Political Parties

Question 1

First Two-Party System (1780s-1801)

Answer 1

• Democratic- Republicans

- Federalists

Question 2

Democratic- Republicans

Answer 2

• States’ rights
• Strict interpretation of the Constitution
• Agriculture and rural life
• Strongest in South and West
• Sympathy with France
• Civil liberties and trust in the people

Question 3

Federalists

Answer 3

• String central government
• Loose interpretation of the Constitution
• Commerce in Northeast
• Close ties with Britain
• Order and stability

Question 4

Second Two-Party System (1836-1850)

Answer 4

• Democrats

- Whigs

Question 5

Democrats

Answer 5

• Party of tradition
• Looked backward to the past
• Spoke to the fears of Americans
• Opposed banks and corporations
• Opposed state-legislated reforms
• Preferred individual freedom choice
• Were Jeffersonian agrarians who favored farms, rural independence, states’ rights, and the right to own slaves
• Favored rapid territorial expansion
• Believed in progress through external growth

Question 6

Whigs (2nd 2-party system)

Answer 6

• Party of modernization
• Looked forward to the future
• Spoke to the hopes of Americans
• Promoted economic growth, esp. transportation and banks
• Advocated state-legislated reforms such as temperance, public schools, and prison reform
• Favored industry, urban growth, and federal government
• Believed in progress though internal growth

Question 7

Mid-19th Century Parties Opposing the Democrats

Answer 7

• Liberty Party
• Free Soil Party
• American Party
• Whigs
• Republican Party

Question 8

Liberty Party

Answer 8

• Abolitionist party that ran candidate James Birney for President in 1844
• Won only 2% of the vote but drew votes away from the Whigs, esp. in New York

Question 9

Free Soil Party

Answer 9

• Not abolitionist, but opposed to the expansion of slavery in the territories
• Won 10% of the popular vote with Martin Van Buren as their candidate in 1848
• Lost 50% of their support in 1852, when they repudiated the Compromise of 1850

Question 10

American Party

Answer 10

• The “Know Nothing” Party
• Nativist party based on opposition to immigration and a focus on temperance
• Ran Millard Fillmore in 1856 and won 21% of the popular vote
• Republican Party absorbed them in 1856

Question 11

Whigs (Mid-19th opposing democrats)

Answer 11

• Southern “Cotton” Whigs eventually drifted into the Democratic Party
• Northern “Conscience” Whigs moved to new parties such as the Free Soil Party, and later, the Republican Party

Question 12

Republican Party

Answer 12

• Formed in 1854 by a coalition of Independent Democrats, Free Soldiers, and Conscience Whigs United in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Stressed free labor and opposed the extension of slavery in the territories
• Moderates like Abraham Lincoln opposed slavery on “moral” grounds, while admitting that slavery had a “right” to exist where the Constitution originally allowed it to exist
• John C. Fremont was the first Republican candidate in the election of 1856