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Whigs

The Whigs were a political party in the United States in the early 19th century that believed Congress should have more power than the president and that supported business and economic development. The antecedent Whigs were a political party in Britain from the 17th to the 19th century which wanted to limit the power of the king and queen. The word "Whig" derives from the Scotish "whiggamaire" used to denote rebels who believed in teh lawfullness regicide. The term "tory" had long been used as an Irish outlaw, a "bog-trotter". L'Estrange employed the terms Whig and Tory as counterparts in Britsh politics on 02 July 1681.

The Whigs in the US were an amalgamation of former National Republicans, Antimasons, and some states' rights advocates. The Whig Party developed out of opposition to Jackson's policies, including his bank policy. In an effort to break up the Second Bank of the United States, Jackson in 1833 made federal deposits in a number of state banks.

Out of their unified dislike for Jackson and his policies, Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster then formed the Whig party. Tyler joined them. The major economic depression in 1837 finally gave the Whigs their best chance to occupy the White House. They faced Andrew Jackson's political organizer, vice president, and handpicked successor, President Martin Van Buren, vying for a second term in the midst of hard times.

The generic appellation of "Whig" embraced all the heterogenous elements thus united, and their real single bond of union was opposition to Jackson and the Jacksonian Democracy. It was some years before the Whig Party attempted a formulation of principles and policies, for the obvious reason that in such an association there could be no agreement in any other thing than the one thing of making common cause against executive usurpation. While some members of the new national Whig Party originally favored a protective tariff, others had fiercely opposed it; some had been for a United States Bank, and others against a bank of any kind; some had favored internal improvements by the national Government, and others had opposed, on the ground of unconstitutionality; and there were also some who continued in the expectation of a future successful revival of the doctrine.

John Tyler was a Democrat who became a Whig out of dislike for President Andrew Jackson. Tyler switched parties while he was a U.S. senator from Virginia. Tyler was opposed to the U.S. Bank, but he perceived this as a terrible abuse of executive power and a violation of states' rights. He condemned Jackson on the Senate floor. Henry Clay followed by urging the Senate to censure (to blame, on record) Jackson for his actions.

In 1840, the Whigs nominated Tyler to run for vice president with William Henry Harrison. He became the "and Tyler too" part of their campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler too." The Whigs controlled the direction of the campaign. According to Van Deusen (343-344): "Hard times and falling prices for wheat and cotton played a large part in the contest, but the main issue presented to the people was a manufactured one. … Portraying their candidate (the WHIG candidate, Harrison) as an honest high-principled farmer who lived in a log cabin with the latch string always out, a coon skin nailed to the door and a barrel of cider (sweet cider in prohibition areas) for the refreshment of visitors … they contrasted this democratic simplicity with the… luxury that surrounded 'Sweet Sandy Whiskers' Van Buren at the While House."

The Whigs elaborated their new-style campaign and made it as diverting as it was professional. They used organization to draw huge crowds… Whig propaganda included a panoply of visual devices like Harrison "Liberty Poles" as well as mottoes, songs, jokes, along with "efficient orators." It was all drama and popular commotion mixed with slander and smears designed to destroy "Martin Van Ruin." It was a combination of merchandizing and militia styles, with all the stops pulled out.

Tyler's relationship with the Whigs would not last long. Henry Clay and the other Whigs who "ran the show" for Harrison did not like the way Tyler assumed power after Harrison's sudden death a month into his term. Soon after Tyler took office, Congress passed a bill to reestablish the Bank. Tyler vetoed it and also a second such bill, calling them unconstitutional and against states' rights. Clay and the other Whigs were angry. All but one member of Tyler's Cabinet resigned in support of Clay. The Whigs severed ties with Tyler, officially expelling him from the party.

On May 12, 1846, the United States Senate voted 40 to 2 to go to war with Mexico. Northern Whigs feared that war with Mexico would result in the United States gaining new territories in the southwest, which would encourage the expansion of slavery. Northern Whigs also questioned the need for war, but they remembered how New England’s opposition to the War of 1812 had destroyed the old Federalist Party, and they were anxious to avoid a similar political disaster.

A severe split within the Whig ranks, between partisans of Henry Clay and those of Zachary Taylor, preceded the party's convention in June 1848. Horace Greeley was one of Clay's most influential northern supporters. Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott were both contenders for the nomination before the June convention.

The Whig Party supported the common schools in their formative years and nearly all of the prominent early educators identified politically with that party. Three prominent creators or reformers of state public school systems - Horace Mann (Massachusetts), Henry Barnard (Connecticut and Rhode Island), and Calvin Henderson Wiley (South Carolina) - were elected to political office as Whigs, and their political careers are illustrative of the centrality of Whig politics to the rise of common schools.

For decades, America’s political battles had been fought between the Democrats and the Whigs. By the early 1850s, however, the issue of slavery had splintered the Whigs into warring factions and divided Democrats between north and south. When Democratic senator Stephen Douglas pushed his Kansas-Nebraska bill to passage, including its proposal to settle the issue of slavery by popular sovereignty, the uproar among northern abolitionists and anti-slavery activists was too fierce to be contained by the ailing Whig Party. As one person commented, “The Whigs were simply not angry enough.” Beginning at the local level, in Wisconsin and Michigan, and quickly spreading across the north, a coalition of former Whigs and northern Democrats organized under a new party label — Republican.