1840 The Democratic Party example essay topic
414 words
Heather Triplett American History 205 11/10/03 #2. Examine the policies of the Democrats and the Whigs? In what ways did they express the ideas of democracy? During Andrew Jackson's tenure as president, his controversial policies and contentious personality prevented any reconciliation with the National Republicans. By the middle of Jackson's second term, his opponents began to call themselves the Whig Party. Leaders of the Party included Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. They expressed the ideas of democracy in many ways during the 1800's. During the 1830's a radical splinter group of the Democratic Party in New York City, the Locofocos, opposed monopolies and private bankers. The name was derived from a popular brand of matches used by the group of continue a crucial meeting in 1835, at the pro bank opponents turned off the gas. Later known as the Equal Rights Party, the Locofocos were conciliated and reabsorbed into the Democratic Party in 1838 with the election of Martin Van Buren.
The Democrats controlled the national government for most of the years between 1828 and 1860, although they lost tow presidential elections to Whig military heroes. After 1840 the Democratic Party became more and more the mouthpiece of the slaveholders. Their opponents often called northern Democratic leaders "dough faces", or northern men with southern principles. Opposed to the Democrats were the Whigs and a variety of minor parties, such as the Liberty Party, the political arm of the abolitionists, and the Free-Soil Party. In 1854 the party system dominated by Whigs and Democrats collapsed due to the controversy sparked by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which made it possible to establish slavery in western territories, where it had previously been banned.
This act outraged northerners and convinced many Democrats and Whigs in the region to abandon their parties. Many of these voters initially joined the Know-Nothing Party, and anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant organization whose antislavery reputation in the North helped it attract more than one million members. The creation of a new Republican Party was the most important result of the Kansas controversy. Organized in some places as early as July 1854, the party promised not only slaveholders' influence in the federal government.
The appeal of this platform quickly enabled the Republican Party to overpower the Know-Nothings. Although the Republicans lost their first campaign for the presidency in 1856, the triumphed in 1860 with former Congressman Abraham Lincoln.
