Political Parties

Despite admonitions from George Washington to avoid divisive partisan politics, America’s “First Party System” is well established by the time he leaves office in 1797.

On one side are the Federalists, backers of Alexander Hamilton, with their wish for a dominant central government and commitment to creating a diverse, industrialized economy. On the other are supporters of Thomas Jefferson who want power to reside in the “sovereign states” and an economy based on agriculture and yeoman farmers.

Even at this early stage, the split between these two visions has regional overtones – North vs. South – and implications for the future of slavery, with the South becoming dependent on its expansion and the North already having ended its existence.

21.0 America’s First Party System: 1792-1828

The appearance of Henry Clay’s Whig Party in 1828 signals a shift to the Second Party System. It follows the “Regency” period with three Virginians in a row – Jefferson, Madison and Monroe – occupying the White House, and creating a dominant Democrat Party. Clay regards this outcome as a near monarchy, and chooses the Whig name to reflect on the 1680 rebels in England who opposed the succession of the Catholic King James II. In 1828, Clay’s movement focuses that same level of fury on the Democrat Party and their presidential nominee dubbed “King” Andrew Jackson.

Clay’s call for an “American System” of government mirrors Hamilton’s demand for federal support behind building a modern industrialized economy. To him this means spending on infrastructure upgrades, higher tariffs to protect domestic manufacturers against their European competitors, and reliance on banknotes to provide the money supply behind needed investments in growth.

While Clay loses the 1828 election to Jackson, his Whig Party lives on to fight another day. In 1841 the Whigs elect their first President, the military hero, William Henry Harrison – although he dies after only one month in office. His “accidental” successor, John Tyler, blocks all Whig initiatives and he is followed by Jackson’s Tennessee protégé, James Know Polk.

In 1846 comes another critical turning point in party politics. As the Mexican War heats up, Polk requests a $2million appropriation to fund the military forces. But in the House, David Wilmot, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, shocks the chamber with a proposed amendment supporting the expenditure only if slavery were outlawed in any Mexican land acquired by the war.

The House passes the Wilmot Proviso with Northerners – be they Whigs or Democrats – voting aye and Southerners across both parties voting nay. While the South is able to table the Proviso in the Senate, the message is clear: expansion of slavery into the west is now in jeopardy.

America’s Second Party System: 1828-1848

The Wilmot Proviso opens the door to a very brief Third Party System put together by Salmon Chase, just elected as Ohio Senator and later to become Treasury Secretary and Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Chase is an avowed abolitionist and a savvy political strategist devoted to defeating the Democrats.

What he sees in the Wilmot Proviso is the opportunity to create a powerful new entity he calls the Free Soil Party. It comprises an unlikely “fusion” of two wings who oppose the extension of slavery in the west, but for very different reasons. The first, and dominant faction, consists of self-serving northern white farmers who want to keep the new western territory all to themselves. The second, smaller group, are abolitionists and others who oppose extending slavery on moral grounds.

Chase rallies this force behind the banner of “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Speech, and Free Men.” He convinces ex-President Martin Van Buren to head the party ticket in 1848 and siphons off 10% of the popular vote in the election won by Whig Zachary Taylor.

America’s Third Party System: 1848-1852

The Fourth Political System comes about in response to Democrat Senator Stephen A. Douglas’ 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act. Douglas is intent on opening up more new states across the Mississippi River, especially those just west of his home base in Chicago. His wife is also owner of plantations in Mississippi and securing southern support is essential to his presidential ambitions. Thus his 1854 Bill which calls for the creation of two states, Kansas and Nebraska, while also repealing the 1820 Missouri Compromise 36’30” line which would have automatically declared both as Free. Instead of a fixed boundary, he calls for Popular Sovereignty elections in each territory to have settlers decide on the Free vs. Slave State definitions.

Northerners are outraged by Douglass, especially for reneging on the 1820 Compromise line. Grass roots meetings to protest the Bill are held in Wisconsin, New York and other communities and lead to the creation of a Republican Party. It includes members of the 1848 Free Soil Party fused with Conscience Whigs and amplified by Abolitionists and other supporters of the Wilmot Proviso which would ban slavery in the west.

The spotlight then shifts to Douglas’ attempt to secure his Southern base by having Kansas declared a Slave State through Popular Sovereignty elections. When this path fails repeatedly, more Southerners become convinced that Douglas is unable to keep his promises, and that power in Washington now belongs to Northerners hostile to both their economic interests and their cultural traditions.

Suddenly the call for secession, voiced by Southern “fire-eaters” like William Yancey and Robert Rhett, gains momentum as the Democrats head into their nominating convention to select a presidential nominee for 1860. Douglas goes in assuming that he will win, but a series of platform disputes end with an abrupt regional schism. When the new Southern Democrat Party chooses sitting Vice-President John Breckinridge as its candidate, Douglas’ hopes are shattered.

The Fourth Party System is the culmination of fundamental differences over the future of chattel slavery that first surfaced at the 1787 Constitutional Convention. After a series of palliative compromises, the center gives way in 1860 followed by a devastating Civil War.

America’s Fourth Party System: 1856-1860