The Democratic Party is one of the
two major political parties in the U.S., and the nation’s oldest existing
political party. After the Civil War, the party dominated in the South due to
its opposition to civil and political rights for African Americans. After a
major shift in the 20th century, today’s Democrats are known for their
association with a strong federal government and support for minority and
women’s rights, environmental protection, and progressive reforms.
Though the U.S. Constitution
doesn’t mention political parties factions soon developed among the new
nation’s founding fathers. In 1792, supporters of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who favored decentralized, limited government, formed an
opposition faction that would become known as the Democratic-Republicans. Historians commonly
trace the Democratic Party’s origins to the presidential campaigns to elect the
Tennessean Andrew Jackson in the 1820s. Those Jacksonians saw themselves as the
second generation of Democrats, the first having supported Thomas Jefferson in
the 1790s. All these early Democrats saw themselves as, pre-eminently,
defenders of the legacy of the American Revolution. The great danger to liberty was the concentration of power, whether in the hands of a king or a bank. In America, with abundant land dispossessed from Native Americans, ordinary white men could expect to own property. As the master of their own households, they could be free. Mistrust of the powerful meant trusting the people to govern themselves. Regulations, standing armies and tax-collectors were Old World problems that America could avoid: “the government that governs least governs best,” as Democrats liked to say.
It seemed only fitting and proper to Democrats that they dominated state and Federal government between the Revolution and the Civil War. Between 1801 (the year that Jefferson became president) and 1861 (when the South seceded and war broke out), there were only eight years in which a non-Democrat was in the White House. Democrats have always wanted to see themselves as the party of the people. Over two centuries, a common thread has been the assumption of party leaders that ordinary folk were their natural supporters. For this very reason, the most effective line of attack by their opponents has been that, Democrats represent the very elites they claim to oppose.
Where
was the party born? Following the publication of the "Appeal of Independent Democrats" in major
newspapers, spontaneous demonstrations occurred. In early 1854, the first
proto-Republican Party meeting took place in Ripon, Wisconsin. On July 6, 1854
on the outskirts of Jackson, Michigan upwards of 10,000 people turned out for a
mass meeting "Under the Oaks." This led to the first organizing
convention in Pittsburgh on February 22, 1856. The gavel fell to open the
party's first nominating convention, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 17,
1856, announcing the birth of the Republican Party as a unified political
force.
The Republican Party, often called
the GOP (short for “Grand Old Party”) is one of two major political parties in
the U. S. Founded in 1854 as a coalition opposing the extension of slavery into
Western territories, the Republican Party fought to protect the rights of
African Americans after the Civil War. Today’s GOP is generally socially
conservative, and favors smaller government, less regulation, lower taxes, and
less federal intervention in the economy.
The Republican Party
name was christened in an editorial written by New York newspaper magnate
Horace Greeley. Greeley printed in June 1854: "We should not care much
whether those thus united (against
slavery) were designated 'Whig,' 'Free Democrat' or something else;
though we think some simple name like 'Republican' would more fitly designate
those who had united to restore the Union to its true mission of champion and
promulgator of Liberty rather than propagandist of slavery."
Though America’s Founding Fathers
distrusted political parties, it wasn’t long before divisions developed among
them. Supporters of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, who favored a strong central government and a national
financial system, became known as Federalists. By contrast, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson favored a more limited government. His supporters called
themselves Republicans, or Jeffersonian Republicans, but later became known as
Democratic-Republicans.
The
Missouri Compromise of 1820 divided the
country at the 36° 30' parallel between the pro-slavery, agrarian South and
anti-slavery, industrial North, creating an uneasy peace which lasted for three
decades. This peace was shattered in 1854 by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Settlers would
decide if their state would be free or slave. Northern leaders such as Horace
Greeley, Salmon Chase and Charles Sumner could not sit back and watch the flood
of pro-slavery settlers cross the parallel. A new party was needed.
“The problem with Washington is that we've all become Democrats and
Republicans instead of Americans. Everything is aimed at enhancing political
position instead of enhancing America.” (Anonymous)[i]
[i] Sources used:
“Democratic Party” by History.com
Editors
“A brief history of
the US Democratic Party” by Adam I P
Smith
“Republican Party” by History.com
Editors
“Republican Philadelphia” by
ushistory.org
This topic was suggested
by friend and blog member, Jan Bahr.
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