Back حزب اليمين (الولايات المتحدة) Arabic حزب ويج (امريكا) ARZ Viqlər Partiyası (ABŞ) Azerbaijani Вігі (ЗША) Byelorussian Partit Whig dels Estats Units Catalan Strana Whigů Czech Вигсен партийӗ (АПШ) CV Whigpartiet (USA) Danish United States Whig Party German Partio Whig (Usono) Esperanto
Whig Party | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Henry Clay Daniel Webster William Henry Harrison Zachary Taylor |
| Founder | Henry Clay |
| Founded | 1833[1] |
| Dissolved | 1856[2] |
| Merger of | National Republican Party Anti-Masonic Party |
| Preceded by | Federalist Party National Republican Party Anti-Masonic Party Nullifier Party (minority) |
| Succeeded by | Republican Party (de facto) American Party Opposition Party Constitutional Union Party |
| Headquarters | Washington, D.C. |
| Newspaper | The American Review |
| Ideology | |
| Colors | Blue Buff |
| Seats in the Senate | 29 / 52 (1841–1843, peak) |
| Seats in the House of Representatives | 142 / 242 (1841, peak) |
| This article is part of a series on |
| Conservatism in the United States |
|---|
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The Whig Party was a political party that existed in the United States during the mid-19th century.[13] Alongside the slightly larger Democratic Party, it was one of the two major parties in the United States between the late 1830s and the early 1850s as part of the Second Party System.[14] Four presidents (William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore) were affiliated with the Whig Party for at least part of their terms. Other prominent members of the Whig Party include Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Rufus Choate, William Seward, John J. Crittenden, and John Quincy Adams. The Whig base of support was centered among entrepreneurs, professionals, planters, social reformers, devout Protestants (particularly evangelicals), and the emerging urban middle class. It had much less backing from poor farmers and unskilled workers.
The party was hostile toward manifest destiny, territorial expansion into Texas and the Southwest, and the Mexican–American War. It disliked strong presidential power as exhibited by Jackson and Polk, and preferred congressional dominance in lawmaking. Members advocated modernization, meritocracy, the rule of law, protections against majority tyranny, and vigilance against executive tyranny. They favored an economic program known as the American System, which called for a protective tariff, federal subsidies for the construction of infrastructure, and support for a national bank. The party was active in both the Northern United States and the Southern United States and did not take a strong stance on slavery, but Northern Whigs tended to be less supportive than their Democratic counterparts.
The Whigs emerged in the 1830s in opposition to President Andrew Jackson, pulling together former members of the National Republican Party, the Anti-Masonic Party, and disaffected Democrats. The Whigs had some weak links to the defunct Federalist Party, but the Whig Party was not a direct successor to that party and many Whig leaders, including Henry Clay, had aligned with the rival Democratic-Republican Party. In the 1836 presidential election, four different regional Whig candidates received electoral votes, but the party failed to defeat Jackson's chosen successor, Martin Van Buren. Whig nominee William Henry Harrison unseated Van Buren in the 1840 presidential election, but died just one month into his term. Harrison's successor, John Tyler, a former Democrat, broke with the Whigs in 1841 after clashing with Clay and other Whig Party leaders over economic policies such as the re-establishment of a national bank.
Clay clinched his party's nomination in the 1844 presidential election but was defeated by Democrat James K. Polk, who subsequently presided over the Mexican–American War. Whig nominee Zachary Taylor won the 1848 presidential election, but Taylor died in 1850 and was succeeded by Millard Fillmore. Fillmore, Clay, Daniel Webster, and Democrat Stephen A. Douglas led the passage of the Compromise of 1850, which helped to defuse sectional tensions in the aftermath of the Mexican–American War for a time. Nonetheless, the Whigs suffered a decisive defeat in the 1852 presidential election partly due to sectional divisions within the party. The Whigs collapsed following the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1854, with most Northern Whigs eventually joining the anti-slavery Republican Party and most Southern Whigs joining the nativist American Party and later the Constitutional Union Party. The last vestiges of the Whig Party faded away after the start of the American Civil War, but Whig ideas remained influential for decades. During the Lincoln Administration, ex-Whigs dominated the Republican Party and enacted much of their American System. Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Rutherford B. Hayes, Chester A. Arthur, and Benjamin Harrison were Whigs before switching to the Republican Party, from which they were elected to office.[15] It is considered the primary predecessor party of the modern-day Republicans.[16]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
holtbirthwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
holt947949was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Whig Party". history.com. History. November 20, 2019. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
The Whigs were an opposition party formed to challenge Jacksonian Democrats, thereby launching the 'second party system' in America, but they were far from a single-issue party.
- ^ Holt (1999), p. 70
- ^ Howe (1979), pp. 183, 210
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
holt6667was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Holt (1999), p. 685
- ^ "Anerican System". U-S-History.com. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
A plan to strengthen and unify the nation, the American System was advanced by the Whig Party and a number of leading politicians including Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun and John Quincy Adams.
- ^ Holt (1999), pp. 27–28.
- ^ Holt (1999), p. 952
- ^ Farmer (2008), p.155
- ^ "Jacksonian democracy". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
Whigs voted against and Democrats approved an independent treasury, an aggressive foreign policy, and expansionism.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:0was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Sean Trainor, Gale Researcher Guide for: The Second Party System (Gale, Cengage Learning, 2018).
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:1was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Major American Political Parties of the 19th Century". Norwich University Online. Retrieved July 4, 2022.
...The Democratic-Republican and Whig parties are considered the predecessors of today's Democratic and Republican parties, respectively.
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