 The Taney Court Justices Rulings and Legacy ABC CLIO p 97 ISBN 978 1576073681 Luxenberg Steve 2019 Separate The Story of Plessy v Ferguson and America s Journey from Slavery to Segregation W W Norton amp Company pp 34 35 ISBN 978 0393239379 Holt 1999 pp 236 237 Holt 1999 p 506 Holt 1999 pp 407 410 Holt 1999 pp 261 262 Holt 1999 pp 265 266 Holt 1999 pp 67 68 287 288 Holt 1999 pp 286 287 Holt 1999 p 288 Wilentz 2005 p 483 Wilentz 2005 pp 488 491 Lynn Marshall The Strange Stillbirth of the Whig Party American Historical Review 1967 72 2 pp 445 68 online Holt 1999 pp 28 29 Holt 1999 pp 286 288 Holt 1999 p 44 Holt 1999 pp 463 464 Wilentz 2016 p 145 John R McKivigan 1999 Abolitionism and American Politics and Government Taylor amp Francis p 120 ISBN 978 0815331070 Louis Sandy Maisel Mark D Brewer 2008 Parties and Elections in America The Electoral Process Rowman amp Littlefield p 38 ISBN 978 0742547643 Guelzo 2001 pp 71 73 Guelzo 2001 pp 74 75 Donald T Critchlow The Conservative Ascendancy How the GOP Right Made Political History 2007 p 103 Additional examples are of online Critchlow Donald T 2007 The Conservative Ascendancy How the GOP right made political history Harvard University Press ISBN 978 0674026209 Retrieved May 9 2016 The Florida Whig Party Retrieved September 22 2014 Is it time for a new political party Retrieved September 22 2014 Dominik Zaum Christine Cheng 2011 Corruption and Post Conflict Peacebuilding Selling the Peace Routledge p 133 ISBN 978 1136635922 Party Division United States Senate Party Divisions of the House of Representatives 1789 to Present United States House of Representatives Works cited edit Aldrich John H Griffin John D 2018 Why Parties Matter Political Competition and Democracy in the American South University of Chicago Press ISBN 978 0226495378 Bergeron Paul H 1986 The Presidency of James K Polk University of Kansas Press ISBN 978 0 7006 0319 0 Bordewich Fergus M 2012 America s Great Debate Henry Clay Stephen A Douglas and the Compromise That Preserved the Union Simon amp Schuster ISBN 978 1439124604 Bowen Gregory L Antebellum Parties and Party Systems Australasian Journal of American Studies 1988 7 2 pp 33 40 online Cole Donald B 1993 The Presidency of Andrew Jackson University Press of Kansas ISBN 0 7006 0600 9 Egerton Doulas R 2010 Year of Meteors Stephen Douglas Abraham Lincoln and the Election that Brought on the Civil War Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN 978 1596916197 Farmer Brian 2008 American Conservatism History Theory and Practice Cambridge Scholars Publishing ISBN 978 1443802765 Finkelman Paul 2011 Millard Fillmore The American Presidents Times Books ISBN 978 0 8050 8715 4 Gara Larry 1991 The Presidency of Franklin Pierce University Press of Kansas ISBN 0 7006 0494 4 Green Don Summer 2007 Constitutional Unionists The Party that Tried to Stop Lincoln and Save the Union The Historian 69 2 231 253 doi 10 1111 j 1540 6563 2007 00179 x JSTOR 24453660 S2CID 144630622 Guelzo Allen C 2001 Review of The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War by Michael Holt Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 22 2 JSTOR 20149018 Hargreaves Mary W M 1985 The Presidency of John Quincy Adams University Press of Kansas ISBN 978 0700602728 Holt Michael F 1999 The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 505544 6 Howe Daniel Walker 1979 The Political Culture of the American Whigs University of Chicago Press ISBN 0 226 35478 4 Howe Daniel Walker 2007 What Hath God Wrought The Transformation of America 1815 1848 Oxford University Press ISBN 978 1 4332 6019 3 Klotter James C 2018 Henry Clay The Man Who Would Be President Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0190498047 May Gary 2008 John Tyler Times Books ISBN 978 0805082388 Merry Robert W 2009 A Country of Vast Designs James K Polk