1. Democrats and Republicans: Evolution and Transformation Ms. A. Kostro AP USH BK3 Lesson 24

2. Democratic – Republican Party Supported states rights, a strict interpretation of the Constitution, no central bank, and an agrarian based society Support came from Southerners, farmers and the poor and illiterate” “Peaceful Revolution” –of 1800 saw the transfer of leadership and power from the Federalists to the Democratic Republican Party without violence. Madison kept elements of the Federalist rule by including stronger central government and central bank

3. Federalist Party This party supported strong central government, a national bank, a loose interpretation of the Constitution and manufacturing. Supporters came from New England, the cities, and the rich and education. Unpopular policies under John Adams (1800) caused a decline in the party, which was viewed as out of touch with the nation. Opposed the War of 1812

4. Jacksonian Democrats The Democratic-Republican Party split over bitterness from “the Corrupt Bargain”, and supporters of Jackson began calling themselves the Democratic Party. Democrats were for states’ rights, elimination of a central bank, and not using federal money for state projects. In 1828, Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party won the presidency. His policies, which destroyed the central bank and seemed anti-wealth, anti- privilege, and anti-regional, resulted in the creation of the Whig Party by 1834 Jacksonian Democracy aimed to expand democracy and opening up business opportunities for all white men.

5. 4. The National Republicans or Whigs The group resembled the earlier Federalist Party, but in 1834 the party reorganized as the Whigs in opposition to Jackson’s perceived abuse of power. Known as the party of the wealth, it was supported by merchants and urban dwellers. The party supported a central bank, and internal improvements. The party’s Southern wing supported slavery in contrast tot the position of its Northern wing, causing its eventual collapse prior to the Civil War. Henry Clay

6. Democrats from 1840-1896 This group was dominant in the North in spite of the issue of slavery. This party espoused states’ rights, was against a national bank, and believed in rapid western expansion as a way to prevent the expansion of slavery. Democrats were first seen as the party that thwarted the cause of liberty by supporting “popular sovereignty” and were perceived as being supportive of slavery in both the North and South. During the Civil War, the Northern Democratic Party split into two factions- war Democrats, who supported Lincoln, and Copperheads, who were antiwar and more like typical Jacksonian Democrats who supported states’ rights and typically held racist views. Following the Civil war, the Democratic Party regained power in the South and disenfranchised African Americans.

7. Republicans from 1854- 1900 This group supported the Kansas- Nebraska Act, which overturned the Missouri Compromise and allowed “popular sovereignty” or the extension of slavery in previously free territories of the Louisiana Purchase and resulted in the formation of anew political party. Free soilers and Northern or Conscience Whigs joined with abolitionists to form a new party which was designated as the Republican Party. The party sought to restore the union as a champion o liberty, supported farmers, and initially was for a strong central government until the late 1800. This group began to change in the late nineteenth century and became the party of laissez-faire capitalism, less government control, traditional Protestantism, and Prohibition. Farmers began leaving the party over silver coinage.

8. Democrats to 1900 Grover Cleveland won the presidency and became the first Democratic president since 1856. Some support came from mid-Atlantic and lower Midwest states, but especially from the South. The Democrats had become the party of business which supported a national bank, the gold standard, and laissez-faire capitalism; Democrats opposed imperialism, favored reform such as civil service, and opposed bit-city corruption. Because the Democratic Party took the blame for the Panic of 1893, the party ended up splitting between the farmers and business interests with farmers prevailing later. Catholic immigrants from the cities wanted government to stay out of the morality business and opposed Prohibition.

9. Continued: Democrats to 1900 The modern Democratic Party emerged during the late nineteenth century under William Jennings Bryan, who became the first leader of a major political party to embrace the idea of government protecting the welfare of the common person. Farmers flocked to Bryan and favored the free coinage of silver to relieve the effects of the Panic of 1893. Republicans portrayed Democrats as the party of rum, Romanism, and rebellion.

10. Democrats from 1900 to 2000 Woodrow Wilson (1912) was elected because of deep divisions I the Republican Party. His progressive reforms gained women the right to vote and helped resolve various antitrust issues. The Stock Market Crash (1929) and the Great Depression led to major alterations, as the party abandoned its laissez-faire capitalism and moved decisively toward government regulation. The Democratic Party of Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) looked more like the Democratic Party of today, associated with civil rights and social and economic regulation. Supporters consisted of union members, intellectuals, the poor, African Americans, women, immigrants, Southerners, Catholics, and city dwellers, and the party would dominate the political scene until Ronald Reagan.

11. Continued: Democrats from 1900 to 2000 During the 1960s, the Democratic Party began to embrace the ideals of the civil rights movement and once again seemed to embrace the dispossessed. Conservative Southern Democrats called Dixiecrats began leaving the party in 1948 when Harry Truman showed support for civil rights and desegregated the military. They left in even greater numbers after Lyndon B. Johnson’s Civil Rights Act of 1964.

12. Democrats By 1984, the Democratic “New Deal” coalition of voters seemed broken,. The South and ethnic whites in the Northeast turned to the Republican Party. The Democratic Party began to mover more toward the center and ran Southerners for president. It appealed to those who opposed Republican policies and called itself a “big tent” party, a party big enough to most Americans. The Democratic Party (1992-2000_ under Bill Clinton and others wuld move to the right on issues such as welfare reform and balancing the federal budget. In 2008, the Democrats would nominate the nation’s first African American president, Barack Obama, who ran on a platform of change.

13. Republicans from 1900 to 2000 William McKinley’s election marked the beginning of progressivism, although he himself was not progressive. Teddy Roosevelt, a progressive, became president after McKinley was assassinated. Support came from the middle class, workers, businessmen, and wealthy farmers, marking a realignment of the GOP.

14. Republicans By the 1980s Ronald Reagan used the Southern Strategy to unite voters who wanted less government control with social conservatives who were tired of rapid social change and legislation and who wanted a stronger foreign policy. The South was becoming more like the rest of the nation as it moved beyond segregation. Reagan attracted Northern white ethnic Democrats and factory workers who felt the Democratic Party had abandoned the,. George H.W. Bush, elected president in 1988, and his son, George W. Bush, elected in 2000 ran on a conservative social and political platform.