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Colonial Political Divides
The beginnings of the disparity in political opinions among early americans can be seen in the pre-Revolution time period. Loyalists, nicknamed "Tories" by their opponents, enjoyed life under British rule, and scorned actions of treason against the British Crown. On the other side were the Patriots, commonly referred to as Yankees by the Loyalists, who desired independence from Great Britain to forge their own autonomous republic. -
Washington: The first and only Independent President
Upon winning the first and only uncontested presidency, George Washington claimed to be politically 'independent'. He feared that the establishent of political parties would create a deep divide amongst the recently unified nation's people. However, he tended to express Federalist sympathies throughout in his term. -
The Federalist Party
The Federalist Party was founded by Alexander Hamilton (George Washington's Chief of Staff) on the principles of a large, centralized government and also promoted strong fiscal policies, such as the establishment of a national bank. Supporters consisted of the wealthier, business-mided population who desired financial stability above all. John Adams was the only Federalist president of the United States. -
The Democratic-Republicans
The Democratic-Republican Party was founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison to oppose the Federalist Party. The Dem-Reps believed the federal government should be smaller, and that individual state governments should be allowed to make their own decisions. Many of them feared a centralized government could naturally regress into monarchy. They were against the national bank, as well as any alliance with Great Britain. They were generally supported by the lower income groups. -
The Federalists go out with a whimper
The War of 1812, waged against Britain under Dem-Rep president Madison's leadership, dragged on with little success, much to the dismay of the Federalist Party, who did not support it. Federalist state governments sent representatives to the Hartford Convention, to draft a list of grievences with the Dem-Reps. Meanwhile, the American Army under Andrew Jackson won a decisive victory in New Orleans and drove the British out. This humiliated the Federalists, whose credibility waned completely. -
The Era of Good Feelings
After the Federalists ran an unsucsessful presidential campaign bid in 1816, the party disbanded. This meant that for the first time in American History, there was a near-decade long period of governance by a single, unified political party on the Federal level, the Democratic-Republicans. This became known as The Era of Good Feelings, which lasted until the party split in 1824. The era is generally characterized by Monroe's Presidency. -
The Democratic-Republican Schism
The growing divide in the Democratic-Republican party precipitated in the four-candidate election of 1824. Though Andrew Jackson won both the popular and Electoral vote, John Quincy Adams was elected. In retaliation, Jackson assembled his followers and established the Democratic Party, effectively splitting the Dem-Reps. -
The Anti-Masonic Party
The Anti-Masons were a third party, the first in the nation's history. They strongly opposed the secret society of the Freemasons in the government, believing they were corrupt and desired to control the American people. -
The Democratic Party
The Democratic Party was created by Andrew Jackson out of his dissatisfaction with the Democratic-Republican Party. Like his predecessors, Andrew Jackson believed in a smaller government and more states' rights, as well as the rejection of the BUS. He was also in favor of programs that helped mostly poor farmers and workers primarily outside the northeast. His election ushered in the new 2nd Party System. -
The Whig Party
Created to oppose Andrew Jackson and his supporting democrats, the Whig Party followed its leader Henry Clay in promoting the strength of the Congress over the power of the President along with modernization. The Whig Party had two candidates successfully reach the Presidency: William Henry Harrison and Zachary Tyler. Both died in office, and after President Taylor's death, Millard Fillmore became the last Whig to hold the executive office. -
The Liberty Party
The Liberty Party was another third-party. They were a primarily abolitionist group, one of the first of their kind. Contrary to the American Anti-Slavery Society, the LP desired to work with, rather than alter, the constitution to abolish slavery. James G. Birney was their nominated presidential candidate in 1840. -
The Free Soil Party
The Free Soil Party was a political party that supported the Wilmot proviso, which would have banned slavery in all territory aquired from the Mexican-American War and any territory aquired thereafter. The party eventually assimilated into the Republican Party. Martin Van Buuren was the party's candidate in the 1848 election. -
The Republican Party
Members of the Whigs, Free Soil, and Dem-Rep party who opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act (which threatened to bring slavery to those territories by popular vote) banded together to form a new party, The Republicans. They supported abolition, industrialization, and a formidable central government. -
The Death of the Whigs
After the death of Zachary Taylor, the Whigs found themselves disputing the issue of slavery amongst each other, after the Compromise of 1850. These growing differences led the party to split: those who desired abolition or admission of free states joined the Republican Party, and those who didn't joined the Democratic Party. Millard Fillmore, Taylor's VP, was the last Whig president. -
The Civil War and Political Parties
During theadvent of the Civil War, American congressmen were faced with a choice: to remain with the Union or withdraw from congress and secede to the Confederacy. Members of the Republican Party stood resolute with the Union, and while some Democrats (despite being pro-slavery) did as well, most withdrew to join Jefferson Davis' Confederacy. This marked the beginning of the Third Party System. -
The Populist Party
In the Panic of 1873 the economy faced a serious downturn, hitting the farmers especially hard. In an attempt to solve this problem, and others, Midwestern farmers created the Farmers Alliance, later renamed to be the Populist Party. It advocated the coinage of silver and wanted inflation so as to decrease the value of the dollar, and ran James Weaver in 1892, and then William Jennings Bryan in 1896, 1900, and 1908. -
The Progressive Party
After leaving office, Theodore Roosevelt became increasingly upset over President Taft's conservative economic policies. In 1912, Roosevelt decided to run for president to compete with Taft. Despite outpolling Taft in the primary elections, Taft used his political power to get the Republican party to nominate him. In response, Roosevelt and the other anti-Taft republicans separated themselves from the Republican Party and formed the Progressive Party. It was also known as the Bull Moose Party. -
National Women's Party
The National Women's Party was formed by suffragists Alice Paul and Lucy Burns in 1916. Members of the party pushed for women's rights reform, namely the right to vote. The party was formed after a disagreement in tactics within the National American Woman's Stuffrage Association. Whereas the NAWSA preferred lobbying to get politicians on their side, the NWP wanted immediate reform, and used tactics such as picketing, even in wartime, to make their point. -
La Follette and the Populist Party
In 1924, the Progressive party was revived in a collaboration between labor and farm groups against the Republican party with a nomination of Robert La Follette for presidential candidate. Endorsed by both the Socialist party and the Amercan Federation of Labor, Follette was only successful in splitting the democratic votes and ensuring Republican Coolidge a win. -
Isolationism
Though not explicitly a political party, many Americans began to prefer for the United States to keep to itself and avoid involvement in the growing number of European conflicts. They wanted to stay out of another world war, having seen the cost and devastation of the first one. They were angered by things like Roosevelt's Quarantine Speech, the Lend Lease Act, the Cash and Carry Act, and other affairs that pointed towards American involvement. -
The Black Panther Party
Created by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the Black Panther Party supported violent forms of self-defense for blacks and other minorities against what they believed was an oppressive and hateful government. Their practices followed those of Malcom X, and were originally intended to only be a patrol for African-American neighborhoods, but turned into revolutionary group that called for the militarizing of all blacks in America and expression of superiority over whites. -
Voter Trends: 1960s
Towards the end of the 1960s, the Democratic Party saw a rise in support from young people (counterculture movement) and black people (civil rights movement) because of their general promises of progressive socioeconomic reform and civil rights legislation. However, the agressive some of these supporters started to take scared much of the "silent majority" (middle class white people, generally) off, which led to Richard Nixon's triumph for the Republican Party in the 1968 election.