the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent Simon amp Schuster ISBN 978 0 7432 9743 1 McPherson James 2003 1988 The Illustrated Battle Cry of Freedom The Civil War Era Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 974390 2 Parks Joseph 1950 John Bell of Tennessee Louisiana State University Press OCLC 1470349 Parsons Lynn H 2009 The Birth of Modern Politics Andrew Jackson John Quincy Adams and the Election of 1828 Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0199754243 Peterson Norma Lois 1989 The Presidencies of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler University Press of Kansas ISBN 978 0 7006 0400 5 Reichley A James 2000 1992 The Life of the Parties A History of American Political Parties Paperback ed Rowman amp Littlefield Publishers ISBN 0 7425 0888 9 Smith Elbert B 1988 The Presidencies of Zachary Taylor amp Millard Fillmore The American Presidency University Press of Kansas ISBN 978 0 7006 0362 6 Wilentz Sean 2005 The Rise of American Democracy Jefferson to Lincoln W W Norton amp Company ISBN 0 393 05820 4 Wilson Major L 1984 The Presidency of Martin Van Buren University Press of Kansas ISBN 978 0700602384 Further reading editAlexander Thomas B August 1961 Persistent Whiggery in the Confederate South 1860 1877 Journal of Southern History 27 3 305 329 doi 10 2307 2205211 JSTOR 2205211 Atkins Jonathan M The Whig Party versus the spoilsmen of Tennessee The Historian Vol 57 1994 Barkan Elliott R The Emergence of a Whig Persuasion Conservatism Democratism and the New York State Whigs New York History 52 4 1971 367 395 online Brands H W 2018 Heirs of the Founders The Epic Rivalry of Henry Clay John Calhoun and Daniel Webster the Second Generation of American Giants Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group ISBN 978 0385542548 Brauer Kinley Cotton Versus Conscience Massachusetts Whig Politics and Southwestern Expansion 1843 1848 ISBN missing Beveridge Albert J 1928 Abraham Lincoln 1809 1858 vol 1 ch 4 8 Brown Thomas 1985 Politics and Statesmanship Essays on the American Whig Party Burnham Walter Dean Lessons for 2016 from the smashup of the Second Party System and the War of the Whig succession USApp American Politics and Policy Blog 2016 online Carpenter Daniel and Benjamin Schneer Party formation through petitions The Whigs and the Bank War of 1832 1834 Studies in American Political Development 29 2 2015 213 234 Carroll E Malcolm Origins of the Whig Party 1925 online Cole Arthur Charles 1913 The Whig Party in the South Foner Eric 1970 Free Soil Free Labor Free Men The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 501352 2 Formisano Ronald P Winter 1969 Political Character Antipartyism and the Second Party System American Quarterly 21 4 683 709 doi 10 2307 2711603 JSTOR 2711603 Formisano Ronald P June 1974 Deferential Participant Politics The Early Republic s Political Culture 1789 1840 American Political Science Review 68 2 473 87 doi 10 2307 1959497 JSTOR 1959497 S2CID 146879756 Formisano Ronald P 1983 The Transformation of Political Culture Massachusetts Parties 1790s 1840s Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 503124 5 Gerring John Party Ideologies in America 1828 1996 1998 Gienap William E The Origins of the Republican Party 1852 1856 Harvard University Press 1987 Hammond Bray Banks and Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War 1960 Pulitzer prize the standard history Pro Bank Holt Michael F 1992 Political Parties and American Political Development From the Age of Jackson to the Age of Lincoln LSU Press ISBN 0 8071 2609 8 Howe Daniel Walker 1973 The American Whigs An Anthology Wiley ISBN 978 0471416708 primary sources Howe Daniel Walker March 1991 The Evangelical Movement and Political Culture during the Second Party System Journal of American History 77 4 1216 39 doi 10 2307 2078260 JSTOR 2078260 Husch Gail E George