The Whigs and Republicans: The History of the 19th Century Parties that Led the Modern Conservative Movement in America

The Whigs emerged as opponents to the Jacksonian Democrats during a period of American history known as the Second Party System (1828-1854). Initially, the conflict was rooted not only in different visions for the United States – the Whigs believed in a strong central bank and federally funded infrastructure projects (known as “internal improvements”) – but also in opposition to one man: Andrew Jackson. When it first formed, the Democratic Party coalesced around Jackson, and his beliefs and actions became Democratic Party dogma, which left the diverse group of people who opposed Jackson to become the Whigs.

The problem with this arrangement is that while the Whigs scored some notable successes as an opposition party, they found governing more difficult. The two Whigs elected president, William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor, died in office, raising to the presidency their respective vice-presidents, John Tyler and Millard Fillmore. Neither man succeeded in uniting the Whig Party behind him (a gargantuan task, to be sure), and neither was ever elected president in his own right.

The Republican Party essentially succeeded the Whigs, and it has led a winding nature ever since. Now dominant in the American South, the party was anathema in the South for more than a century. Likewise, if someone asked a man on the street in the early 1900s to describe the Republican Party, he might point to Teddy Roosevelt’s efforts on behalf of progressive politics and conservation, whereas a few years later, the party was known as a protector of big business, and later law and order. During the Reagan Era, the words “small government” came to characterize the party, even as its leaders took one hit after another for wanting to limit social spending. During its more than 150 years of existence, it has nominated saints and scoundrels, seen some men make it to the White House and others not.