Political Parties History

1. Why is this important?
a. Understanding of current social and political trends through study of history

b. Change through political system has had effects on the everyday lives of Americans
i. Labor laws
ii. Health care and the welfare state
iii. Consumer affairs and the price of goods

c. Third party politics of the past promise mechanism for change in the future

2. Eras of American Political History
a. 1792-1820 (The Democratic Republicans and the Federalists)
Democratic Republicans- Small government, vision of an agricultural and small industrial nation
Federalists- National economy, industrial nation, stronger government
Major Issues- Continued conflicts with France and England, assertion of independence from Europe, growth of military, internal development, Louisiana Purchase
Political Innovations- 1st state parties (D-R), rise of the public into electoral politics
Why Change?-1814 Hartford Convention threatens secession of New England, ends Federalists; strength of D-R at all levels of government, strong local elements; dissension within Federalist ranks

b. 1820-1828 (The Era of Good Feelings)
Sectional Interests-
i. North-beginnings of abolitionism; concern over national industrial growth
ii. South-agricultural culture, slavery, religious revival
iii. West-expansion, small government, aggressive Indian policy
Major Issues- constitutional issues from 1824 election, sectional conflicts, infrastructure development, tariffs, 1820 Compromise, Second Great Awakening
Political Innovations- 1st campaign biography (1824- Andrew Jackson) and attempts to make leaders seem more like the voters
Why Change?- 1825 "corrupt bargain" galvanized elements behind Andrew Jackson and a new party; sectionalism entrenched whereby parties created as mechanisms of electoral success

c. 1828-1856 (Democrats versus Whigs)
Democrats-Associated with rural whites and German/Irish immigrants, party built around Jacksonian ideals of strong executive to protect Americans from evils such as Bank of U.S. while maintaining local sovereignty
Whigs- Party established 1834 to counter Jacksonian tyranny and Democratic Party, small government, limited expansion into West, maintenance of virtue could bring forth stronger industrial nation
Major Issues- Bank of the United State, expansion westward, Mexican War, "manifest destiny", Native American policy, slavery
Political Innovations- 1st modern electioneering (1832 Jackson, 1840 Harrison-use of slogans, rallies, campaign songs, uniform campaign policy)
Why Change?- expansion in the West led to extension of slavery argument, disagreements about how to govern new territories, political fault lines for civil war formed with Republican Party creation from Whigs and abolitionists

d. 1856-1920 (Democrats versus Republicans)
Democrats- Party associated with rebellion, South, ethnic urban voters; became activist and internationalist in the late 19th-early 20th century (Bryan, Wilson) in response to challenges to American isolation
Republicans-Progressive party, Northern and Western states, waved "bloody shirt" against Democrats, party of Lincoln helped to free slaves, support for business agenda
Major Issues-Civil War and Reconstruction, monetary policy, unionization of workers, rise of railroads and industry, role of government in business, America's role in the world
Political Innovations- 1st fundraising networks (1896, Mark Hanna and the McKinley campaign)
Why Change?- war and postwar prosperity promised by Republicans, with Democrats promising an extended world role; want for isolation versus apparent failures of internationalism; World War, failure of peace and the League of Nations

e. 1920-1932 (Democrats versus Republicans)
Democrats- conflict between Southern and internationalist Democrats; beleagured by Wilsonian ideals, urban poverty
Republicans- laissez-faire; isolationist; interest in disarming world (including self) to prevent war; pro-business, favorable tax policy; maintain prosperity
Major Issues- postwar foreign policy, disarmament, tax policy, natural resources, political scandals, morality, prosperity
Political Innovations- 1st radio coverage of convention (1924 GOP convention)
Why Change?- Great Depression (hands off response by GOP disappointing); promise of change by reconstituted Democrats

f. 1932-Present (Democrats versus Republicans)
Democrats- liberal, expansion of government to administer social policies, internationalism, "peace party" in the 1960s and 1970s
Republicans- conservative, hawks, associate conservative values as "American", smaller government, protection of homefront and growth in military
Major Issues- Depression, World War II, Cold War, rise of new media forces, social turbulence in the late 1960s, fuel crisis, rise of Middle East, technology, end of Cold War
Political Innovations- 1st campaign TV commercials (1956-Eisenhower), 1st televised debates (Kennedy/Nixon 1960).
How has it evolved?- civil rights, warming of Cold War, Middle Eastern politics/oil crisis

3. Why do third parties exist if we have a two party system?
a. Single issue reform (prohibition of alcohol, abolition of slavery)

b. Party constructed to aid candidacy of a strong leader (Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party in 1912)
c. Frustration with the ideological direction of the major parties (States' Rights Party, American Independent)

d. Attempt to return party politics to the majority/put democracy back in democratic elections (People's Party, Green Party)

e. Political manifestation of social movements (Anti-Masons, Socialists)