Caleb Bingham s The County Election Whig Tribute to the Will of the People Critical Issues in American Art Routledge 2018 pp 77 92 Kruman Marc W Winter 1992 The Second Party System and the Transformation of Revolutionary Republicanism Journal of the Early Republic 12 4 509 37 doi 10 2307 3123876 JSTOR 3123876 Marshall Lynn January 1967 The Strange Stillbirth of the Whig Party American Historical Review 72 2 445 68 doi 10 2307 1859236 JSTOR 1859236 McCormick Richard P 1966 The Second American Party System Party Formation in the Jacksonian Era W W Norton ISBN 0 393 00680 8 Mueller Henry R The Whig Party in Pennsylvania 1922 online Nevins Allan The Ordeal of the Union 1947 vol 1 Fruits of Manifest Destiny 1847 1852 vol 2 A House Dividing 1852 1857 highly detailed narrative of national politics Ormsby Robert McKinley 1859 A History of the Whig Party Crosby Nichols amp Company Boston 377 pages e book Pearson Joseph W The Whigs America Middle Class Political Thought in the Age of Jackson and Clay University Press of Kentucky 2020 excerpt Pegg Herbert Dale 1932 The Whig Party in North Carolina Colonial Press 223 pages Book Poage George Rawlings Henry Clay and the Whig Party 1936 Remini Robert V 1991 Henry Clay Statesman for the Union W W Norton amp Company ISBN 0 393 31088 4 online Remini Robert V 1997 Daniel Webster W W Norton amp Company ISBN 0 393 04552 8 Renda Lex The Dysfunctional Party Collapse of the New Jersey Whigs 1849 1853 New Jersey History 116 Spring Summer 1998 3 57 Riddle Donald W 1948 Lincoln Runs for Congress Schlesinger Arthur Meier Jr ed History of American Presidential Elections 1789 2000 various multivolume editions latest is 2001 Schurz Carl 1899 Life of Henry Clay American Statesmen Houghton Mifflin vol 2 Shade William G 1983 The Second Party System In Paul Kleppner ed Evolution of American Electoral Systems Sharp James Roger The Jacksonians Versus the Banks Politics in the States after the Panic of 1837 1970 Silbey Joel H 1991 The American Political Nation 1838 1893 Stanford University Press ISBN 0 8047 1878 4 Silbey Joel H 2014 A Companion to the Antebellum Presidents 1837 1861 Wiley ISBN 978 1118609293 Smith Craig R Daniel Webster s Epideictic Speaking A Study in Emerging Whig Virtues online Trainor Sean Gale Researcher Guide for The Second Party System Gale Cengage Learning 2018 Van Deusen Glyndon G Some Aspects of Whig Thought and Theory in the Jacksonian Period American Historical Review 63 2 1958 305 322 online Van Deusen Glyndon G 1953 Horace Greeley Nineteenth Century Crusader online Van Deusen Glyndon 1973 The Whig Party In Arthur M Schlesinger Jr ed History of U S Political Parties Chelsea House Publications pp 1 331 63 ISBN 0 7910 5731 3 Van Deusen Glyndon G The Jacksonian Era 1828 1848 1959 online Van Deusen Glyndon G The life of Henry Clay 1979 online Van Deusen Glyndon G Thurlow Weed Wizard of the Lobby 1947 online Williams Max R The Foundations of the Whig Party in North Carolina A Synthesis and a Modest Proposal North Carolina Historical Review 47 2 1970 115 129 online Wilson Major L Space Time and Freedom The Quest for Nationality and the Irrepressible Conflict 1815 1861 1974 intellectual history of Whigs and DemocratsExternal links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Whig Party United States Whig Party in Virginia in Encyclopedia Virginia The American Presidency Project contains the text of the national platforms that were adopted by the national conventions 1844 1856 Whig Party Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th ed 1911 Gilman D C Peck H T Colby F M eds 1905 Whig Party New International Encyclopedia 1st ed New York Dodd Mead Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Whig Party United States amp oldid 1206495182, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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