Whig Party was a name applied to political parties in England, Scotland, and America. Whig is a short form of the word whiggamore, a Scottish word once used to describe people from western Scotland who opposed King Charles I of England in 1648.
In the late 1600’s, Scottish and English opponents of the growing power of royalty were called Whigs. The Whigs maintained a strong position in English politics until the 1850’s, when the Whig progressives adopted the term Liberal. See Liberal Democrats ; United Kingdom (History) .
In the American Colonies,
the Whigs were those people who resented British control and favored independence from Britain (now also called the United Kingdom). The term was probably first used in New York City about 1768. The Whigs supported the Revolutionary War in America (1775-1783). British loyalists, called Tories, opposed the Whigs in the struggle (see Tory Party ). The terms Whig and Tory fell into disuse after the colonies won their independence.
The Whig Party of the 1800’s
began to take shape about 1832. Political groups that opposed United States President Andrew Jackson and his theories started to combine and unify themselves into a political party. These groups included the National Republicans, certain conservative factions of the Democratic-Republican Party, and some former members of the Anti-Masonic Party. Some of the political leaders of the Whig Party included such well-known National Republicans as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John Quincy Adams.
Soon many wealthy Southern cotton planters joined in protest against the democratic, leveling doctrines of the Jacksonians. In the North and East, many factory owners also joined the group because it supported a protective tariff, federal funds for internal improvements, and a national bank. First as the National Republicans and later under the name of Whigs, these groups advocated new and broader activities for both state and national governments.
The first program
of the Whigs followed Henry Clay’s “American System.” It included a proposal for a high protective tariff to encourage the growth of American industry. Clay wanted to distribute to the states money received from the sale of federal lands, so that they would construct new transportation systems of canals and highways. Clay argued that Western and Southern farmers and Eastern manufacturers formed a natural and interdependent economic unit that would furnish markets for each other, if they were connected with good transportation facilities.
When Jackson and his followers came out against the United States Bank, Clay immediately supported it. The Whigs soon adopted an advanced financial program calling for federal control of the banking system in the interest of sound currency. They also wanted to ensure a supply of credit adequate to meet the increasing demands from expanding commercial interests in the East and from the moving frontier in the West. Clay opposed Jackson with this program in the presidential election of 1832, but Clay lost. In 1836, the Whig Party nominated three candidates for the presidency—William Henry Harrison, Hugh White, and Daniel Webster. But the Democratic candidate, Martin Van Buren, won easily.
In the 1840’s,
many able leaders joined the party. They included Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune; William H. Seward of New York; Edward Everett, the Whigs’ most brilliant orator; and Abraham Lincoln, who later became the first Republican president.
The Whigs nominated William Henry Harrison as their presidential candidate in 1840. He won the election but died after serving only one month in office. Vice President John Tyler followed Harrison as president. Tyler had received the nomination for vice president mainly to attract the Southern votes. However, Tyler actually opposed the Whig program and vetoed legislative efforts to create a new national bank. His opposition as president weakened the Whig Party.
In 1844, the Whigs renominated Henry Clay for the presidency, but he lost again. One reason for his defeat lay in his refusal to take a position on slavery, which cost Clay many Northern Whig votes. In the election of 1844, the Whigs presented their first comprehensive political platform. It included a high tariff, regulated currency, and a single term for the presidency. The Whigs, though, were divided over the Mexican War (1846-1848).
Decline of the Whigs.
The Whigs managed to win the presidency with the popular Zachary Taylor in 1848. Four years later, they tried to repeat the victory with General Winfield Scott. But the Democratic candidate, Franklin Pierce, defeated him. In 1856, a Whig convention backed Millard Fillmore, the unsuccessful Know-Nothing candidate for the presidency.
The Whig Party had already begun to break into sectional groups over the question of slavery. Northern Whigs were divided between the proslavery “Cotton Whigs” and the antislavery “Conscience Whigs.” The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 split the party still further. Most Northern Whigs joined the new Republican Party. Many Southern Whigs returned to the Democratic Party. The remaining Whigs joined the Constitutional Union Party by 1860.
