Democratic Party

I

Introduction

Democratic Party, one of the two main political parties of the United States. Its origins can be traced to the coalition formed behind Thomas Jefferson in the 1790s to resist the policies of George Washington’s administration. This coalition, originally called the Republican, and later the Democratic-Republican Party, split into two factions during the presidential campaign of 1828. One, the National Republican Party, was absorbed into the Whig Party in 1834; the other became the Democratic Party.

II

The Jacksonian Party

In the 1830s, under presidents Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, the Democratic Party developed the characteristics it retained until the end of the century. It was willing to use national power in foreign affairs when American interests were threatened, but in economic and social policy it stressed the responsibility of government to act cautiously, if at all. Democrats argued that the national government should do nothing the states could do for themselves, and the states nothing that localities could do.

The party’s supporters in this period included groups as diverse as southern plantation owners and immigrant workers in northern cities. They all had in common a dislike of government intervention in their lives. The Democrats’ opponents, the Whigs, on the other hand, believed in using governmental power to promote, regulate, correct, and reform.

A major source of the party’s cohesion was its strong organization, which enabled it to fight elections effectively, keep the party together between elections, and shape and influence government decisions. The Democratic organization, with its local, district, and statewide committees, conventions, and party rallies, spread everywhere to promote the party and its principles and candidates on election day. The organization drew up lists of voters, got them to the polls, and provided ballots for them to cast and the arguments to justify their decisions. Afterward, the party helped select government officers and discipline them while in service.

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In the years after 1828, party competition was very close. The Democrats won the presidency six out of eight times through 1856 and usually controlled Congress. Their Whig opponents, however, always waged strong campaigns against them. Van Buren’s leadership role in the party made him Jackson’s successor as nominee and president in 1836, but, defeated in 1840, he had to give way to younger men. These new leaders maintained the commitment to the economic and social principles of the Jacksonian era but added a more aggressive stance in foreign affairs. Territorial expansion and war with Mexico followed under President James K. Polk in the 1840s.

III

The Period of North-South Conflict

A voter backlash severely changed the party’s fortunes in the mid-1850s. The Democratic commitment to limited national power extended to the question of whether or not slavery should expand into new territories. Party leaders such as Lewis Cass and Stephen A. Douglas favored local control, or popular sovereignty, rather than congressional regulation. This did not satisfy some party supporters and others outside the party. Southern gains in the territories provoked bitter anger. At the same time, the Democrats’ long-standing interrelationship with immigrant workers also caused severe problems. Greatly increased immigration in the 1850s transformed many areas of the country and seemed to threaten American values. The result was an electoral disaster, as many northern Democrats, seeking to punish their leaders and willing to throw aside their party, joined the emerging Republicans. These defections cost the party a large part of its northern support and enhanced the power of the southern wing within party councils in the late 1850s.

IV

The American Civil War and Its Aftermath

Increased southern demands for the protection of slavery and the resistance to it by northern Democrats (out of fear of even further party collapse) caused a split in 1860. This enabled the Republicans under Abraham Lincoln to win the presidency. The party’s problems were compounded during the Civil War that followed. Remaining consistent, Democrats refused to accept the need to increase government power in order to fight the war. They opposed the draft, social changes, and government encroachment into everyday life. They strongly resisted Republican tariff and taxation policies to finance the war. All of this, however, put them on the defensive. The Republicans charged them with disloyalty and made it an effective campaign slogan for the rest of the 19th century. This tactic, known as “waving the bloody shirt,” always hurt the Democrats in close elections until powerful emotional memories faded. They did not regain control of either house of Congress until 1874 and did not win the presidency again until 1884.

Democrats won many local and state elections after 1860 and threatened the Republicans in others. They made especially effective use of the race issue in the North, taking advantage of white hostility to blacks. At the same time, the South became an increasingly solid Democratic voting bloc. Neither was enough, however, and party leaders never found the means to attract enough new voters or to convert enough Republicans to win national power in the generation after the Civil War. Between then and the Great Depression the Democrats were the minority party in the nation, able to win only when the Republicans were badly split.

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