4. Significant Third Party Themes in American Political History
a. Abolition
i. Liberty Party- 1840/44 (James Birnum); Northeastern party making economic argument for abolition of slavery (Southern excesses hurt Northern economic interests)
ii. Free Soil Party- 1848 (Martin Van Buren); argue for cheap land and abolition of slavery; supporters became integral to Republican Party in 1856

b. Morality
i. Anti-Mason Party-1832 (William Wirt); opposed elitism and encouraged strong moral values
ii. Prohibition Party-1888/92-prohibition of alcohol (party still exists)
iii. Know-Nothing (American) Party-1856 (Millard Fillmore)-Protestant party, claimed Catholics in America were beholden to the Pope and not the President

c. Workers' Rights
i. Greenback Labor Party-1878-1880 (James B. Weaver)-shorter work day, bureau of labor statistics, restrict contract prison labor, restrict immigration
ii. People's (Populist) Party- 1892 (James B. Weaver)-agricultural reform, electoral reform, railroad and communications management by government
iii. Socialist Party-1904-1920, 1932 (Eugene Debs, Norman Thomas)-worker control of industry, end to capitalism and oppression of worker, change American society to reflect values of working class

d. Progressivism
i. Theodore Roosevelt and the Bull Moose Party- 1912; protest direction of Republicans under Taft; corporate liberalism and welfare state
ii. Robert LaFollette and the 1924 Progressive Party- 1924; protest against Coolidge pro-business Republicans; anti-establishment, protection of farmers and workers from business and government
iii. Henry Wallace and the 1948 Progressive Party-expand civil rights, socialize some industries in interest of nation, critique of Truman's foreign policy

e. Segregation
i. States' Rights Party-1948 (Strom Thurmond); protest of Democratic civil rights plank; Southern party that took 3% of national vote

ii. American Independent Party-1968 (George Wallace); attack Great Society programs, split with Democrats on civil rights legislation, double digit percentage points in popular vote

