History of Two Parties in America

There have been three American political party systems, at least according to most historians. Some political scientists complicate things by counting changes in coalitions within the Third party system. If they count critical election shifts in 1896, 1932-36, and 1980-94, they could come up with as many as six different party systems. But historians refuse to abandon the Third party system label as long as Republicans fight it out with Democrats. It is not my purpose to examine the intricacies of politics in each party system, but some familiarity is useful and interesting. The parties embody the ideological dialectic and mix and match positions in all the various aspects outlined in previous segments. Realignments happening between party systems jumble constituents and policy positions in ways that prevent strict linear tracing. Tempting as it may be to trace Republicans from Whigs from Federalists or modern Democrats from Jacksonian Democrats from Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans, parties are more complicated than that. They are more than just “conservative” or “liberal” too. The more conservative of each pair is likely to support some reform measures. No party has ever stood squarely for the status quo in every respect. Parties evince conservative and reform elements at the same time. And by the way, Republicans have as much right to claim Jefferson as their forerunner as do the Democrats. Indeed, modern Republicans resemble Jeffersonian Republicans far more than do New Deal or Great Society Democrats.

The First party system consisted of the Federalists and Jeffersonian Republicans or Democratic-Republicans. The initial alignment occurred between 1796 and 1800 and shattered the consensus George Washington had tenuously held together. Indeed, Hamilton and Jefferson led competing camps from the end of Washington’s first term. It was opposition to Federalist economic policies, as well as to the Quasi-War with France and notorious Alien and Sedition Acts that led to permanent schism of the Federalists and to the Jeffersonian political revolution of 1800. Still, Federalists mounted substantial political opposition until they ultimately discredited themselves. During the War of 1812, prominent New England Federalists discussed secession to skirt Madison’s embargo, which disproportionately hurt their region. Other Federalists actually aided the British. The public dealt the Federalists a stunning repudiation because of these things, and their party collapsed with the election of 1816. The Hero of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson, would be the one to end the resulting brief consensus called the Era of Good Feelings.

The Jeffersonian Republican party was stressed by Jacksonian democracy. Distinctive wings of the party were discernible by the early 1830s. The more conservative National Republicans let Jackson’s followers keep the ‘Democratic’ identifier. Personalities also entered the picture as various supporters rallied to Henry Clay of Kentucky, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, as well as to Andrew Jackson of Tennessee. Calhoun actually supported Clay’s efforts to launch the Whig party in opposition to Jackson. Realignment happened between 1836 and 1840 over Jackson’s unprecedented concentration of executive authority and over a host of economic issues. But the “revolution” of 1840 that brought Whigs to power for the first time did not last as long as the Jeffersonian revolution had. From the start, the Second American party system of Whigs and Democrats was dogged by sectional issues. Increasingly Northern Democrats and Southern Fire eaters were unable to abide in the same party. Likewise, “Conscience” Whigs and Cotton Whigs were unable to keep ranks in the same party. The Whigs suffered stunning defeat in the election of 1852, but it was the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 that precipitated a six-year process of realignment. The Republican party was the beneficiary of the party system crack-up, and it became the party of the North. Republicans stood for containment of slavery, so when Abe Lincoln was elected in 1860, the South seceded. Civil War and Reconstruction ensued. Obviously, until 1877 there was no normal peacetime party competition. War and military occupation suspended the traditional interplay of the ideological dialectic. Remarkably, however, the Third party system of Republicans and Democrats did resume peacetime party competition.