The Whig Party Essay, Research Paper
Politicss is a diverse and rapidly altering aspect of civilised society. Politicss in America, at least in the current times, focal points on a two party system ( although other parties are non discouraged from showing campaigners, and many frequently do, the political sphere is by and large dominated by two major parties ) . This dichotomy exists due to the populace? s desire to simplify all competitions to one adult male against the other. This was non ever the instance. In the early portion of the 1800? s, the construct of political parties in America was merely making its birth. If he were asked his political persuasion, The American of the 1820? s and 1830? s would likely state you he was a Jeffersonist, or a Republican. Disjointed and factitious as it was, there was considered to be but one major political party in this state. As the 1800? s Drew on nevertheless, this disunion became greater and threatened, so finally led to the separation and creative activity of typical ideological cantonments. Some Republicans followed Andrew Jackson? s exhortations and formed the Democratic Republican party whose domination peaked when Jackson was elected president. The other party, the National Republican party, whose members include people such as Henry Clay, endeavor to unseat the Democratic Republican power. This 2nd party was the forebearer of the Whig party of America, a major party who was concerned with the executive? s turning power.
The twelvemonth is 1833. The topographic point, Washington DC The National Republicans had disbanded due to Jackson? s win in the presidential race. The former National Republican leaders had banded once more to contend the power and influence of Jackson, who they dubbed & # 8220 ; King Andrew & # 8221 ; . The Leaders decide to take the name of the Whigs, after the former British party established a century before to contend the absolute monarchy. They were non entirely. A group of steadfast anti-Jacksonist New York plantation owners known as the Anti-Masons had ever strived to go a major political party. The were known as Anti-Masons for their spiritual dissensions with secret societies such as the Freemasons. They saw their opportunity at large clip political relations and opposing Jackson with the National Republicans. Jackson had alienated many a plantation owner with his anti nullification policy of his 2nd term ( 1832-1836 ) . Bing devouring province right? s work forces, they were really loath to fall in with any bing party with a name incorporating & # 8220 ; national & # 8221 ; . These plantation owners were some of the first to wear the name & # 8220 ; Whigs & # 8221 ; since it gave them licence to name Jacksonists & # 8220 ; Tories & # 8221 ; , intending loyal to the monarchy, a term synonymous with treasonist since the Revolutionary war.
Despite the Whig party? s pulling under it? s streamer such noteworthy figures as John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, William P. Mangum, Samuel Southard, Robert Toombs, Daniel Webster, and William Seward, The Whig party could non pull off to win the 1836 presidential election. Communication was a slow and arduous procedure and, as the election approached, the Whigs were non yet cohesive plenty to bring forth a individual campaigner, and so they decided produced three. The campaigners were Gen. William Henry Harrison of Ohio, Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, and Hugh L. White of Tennessee. The party had no existent platform on which to run, but merely a loose ideological lineation, the basics of American Whiggery, which each campaigner was to flesh out on their ain. These were beef uping of national integrity, a protective duty, the rechartering of the Bank of the United States, a reform of the spoils system, and restrictions to the power of the main executive. The Whigs pulled 124 electoral ballots combined, versus the Democratic Republicans who won with 170 electoral ballots for Martin Van Buren.
The Whig party began to turn in size and influence. The Anti-masons had fluidly integrated and lost their individuality as separate political orientation. Alienated Jacksonian deserters ne’er ceased to leak from the Democratic Republican party. Jackson? s disaffection of nullification one time once more dissuaded some major political leaders from his party, driving them alternatively to the Whigs. These leaders brought with them loyal electors, and the power of the Whig party swelled. The National Bank had been dealt a decease blow by the replacing of the secretary of the exchequer, and this caused some of it? s chief advocates to abandon Democratic Republicanism for Whiggery. Even northern and southern Whigs were unified. Time merely sealed this brotherhood, as the industrial revolution came approximately. Northern Whigs produced fabrics, and Southern Whigs produced the cotton needed for it. Bing that the Whigs were liberally spread across the immature state, with no specific cardinal power base, neither was in the minority and both got along rather good politically. In New England, every bit good as other countries, the Whigs were about universally supported by the clergy, and seldom was there a university professor who was non clearly a Whig. The Whigs besides had the support of the & # 8220 ; Squirarchy & # 8221 ; , the richest and most influential of the husbandmans. Although, as antecedently stated, the Whigs had no clear individual power house between North and South, it is found that wheresoever New Englanders went, they brought Whiggery with them.
As the 30? s progressed and drew to an terminal, the Whigs were going a strong and cohesive party, on the brink of capturing the presidential term. All it? s separate cabals had integrated and it was ready for action. This is non to state that all of Whiggery was wholly consentaneous on every topic, but if a topic could be referred back to restricting the & # 8220 ; near monarchal regulation & # 8221 ; of the executive subdivision, integrity could be found. The Whigs felt that they and they entirely had inherited Jefferson? s political orientation and that they were the lone Republicans, all others were Tories. They professed John Locke as about a John the Revelatory and the Treaties on Government as the Bible of Whiggery.
