The First American Party System FEDERALISTS 1. Leaders -John Adams -Alexander Hamilton 2. Views of the Constitution -loose interpretation -strong central government 3. Policies -pro-british -large peacetime army and navy -national bank -tariffs to support business
4. Supporters -Northern businessmen -large landowners
DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICANS, later Jeffersonian Republicans 1. Leaders -Thomas Jefferson -James Madison 2. Views of the Constitution -strict interpretation -states rights 3. Policies -Pro-French -small peacetime army/navy -favored agriculture -no national bank -opposed to tariffs
4. Supporters -skilled workers -small farmers -plantation owners
Decline of the Federalists -suppression of free speech under the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) gave Republicans a boost in 1800 -talk of secession during the Hartford Convention (1814) weakened the party -the growth of nationalism after the War of 1812, the lack of unity within the party, and the coming Era of Good Feelings brought an end to the Federalists as a national party
The Second American Party System DEMOCRATS 1. Leaders -Andrew Jackson -John C. Calhoun -Martin Van Buren 2. Political Tradition -Republican party (Jefferson, Madison) 3. Favored -state and local autonomy -limited government -free trade -equal economic and political opportunity (white males)
4. Opposed -monopolies and privilege -a national bank -high tariffs -high land prices 5. Base of Voter Support -Southerners -Westerners -small farmers, some middle-class -urban workers
WHIGS- opposed to the tyrannical rule of King Andrew 1. Leaders -Henry Clay -Daniel Webster -William Henry Harrison 2. Political Tradition -Federalist Party (Hamilton, John Adams) 3. Favored -Clay s American System é national bank é federal funds for internal improvements é a protective tariff -national power and broad government role in reforms
4. Opposed -immorality -vice and crime ì some blamed these problems on immigrants 5. Base of Voter Support -New Englanders -Mid-Atlantic and Upper Midwest -wealthy businessmen -some middle-class -reformers
National Issues: 1830s and 1840s -expansion of slavery -sectionalism -tariffs -internal improvements -national bank debate -nativism -social reform
Decline of the Whig Party -due to the rise of nativism, prohibition and antislavery movements, and breakup of the Union in 1850s -Compromise of 1850 = Whigs split along slavery, anti-slavery lines -Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) = southern Whigs supported act -Republican Party (1854) = attracted northern Whigs who opposed the overturn of the Missouri Compromise -American Know-Nothing Party = attracted nativist Whigs who were opposed to Catholics and immigrants in northern cities
Birth of the Republican Party (1854) -formed as a response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act = free soil, free labor, and free men -created a coalition of Free-Soilers and anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats -platform called for the repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and Fugitive Slave Law -dominated by northern and western moderates who opposed the expansion of slavery in the territories -promised a protective tariff for industry, free land for homesteaders, internal improvements, and a transcontinental railroad -1896 = party of big business, industry, and a strong national government
Political Trends Solid South = period of Democratic Party dominance from Reconstruction until Civil Rights Era Populist Demise (1896) = Populist reform agenda adopted by Republicans and Democrats during the Progressive Era New Deal = relief to African Americans with the WPA and CCC help to secure votes for the Democratic Party New Federalism = Nixon s program of revenue sharing that shifted spending on social programs from federal to state and local levels Conservative Movement (1970s-80s) = Nixon, Ford, and Reagan along with a coalition of economic and political conservatives, religious fundamentalists, and political action committees (PACs) Moral Majority (1980) = religious fundamentalists that financed campaigns to unseat liberal members of Congress
20th Century Liberal Reform Periods 1. Progressive Era: 1900-1920 -Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson 2. New Deal: 1933-1945 -F.D.R 3. Fair Deal: 1945-1953 -Truman 4. New Frontier: 1961-1963 -John F. Kennedy 5. Great Society: 1963-1969 -Lyndon B. Johnson