Whig Party

The Whig Party organized in the 1830s in opposition to the Democratic Party . It formed mainly in reaction to the policies of President Andrew Jackson (1767–1845; served 1829–37), especially his attack on the Second Bank of the United States. Members of the Whig Party united against the Jacksonians by merging together the Anti-Masonic Party and the National Republican Party , which had split from the Democratic Party around 1828.

The party's name was borrowed from the English Whigs, who resisted the English parliament and monarchy in the 1600s. Opponents of Andrew Jackson disliked the way he arrogantly handled the power of being president. They dubbed him “King Andrew I.” Calling their party the Whig Party was a political criticism of Jackson, whom the Whigs considered to be a monarchical tyrant.

A pro-business platform

The Whig platform was attractive mostly to those who had ties to commerce. They believed in a strong, active federal government for regulating banks and imposing protective tariffs, or taxes on imports. Believing commercial expansion would create prosperity for Americans, Whigs sought internal improvements of canals, roads, and railroads in existing states. They resisted the territorial expansion of the United States into the undeveloped west, where the lack of internal development would make commerce difficult. Whigs also tended to support a variety of reform movements that encouraged moral behavior.

The Whig Party provided opposition to the Democrats for twenty years. They managed to capture the White House twice, the House of Representatives from 1846 to 1848, and majorities in numerous important state legislatures, including New York , Pennsylvania , and Virginia , between 1838 and 1852.

Split over slavery

In the 1850s, debates over slavery began to dominate national politics. The main issue concerned the rights of new territories and states to allow or outlaw slavery. Abolitionists opposed slavery as immoral, but the ruling politicians did not often concern themselves with this question in their debates. Disagreement over slavery threatened the stability of both the Democrats and the Whigs.

By 1852, sectional allegiances had become so strong that the Whig Party began to disintegrate. After one last effort to run a candidate for president in 1856, the party dissolved. The newly formed Republican Party, established in 1854, absorbed many former members of the Whig Party. The Republican Party united against the expansion of slavery into new territories, a position that led to the American Civil War in 1861.