History of American Political Parties, Part VII: Birth of the Second American Party System

Love him or hate him, Andrew Jackson is undoubtably one of the most influential and important presidents in American history.

Jackson’s presidential victory in 1828 ushered in several major political parties shifts including the creation of a new party and the birth of the Second American Party System of Democrats and Whigs.

Jackson, and the real mastermind behind the curtain, Martin Van Buren, created the new Democratic Party as a classical liberal Jeffersonian Party. Together Jackson and Van Buren planned to succeed where Jefferson had failed during his presidency, especially in his attempt to keep the federal government small. Jackson vetoed improvement projects like the National Road to keep spending low and went to war against the Second Bank of the U.S. until he successfully killed it – along with the nation’s economy. Jackson also fought banks in general, hating what today we call ‘predatory lending.’ He preferred hard currency like gold and silver to paper money loaned by banks.

Jackson, on the other hand, acted much more like a modern president than others of his day. During the 19th century, Congress ran made the rules and set the policies; presidents very much took a back seat. The exceptions were Jackson, and later Lincoln. Jackson felt he should dominate government being that his position was the only one elected by the entire nation. He vetoed 11 bills in his presidency, more than the previous six presidents combined. Earlier presidents only used the veto if they felt a bill was unconstitutional; Jackson used his vetoing power if he simply disagreed with the bill.

Jackson wielded so much power during his presidency that his enemies began calling him King Andrew. The nickname stuck and became the basis for the opposition party name that grew to challenge him. In 1833, the Opposition Party began referring to themselves as the Whig Party, a name taken from a British political party that once opposed King James I.

At first, the party makeup was eclectic. The only requirement to join was hating Jackson. Its principal founders were an old Federalist lawyer from Boston, Daniel Webster; a classic conservative westerner from Kentucky, Henry Clay; and a state’s rights liberal from South Carolina, John C. Calhoun. Over time the party came to represent the classical conservative stance of what will be known as The American System, which called for positive government to build an infrastructure of roads, canals, and railroads to support industrialization as well as impose higher tariffs to support homegrown businesses.

The other area of change was the idea of parties. Where once parties were seen as an evil necessity, Jackson saw them as a positive good. He believed parties guaranteed that ideologies remained pure. Under the one-party Era of Good Feelings, Federalists, calling themselves Republicans, were able to get into the henhouse. Under a two-party system, people could gather with likeminded individuals and push an actual agenda. Under this system people knew what to expect when voting for a Democrat or a Whig. If a candidate did not agree with the party’s platform, they would not be supported by that party in an election. So, if you ever vote straight ticket in an election, you can thank Jackson. Often voters do not need to know who is running for office; they just know to support either Republican or Democratic candidates because those values are intrinsic to those parties.

Parties also gave control to their leadership. Leaders could force candidates to follow the party line or lose support. Leaders kept constituents loyal by offering rewards for their support. The principal job of the 19th century president was granting government jobs to party supporters, something known as the spoils system. This led to a great deal of widespread corruption, but also solidified the party’s power.

The most important aspect of legitimate parties came from Van Buren, who saw parties as the ultimate glue to hold the nation together. As the North and South were starting to go in different directions, it was parties that united them. As long as there were Whigs and Democrats in both the North and South, and they kept conversations to banks, tariffs and internal improvements, Americans remained loyal to their parties’ ideologies and hence to a unified nation.

Whigs and Democrats fought it out in the 1830s and 1840s. Neither side able to hold the presidency for long. In fact, there was not a two-term president between when Jackson’s departure from office in 1836 and when Lincoln’s 1860 election. The two parties stuck to their ideological roots – Democrats as classic liberals and Whigs as classic conservatives – during these decades. However, starting in the 1850s, America was forced to deal with the slavery issue which tore the Second American Party system apart and set the nation up for war.

James Finck, Ph.D. is a professor of history at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. He may be reached at HistoricallySpeaking1776@gmail.com.