Political Parties (Lesson 2): A Sparknotes History 1788-1892

Anna Steinbrecher

Chicago, IL
September 15, 2012

Before you make fun of my juvenile drawing, let me just say that it is 10pm after a long day and I only made it to "Drawing 101" in my general education classes Freshman year. So if the gold stars still aren't distracting you, hopefully I can go on to talk about Political Parties. I'm doing this in two segments (1788-1892, 1892-Present) just so you guys don't have to scroll so much. 

Contrary to most conventional assumption, Americans did not just wake up one day and decide that they were going to have two political parties which would be capital-R Republicans or capital-D Democrats. In fact, if you talked to a Republican or Democrat about 60 years ago, chances are they would have very little in common with the party now. So why and how do political parties change? Well, political parties change because people change, lives change, beliefs change, and circumstances change. Ideologies, economics, religion, ethnic groups, technology and education have all shifted dramatically over America's past 200+ years, so it only makes sense that politicians and party platforms would change, too, to keep up with the pace. Politicians will need to adapt to the political climate to gain enough votes to win. You'll see this as we go on. 

I'm a big fan of history as a Political Science major. I think the more history you know - whether it's family history, cultural history, national history, whatever - the more enriched your world view tends to be. Also, as an avid reader, history can be told like a story and unfolds in narratives and sequences of events. The best way to understand the evolution of the political parties is to start at the beginning and work our way forward. So let's go back in time right after we gained our independence.

1788-1824: The First Party Systems (Federalists v. Anti-Federalists 

Member this guy? He's on the dollar bill. George Washington, having been one of the most successful generals in the American Revolutionary war, was elected unanimously in 1788 as the first President. However, one should be aware that at the time of the founding, there was a sharp debate about what the new government should look like, and if it weren't for George Washington's general esteem we may not have had a federal government. Cue our first two political parties...

THE FEDERALISTS                         THE ANTI-FEDERALISTS (Jeffersonians)

   

Surprised to see these two men on the opposite ends of the spectrum? Did you think that the Founding Fathers just sat around and had untaxed British Tea while brainstorming the new Republic?  I know we like to think of the Founding Fathers as a rough translation of the 12 Apostles - here to save the American continent and pave the way for righteous and egalitarian government - but it didn't exactly happen like that. No doubt they were all highly-educated and intelligent men, but there was a lot of difference in opinion among them. America has always had conflicting opinions about government and there was never a golden age of political consensus. Have I said that enough, yet? Sorry, I just get tired of romanticizing things without taking a realistic look at the circumstances and details.

Like I mentioned before in Lesson 1, America had a hard time trying to justify the creation of a unifying federal government. Alexander Hamilton (credited as the creator of the Federalist Party) wrote a series of essays called "The Federalist Papers" with fellow Founding Fathers James Madison (aka the man responsible for the Bill of Rights) and John Jay. The Federalist movement pushed the ratification of the Constitution and the formation of the new government, while the anti-Federalists (also called "Jeffersonians" ,or Democratic-Republicans, after political figurehead Thomas Jefferson) pushed for a more individualized state-by-state system. 

FEDERALISTS

• Majority from New England and the East
• Urban/Coastal
• Manufacturing and commerce
• Wanted strong currency and interstate commerce

ANTI-FEDERALISTS/JEFFERSONIANS/DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICANS

• Southern 
• Rural
• Concerned about economic prospects of the South 
• Special emphasis on Virginia (where Jefferson represented) which had a very large slave population

It should be emphasized that one of the major incentives for Hamilton to create such a strong national government was economic in nature. After the American Revolution, the country was broke, so-to-speak. Not to mention a lot of the men who had financed the war were among the political elite and wanted their money back. Alexander Hamilton proposed various economic programs to ensure that debts were paid off, and wanted a strong national currency to increase America's legitimacy.

The debate, for the most part, was silenced when Washington took office. Washington, although not self-identifying as a Federalist, was the unifying force within the system and often sympathized with the Federalist cause. He appointed Alexander Hamilton as the first Secretary of State, and after Washington left office, his Vice President John Adams won the President. Adams was a member of the Federalist party, as well.

But the conflict resurfaced during the third Presidential race between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. There was a shift of power during the election of 1800, often cited as "The Revolution of 1800". In this election, Jefferson and the Jeffersonians (Democratic-Republicans) beat out John Adams, causing a massive shift of power. A central debate among the two parties were issues relating to the support of the French Revolution (Jefferson in favor, Adams opposed) and the matter of centralized government (Jefferson opposed, Adams in favor). When Thomas Jefferson and the anti-Federalists took office, there was some strife that played out both in the political and private sphere (as a side note, this is where that important case Marbury v. Madison comes up for judicial review).
I'm sure everyone is familiar with political attack ads now, and we often think that things in politics get overheated and dramatic, but the political election of 1800 and some other elections afterwards got incredibly tense. Some arguably moreso than now. Could you imagine a candidate dying for some insulting remark they made about their opponent? Well that's what happened eventually with Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr in 1804. Aaron Burr was Thomas Jefferson's Vice President during Jefferson's first term and a fellow anti-Federalist until Jefferson decided not to choose Burr the next election. Cast out of the White House, Burr decided to run for governor of New York, instead. And lost. And blamed his loss on Federalist smear campaigns that attacked him. After his loss in New York, a scathing letter that Alexander Hamilton had written about Burr was published in the Albany Register calling him" "a dangerous man, and one who ought not be trusted with the reins of government". When Burr wrote Hamilton, who was still defending his honor from his recent sex scandal with Maria Reynolds at the time, asking him to recant his statements Hamilton refused and things escalated quickly. Burr eventually challenged Hamilton to a duel. Burr won, killing Hamilton, although his political career never recovered.

