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Federalists
Federalists were the party of the rich and the well born. They wanted a strong national government. They were led by Alexander Hamilton. -
Anti-Federalists or Democratic Republicans
Anti-Federalists were led by Thomas Jefferson. They were more sympathetic to the common man and believed in a strict constructionist view of the Constitution. -
Democratic Party (Jacksonian Democrats)
They were unopposed in government until mid 1820's. In 1828, Andrew Jackson's Democratic Party (which came from the Democratic Republicans) came to power. -
National Republican (Whig)
People who had once been Federalists joined with anti-Jackson Democrats to form the National Republican, or Whig, Party. Between 1836 and 1852, Whigs gave Democrats strong opposition. -
Republican Party (The Party of Lincoln)
In 1854 antislavery forces and Free Soil forces (a group founded in Buffalo, New York) formed the Republican Party. The Republicans ran their first presidential candidate, John C. Frémont, in 1856. -
Slavery Opinions in the Whigs
Northern Abolitionists — people who wanted to abolish slavery — left the Whig party. The Whigs also lost voters to the "Know-Nothing" Party, a new party that violently opposed Roman Catholics and foreigners. The Whig Party began to go to pieces. -
Slavery Opinions in the Democrats
The issues of slavery and states' rights divided Democrats into Northern and Southern branches. Southern Democrats strongly favored slavery and states' rights. Extremists among them believed that a state had a right to secede (leave the Union) if the national government tried to interfere with slavery. -
Parties in 1860 (More on The Party of Lincoln)
By 1860 the voters had a choice of four major parties — Northern Democrat, Southern Democrat, Republican, and the Constitutional-Union Party, which drew some ex-Whigs. Strong antislavery feeling helped Republicans capture the presidency for Abraham Lincoln. In 1861 the Southern states seceded and the Civil War began. -
Fall of Democrats/Rise in Republicans
The defeat of the Southern Confederacy weakened the Democrats, who were associated in voters' minds with the Southern cause. For many years the Republicans were the major party. -
Roosevelt Democrats
The presidential election of 1932 brought in Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal programs. Roosevelt Democrats thought that the federal government must actively help people who had been hurt by the Depression. -
New Deal Opinions (Republicans)
Under the New Deal the government passed economic relief measures, social security, laws helping unions, and other bills. Republicans thought the government was taking too much power and moving the country toward a welfare state. They fought against governmental interference with business. -
Modern Democrats
The modern Democratic Party traditionally supports organized labor, minorities, and progressive reforms. Nationally, it generally espouses a liberal political philosophy, supporting greater governmental intervention in the economy and less governmental regulation of the private lives of citizens. It also generally supports higher taxes (particularly on the wealthy) to finance social welfare benefits that provide assistance to the elderly, the poor, the unemployed, and children. -
Modern Republicans
The national Republican Party supports limited government regulation of the economy, lower taxes, and more conservative (traditional) social policies. In 2009 the Tea Party movement, a conservative populist social and political movement, emerged and attracted mostly disaffected Republicans.