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Federalsits Vs. Anti-Federalists
Federalists: Wanted the constitution to be ratified. They published the federalist papers to suppoirt their position.
Anti-federalists: Wanted to keep the Aticles of Confedreation, but if there was to be a constitution there had to be a bill of rights. -
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Begining of Presidency/ First Two Party System
George Washington was the first president and discouraged political parties. However, two political partied formed which debated over the newly fromed constitution. The federalist led by Hamilton and Adams, favored a strong central government and were supprted by the north. The Democratic Republicans , led by Jefferson and Madison, believed in state rights and a small government; they were supprted by the south and west. -
Election 1800
Jefferson, a democratic republican, beat the incumbant John Adams, a Federalist. This proved that power could be changed hands peacefully from political party to political party, and the democratic system worked. -
Hartford Convention/ End of Federalists
The federalists, which had been losing support, considered briefly ceceding from the union in response to the war of 1812. This failed attempt completely destroyed their legitimacy and effectively ended the political party. -
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Era of good feelings
During this time period the Democratic Republicans were virtually unapposed in their control of the US government. -
Election of 1824/ Corrupt Bargain
John Quincy Adams, a democratic republican, made a deal with fellow presidential candidate Henry Clay to help break the 3 way tie for president to make Adams president(all three canditates were Democratic Republican). Jackson was outraged with this bargain and refered to it as the corrupt bargain. -
Election 1828
Jackson takes power of the presidency. He was supported heavily by the south and frontier of America. He changed the role of the president enphasizing the power of the president while still maintaning a "pro people" stance. His aggressive stance against the bank caused him to be upopuler amoung many politicians and buisnessmen. -
Whig Party
The whig party created an opposition to the democratic party(the former democratic republicans). They were pro buisness, pro technology, pro reform, and they were supprted in the northeast. The democrats were conservative and opposed large scale reform and banking and were supprted in the south. -
Liberty Party
They were abolisionists. They were favored in the northeast, especially New York. -
Election of 1840
The Whigs take power of the presidency with Harrison. The whigs also took control of the house and senate. This signaled the first real success of a party to oppose the democrats. -
Free Soil Party
They were against the expansion of slavery, but were not abolisionists. They got 10% of the populer vote in the election of 1848 and the lost half of their support in 1852 because their candidate did not supprt the compramise of 1850. They were absorbed into the republican party in 1854. -
American Party/ Know Nothing Party
They were anti immigration. They got 20% of the vote in the election of 1856. They were absorbed into the republican party after this election. -
Republican Party
They were formed from independant democrats, free soil party, liberty party, and conscience whigs. They wanted to stop the expansion of slavery and were supprted in the northeast. -
Dissolution of Whig party
Pro slavery whigs, supported in the south, broke off and joined the democratic party. Also, "conscience" whigs changed in the free soil party and the republican party which were supprted in the north. -
First Republican President/ Begining of Secession
Lincoln won the election of 1860, and in anger of this SC secedes fro m the union and most southern states follw suite. Within the north there was a split becasue some democrats and republicans wanted to stop the war and some wanted to keep fighting the war until they get the south back. -
Political bosses and corruption
Beginning in 1865, political bosses took advantage of new immigrints and the uneducated by making promises, in order to gain vote for their respective party. One famous boss was Boss Tweed of NYC. -
Republican party splits
The Republican party spilit into two groups. The stalwarts, who supported President Ulysses S. Grant, favored the spoils system of civil service. The Half-Breeds were generally against the spoils system and for civil service reform. -
Greenback labor party
Greenback labor party forms. It is popular amoung the poor. They wanted paper money and labor reform. -
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Final two party System
Beginning in 1877, the democratic and republican parties became the two dominint parties of the U.S.A. Intitially, democrats were supported by the south and the poor while the republicans were supported by the northeast and upper class. -
Mugwumps
They were disgruntled republicans who decided to vote democrat. In the election of 1884 some republicans, known as mugwumps, turned to the democrats on suspician of Republican presidential candidtate James Blaine's corruption. -
Greenback labor party Dissolves
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Populist Party forms
The populist party formaed from the farmers alliance. It replaced the greenback labor party as the third party of labor reform. Their first canditate to run for president was James Weaver. Their view were labor reform, bimetallism, and graduated income tax. -
Election of 1896
The Democrat and Populist Parties jointly nominated William Jennings Bryan in an attempt to defeat the Republican candidate William McKinley. They failed, and McKinley's election ushered in a new era of Republican domination. Bryan's supporters were the working class while Mckiney's su[pporters were the middle and upper class. Mckinley partially won by the factory workers making their workers vote for Mckinley. Mckinley was funded by Markus Hanna. -
Socialist party Started
It was formed by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and some of the Socialist Labor Party. Eugene Debs was a leader of the party and ran for the presidency many times.
Supported by the lower class who wanted everyone to be the same economically. -
Election of 1912:Formation of the Progressive Party
This election saw a split in the requblican party between Taft and Roosevelt. After Taft won the nomination, roosevelt formed his own party known as the Progressive Party a.k.a. Bull-Moose party. The winner was Wilson, a Democrat. Roosevelt gained a lot of electoral votes which was uncommon because he ran with a third party nomination. Also, Eugene Debs, a socialist, won almost 1 million votes.
There was a noteable shift towards liberal and reformist platforms. -
National Womens Party
This party was only formed to gain women suffrage through an amendment on the constitution. -
Women Suffrage
Women can now vote becasue of the 19 amendment. This meant that there were now millions of new voters that could sway future elections. -
Progressive Party
The Progressive Party was reformed for the election of 1924 and the nomoinated Robert La Follette of Wisconsin. -
Election of 1932
Before this election, most African Americans voted Republican because that was the party of Lincoln. FDR received about 70% of the African American vote, signifying a change in support from this minority. -
FDR Elected: Nation turns to the democrats
The public was not happy with the job that the republicans, specifically Hoover, were doing with the great depression. This change in leadership also exemplified the shift of popular opinion from laissez-faire economics, to government intervention policies. -
Two Term broke By FDR
The Democrats believed that FDR was the best choice for candidate due to the possibility of war. FDR won and broke the two-term tradtion because voters believed that FDR was the best man to lead America in the possible war. -
Break in Democratic Party: DixieCrats
The Dixiecrats were the result in break in the democratic party. They were led by Strom Thurmond against Truman in the 1948 election. The dixiecrats will exist as a faction in the democratic party until present day. -
Election of 1960: TV
The television plays a pivitolo role in this election, helping JFK get elected over Nixon. -
Election 1964: Civil Rights
The democrats, specifically LBJ, favor civil rights and pass the civil rights act of 1964. This causes the democrats to lose power in the south and solidify their power amoung blacks. -
Conservatives return in the Election of 1968
NIxon wins the election due to the support of the "silent majority". These people favored less radical policies than those of the counter-culture of the time.