A BRIEF HISTORY OF AMERICAN "MAJOR PARTIES"
and the "Two-Party" System in the United States
by RICHARD E. BERG-ANDERSSON
TheGreenPapers.com Staff
May 21, 2001
Most historical literature refers to the "Party" of the Washington Administration as the Federalists with those in opposition to the policies of that Administration as Antifederalists; however, the use of these designations is, in fact, more than a little inaccurate. The term "Antifederalist" (originally applied to those who had opposed the ratification of the Constitution drafted by the Framers meeting in Convention in Philadelphia in 1787) ceased to have any real meaning as a designation of a political faction once the Constitution formally took effect on 4 March 1789, as anyone serving in the new Federal Government had to take an oath to the new Constitution before entering upon their duties: referring to members of Congress as "Antifederalist", thus, makes little- if any- sense. In addition, there were no real national Political Parties prior to the Presidential Election of 1796 (although loose coalitions between, where not pre-arranged alliances among, State-based "factions"- along the lines of those cosmopolitan vs. localist divisions in Revolutionary Era politics suggested by the historian Jackson Turner Main- would prove to be the basis of the two Parties which would emerge in 1796 and did also have some effect on the political make-up of the first four Congresses).
It is best, therefore, to treat those who served in the first four Congresses [1789-1797] as being either Administration (that is, generally allied with those around Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and Vice President John Adams) or Opposition (those generally associated with Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Congressman James Madison)- with the caveat that, while there is an apparent lineal connection between these groupings and the later Federalists and Republicans, respectively, the Presidency of George Washington was an era of "factions" rather than one of "Parties" and that there were shifting sands in the political landscape of this early era in American political history. For his part, President Washington should be held to be a member of neither faction/future Party; although his political leanings would almost certainly be classified as generally more "Federalist" than "Republican", one has to think he would have been quite surprised to see himself listed in modern American History books as a dyed-in-the-wool Federalist simply because his Vice President would be as President.
By the start of the 5th Congress (which coincided with the Inauguration of John Adams as President on 4 March 1797), two national Major Political Parties had emerged from among the strong supporters of the policies of outgoing President Washington and those who had pretty much been opposed to these policies, respectively. Those who had supported the policies of the Washington Administration became known as Federalists because they supported a strong national government as a counterweight to the States; those who had been in Opposition became known as Republicans because they felt that defending the sovereignty of the States against encroachments by the Federal Government was a truer essence of the federal republic known as the United States of America; however, the Federalists, feeling that their contrary vision of what a federal republic should be was the more "republican" in spirit, derisively referred to the Republicans as "democrats" (a term which, at the time, had connotations of the mob rule associated with the then-still very recent Reign of Terror following the French Revolution of 1789). It is true that some Republicans of this era came to see identification with Democracy as a badge of honor and one often sees the term Democratic-Republicans applied to this Party in historical literature (this usage also creating a lineal relationship between these early Republicans and the Democrats of today); however, many political observers, instead, refer to the Republicans of this era as the "old", or "Jeffersonian", Republicans as a better, and more accurate, method of distinguishing them from the Republicans of today.
John Quincy Adams was elected as a Republican (in fact, all the candidates for President in 1824 were ostensibly Republicans) but, during the course of the 19th Congress [1825-1827] and on into the 20th Congress [1827-1829], the Republicans in both houses of Congress began to separate themselves into "pro-Adams/anti-Jackson" and "pro-Jackson/anti-Adams" factions- this last feeling strongly that, because of the controversial result of the 1824 Presidential Election, President Adams was not a "legitimate" holder of his office and, thus, coming to favor Senator Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, who had been defeated by Adams for the Presidency in 1824, as the next President of the United States in the upcoming 1828 Presidential Election. It is the practice of TheGreenPapers.com to refer to the first Republican faction, simply, as Adams Republicans, while referring to the second as Jackson Republicans, though political observers have used the term Jackson Democrats for this second Republican faction of the era instead.
By the start of the 21st Congress (coinciding with the Inauguration of President Andrew Jackson on 4 March 1829), the two opposing factions within the "old" Republican Party which had become evident in the course of the two preceding Congresses had coalesced into two new Major Parties: the Democratic Republicans (the one-time Jackson Republicans) and the National Republicans (the one-time Adams Republicans). The Democratic Republicans took their name from their identification with the democracy they urged on behalf of the "common man" as well as a strong historical tie they now felt with the old "Jeffersonian" Republicans who- as noted above- had been referred to as "democrats" as a term of derision (the "Jackson" faction thus painting those who supported outgoing President John Quincy Adams as being the contemporary equivalent of the Federalists of Adams' father, President John Adams). The National Republicans, meanwhile, adapted their name from the nationalizing policies pushed by the outgoing Administration of their champion, President Adams. Note that neither faction becoming Party, however, was yet willing to completely give up their identification with the "old" Republicans of the era before the 1824 Presidential Election which had created each faction cum Party in the first place.
By the start of the 23rd Congress (which coincided with the Second Inauguration of President Andrew Jackson on 4 March 1833), the one-time Democratic Republicans were becoming more generally known as Democrats, the name itself derived from the aforementioned one-time term of derision hurled by the Federalists at the "old" (or "Jeffersonian") Republicans- with whom those who strongly supported the policies of President Jackson closely identified historically- back in 1796 and 1800. This Major Party has, of course, stayed with the name Democrats ever since. Meanwhile, by the start of the 24th Congress (4 March 1835), the one-time National Republicans were more generally known as Whigs, a name evocative of the political faction in opposition to the English Crown during the era of the Stuarts (17th Century); in addition, the Patriots of the American Revolution were often referred to- by friend and foe alike- as "Whigs" (in contradistinction to the loyalist "Tories"). These 19th Century American Whigs saw themselves as being a bulwark against the "excesses" of the Administration of "King Andrew" Jackson and his heir apparent, Vice President Martin Van Buren, hence the use of this name by this Major Party.
The Slavery issue, however, marked the death knell of the Whigs as a Major Party: the Compromise of 1850 (which first adapted the concept of "squatter sovereignty" to the problem of the extension of Slavery to the territories) was lost in the battle over the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 (which first extended this principle north of the northernmost limit of Slavery under the Missouri Compromise of 1820). In the wake of the resultant political fallout, Free Soilers and so-called "Conscience" Whigs joined forces with so-called "Free" Democrats and even denizens of the nativist American (known colloquially as the "Know-Nothing") Party to sow the seeds of a new Major Party: one soon enough to become more generally known as the Republicans, the name of this Major Party to this day. Meanwhile, other Whigs (primarily in the South) joined the Democrats, while a core of so-called "old" Whigs (principally in the Border South) vainly attempted to hold what was, by now, an "anti-Free Soil yet pro-Union" faction together as the winds of Secession and Civil War began to intensify and the end of the 1850s drew nigh (this last remnant of the Whigs would become the core of a short-lived Constitutional Union Party by the 1860 Presidential Election). The 34th Congress [1855-1857], thus, can be seen as a more or less transitional period in which the final decay and decline of the Whigs was becoming offset by the shifting sands of the contemporary antebellum political landscape swiftly producing a new "Democrats versus Republicans" Major Party alignment: one that, at least insofar as the Parties' names are concerned, continues to this very day.