The election of 1840 was to turn out rather interesting degree Fahrenheit
or the Whigs. Their campaigner, William Henry Harrison was a war hero, a General who one the conflict at Tippecanoe. Harrison observed that the really forced which drove Jackson into office were now working for him. He thought that the old soldiers and innovators would place him as a akin spirit due to his Tippecanoe triumph. Now that John C. Calhoun had returned to the Democrats, John Tyler was the most noteworthy state-rights Whig. This made him the perfect running mate for Harrison so that the southern provinces could be won. The Whigs tried to convert the populace that they were the lone true Jeffersonians, and started to name the Democrats Federalists. To prehend the frontier ballot, Harrison identified himself with such symbols as long cabins, and cyder barrels. Barroom proprietors called their constitutions Log-Cabin Saloons. Sing an angle in this, the Democrats went for the moderation ballot, imbibing merely pure H2O for toasts and mocking Whig “indulgence” . The Whigs promised the working adult male, “Harrison, two dollars a twenty-four hours, and joint beef” . The Church supported Harrison in a manner that his fellow Whig leader Henry Clay ne’er could be. Besides abolitionists supported Harrison, whereas Clay was a slave owner. Harrison won the election and was put into office for a whole month before he passed off.
The presidential term itself was non every bit successful as the election. The integrity of all the cabals which voted for Harrison rapidly dissolved and after Harrison died, Tyler made it absolutely clear that the cabal he represented was in no manner portion of the Whig party, simply an ally. Having no official party platform, Clay sought to make one by publishing a set of declarations presented in the particular Sessionss of Congress in 1841. These were a call back to the old National Republican yearss and were rapidly vetoed by provinces rights advocate Tyler. Tyler was so formal ejected from the Whig party.
Henry Clay, arguably the greatest Whig, saw nomination in the election of 1844. He dropped out nevertheless due to his entire understanding with the policies of the Van Buren Democrats. This was non a really wise move. The southern Whigs felt he had given up to a & # 8220 ; Federalist & # 8221 ; . The undermentioned election, 1848, saw another Whig triumph. The nomination had come down to Zachary Taylor or Henry Clay. The party opted to travel for Zachary Taylor due to his military background in the war with Mexico. Henry Clay was quoted as stating, & # 8220 ; I wish I could kill a Mexican & # 8221 ; . Millard Fillmore was to be frailty president. Being as both president and frailty president were steadfastly committed to slavery, the Southern Whigs were taken aback when Zachary Taylor advised admittance of California with its free province Constitution. Matters merely got worse when southern Whig leaders hinted at sezession and Taylor boldly threatened to take to the field and bent those captured in the rebellion. Henry Clay stepped back into Whig personal businesss with his celebrated Compromise of 1850 in which he says that the Southern Whigs will larn to accept California? s free province fundamental law if all other provinces formed from former Mexican districts would non advert the thought of bondage at all in their fundamental laws. President Taylor categorically refused this via media right up until he died, leting Vice president Fillmore to finish the trade.
The Whigs found their greatest, noblest cause in saving of the brotherhood. Truly for this the Whig party was created, maintained, and finally destroyed. In 1850, there was a mid-century sezession motion which the Whigs devoted all their energies to halting. Although successful, their clinging to the Compromise they outlined spelled their day of reckoning as they did non concentrate on other of import affairs. The Party had been bred by via media, as nullificationist leaders like John C. Calhoun and ultra-nationalists such as Daniel Webster were joined for the improvement of common ends. It has been said that it is no happenstance that the lone sequence motion of great success happened merely prior to the dissolution of the American Whig party.
After concentrating it? s power on the sezession struggle, the Whig party didn? Ts have clip to form a strong political run for the presidential term in 1852. They were, at the clip, the clear, dominate party. Their weakness was the haphazard mode in which they ran the run of? 52. Banking on the old military hero premiss, the Whigs sent as their campaigner Gen. Winfield Scott. A wiser political move would hold been to direct a party hero who symbolized the party? s accomplishments such as Daniel Webster or Henry Clay. If either were sent, the presidential term would hold been theirs. Alternatively they suffered an black licking because of their no name campaigner in an election which required a large star.
Two things saw the immediate expiration of the Whig party. Again, the diverseness from which the Whigs derived their strength was their undoing, merely this clip it was the concluding nail in the casket. As province? s righters looked to sequence and unionist strove for saving of federation, they party was torn in many different waies. The other job was, as clip progressed, the Whigs came to stand for the rich and as the upper category divided and became greatly dissentious, the lower categories remain a incorporate voice, led by the Jacksonian Democrats. Regardless, the Whigs introduced many of import thoughts to politic. The Whigs were among the first American calling politicians. They besides kept the brotherhood together for 10 old ages, although the splits between North and South demanded an event such as the civil war.
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Columbia Press ; New York, New York ; 1959
Andrews, Henry ; The Whig Party
Massachusetts Political Press ; Boston, Mass ; 1994
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Bantom Press ; Chicago, Illinois ; 1987
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