If you want a more incoherent, and definitely more entertaining, view of the story, check out "Drunk History's featuring Michael Cera as Alexander Hamilton...

Note: The fact that Hamilton chose not to shoot his first bullet (and lose) is widely debated. 

1828-1860: The Second Party Systems (Whigs v. Democrats)

This period can be seen as a transition into new political titles and a shift away from the first era of American Politics. Although the anti-Federalists had gone by many names (Jeffersonians/Democratic-Republicans), they eventually become just the "Democrats", although the new party looked slightly different. Likewise the Federalist party, experiencing a decline after Jefferson's election in 1800, gave way to the "Whigs". This era is also known as the "Jacksonian democracy" period (as opposed to the "Jeffersonian" democracy in the time before).

THE WHIGS                                         THE DEMOCRATS

The two pictures above are the two candidates from the election of 1828. Although the Whigs did not formally emerge until 1833, John Quincy Adams (NOT to be confused with the 2nd President mentioned above, John Adams) is seen to be one of the founders of the Whig movement. The name "Whig" is a reference to a common term during the American Revolution by American soldiers identifying themselves as opposed to the British monarchy. 

So let's look at the demographics for these two parties:

WHIGS

• New England
• Urban/Coastal
• Labor AND big business (later you have the Rockefellers & Carnegies in support)
• Protectionism*

DEMOCRATS

• Southern
• Frontier
• Farmers
• State's rights
• Free-trade and pro-slavery

If you look at those demographics, it is hard to imagine such huge tycoons in the same party as labor and in opposition of free-trade. But PROTECTIONISM was very popular in urban areas. This meant that through taxes and "tariffs", big business would have the upper hand and a monopoly on the market with politicians giving them preferential treatment to their outside competitors. If goods and products that were coming in from foreign territories were heavily taxed, it meant that the local businesses had a upper-hand in the game. Whigs were also in support of government infrastructure such as schools and railroads, so that meant large government contracts for big business if they were elected. Going down to the Southern states, farmers pushed for free-trade so that they could get a better deal economically when exporting or buying their goods. The period of Jacksonian democracy was ruled by the Democratic party until slavery became a heated topic towards the second half of the century.

1854-1892: The Third Party Systems (Republican/GOP v. Democrats)

Now we are starting to see some familiar names, right? After the Jacksonian era, dominated by the Democratic party, the political tides shifted again with a new hot-button issue arising: slavery. The Whigs transition into the Republican Party, and the Democrats stay the same except their support is fragmented in the North and South. Slavery had been a controversial issue from the get-go. As a VERY brief history of slavery in the United States let's look at the time line up until this point:
1619: First slaves arrive in Jamestown Virginia. Slavery was seen as a cheaper form of labor than the previous mode: indentured servitude from the lower-class European workers. Tobacco was a large slave industry, and later the invention of the cotton gin would solidify the economic reliance on the labor source.
1775-1783: During and after the American Revolution, Americans in the North who were not reliant on slavery were quick to get rid of it.
1781- Thomas Jefferson writes "Notes on the State of Virginia" in which he discusses theories of superiority and white supremacy. He asserted that nature had made whites superior in both beauty and intelligence, but his views on slavery were problematic and contradictory (oftentimes supporting and opposing different legislation in favor of abolition). Jefferson himself owned 175-225 slaves and lived in Virginia (one of the largest slave States in the colonies) and is believed to have fathered several children with his slave Sally Hemings.
1830s-1860s: The movement to abolish slavery picks up steam in the North, led by Frederick Douglass. The emergence of the "Underground Railroad" gives slaves shelter and provides the means for slaves to be transported to the Northern, free States.
1860s onward: Lincoln is elected. The Civil War begins.

THE REPUBLICANS (GOP)          THE DEMOCRATS        

THE SOUTHERN DEMOCRATS

This third period in American government was one of complete polarization and marked a shift in ideology yet again. This is also the time period in which the debate on slavery became potent, especially with the South quitting the Union and deciding that they wanted to form their own CONFEDERACY which would separate them entirely from the North.

The pictures above are from the 1860 election. The race was between Abraham Lincoln (Republican, former Whig), Steven A. Douglas (Northern Democrats) and John C. Breckinridge (Southern Democrats). With Lincoln winning, seven Southern states seceded (quit) and formed the Confederacy before Lincoln took office. In 1861, the Civil War began and the Union soldiers soon started battling the Confederate army. 

This is a a rough map of how the political parties and the opposition lined up during the war. The Confederate Army (Southern Democrats) was comprised of eleven states. I've actually tried to coordinate the map with the Army's uniform colors. 

As most Americans are aware, the North won and preserved the Union of the United States. This meant the abolition of slavery, but also the economic and political crippling of the South after the war which was "punished" by the North through RECONSTRUCTION. Lincoln was assassinated on April 15, 1865, only 6 days after General Robert E. Lee (commander of the Confederate Army) had officially surrendered to the Union Army.  

 And just for good measure, here is another "Drunk History" focusing on Frederick Douglass, a freed American slave and prominent African American intellectual who was central to the abolitionist movement against slavery. Featuring Will Ferrell as Abraham Lincoln, Don Cheadle as Frederick Douglass, and Zooey Deschanel as Mary Todd Lincoln...