Brief History of Political Parties in America

The First Party System is a model of American politics used by political scientists and historians to periodize the political party system existing in the United States between roughly 1792 and 1824. It featured two national parties competing for control of the presidency, Congress, and the states: the Federalist Party (created by Alexander Hamilton) and dominant to 1800, and the Democratic-Republican Party(created by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison) and dominant after 1800.

The First Party System ended during the Era of Good Feelings (1816–1824), as the Federalists shrank to a few isolated strongholds. In 1824-28, as the Second Party System emerged, the Democratic-Republican Party split into the Jacksonian faction, which became the modern Democratic Party in the 1830s, and the Henry Clay faction, which was absorbed by Clay's Whig Party.

Abraham Lincoln was a lifelong Whig. The Whigs were a major American political party until the 1850s, when their leaders began to die out. In 1854, the Republican Party was formed, and Lincoln joined it in 1856. He became the Republicans' first victorious presidential candidate four years later.

A group of former Whigs convened and decided to form a new political party. The Republican Party was founded in 1854 by opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Eventually, Whigs and members of fringe parties, like the Free Soilers and Know-Nothings, would become Republicans. Republicans differed among themselves in regards to the major issues of the day; for instance, some opposed slavery's extension but not its existence. Meanwhile, others supported complete abolition of slavery. The one thing all Republicans stood for was progress. This meant the party supported urbanization, new technologies, and free homesteads for farmers.

When the Whig Party split, the Democratic Party split into Northern and Southern branches. As for the Whigs, younger voters simply lost interest in them. The last Whig presidential candidate, Mexican War hero General Winfield Scott, was defeated by Democrat Franklin Pierce in 1852.

Posted via email from Global Politics