1. Remember The First Party System?
*1790s-18teens
*Federalists v. Democratic- Republicans
*Hamilton v. Jefferson
*industrial v. agrarian
*British v. French
*elitist, eastern, little local influence

2. Federalists vs. Dem.-Reps.
Hamilton, J. Adams * Jefferson
Strong c. gov’t * limited nat’l
(nat’l bank) power (anti-Bank)
Pro-British * sympathetic to
Opposed to F.Rev. F. Rev., anti-Brit.
merchants, prop. * S. planters and
Owners N. farmers

3. The First System fades . . .
After 1800 the Jeffersonians solidify gains and the Feds. are only regionally strong (in New England)
Fed. support for the British weakens them in the War of 1812; complaints and brief talk of secession at the “Hartford Convention” damage them . . .
Between : the so-called “Era of Good Feelings”; one-party rule after the Federalists’ fade (even J.Q. Adams a “Democratic-Republican”); as the E. of 1824 approaches, regional fragmentation

4. The Second Party System
1820s-1850s
Democrats v. Whigs (Nat. Republicans)
Jackson v. Clay
Rural, “common” v. urban, “aristocratic”
Empowered presidency v. “American System” (Whig-favored programs of “internal improvements”)
Anti-BUS forces v. pro-BUS
Mass participation, national in scope
Problems on horizon: Jackson v. Calhoun, “nullification” And, of course, SLAVERY

5. Jacksonian Social Trends
Massive Westward expansion; 9 new states represented 1/3 of the Senate
Near-universal (white manhood) Suffrage by 1840
A “transportation revolution”: The “National Road,” canals, steamboats, railroad expansion (see 272, 274)
The West becomes more significant—and it is tied more closely to the North (278)

6. Political Volatility 1824: The “Corrupt Bargain” election
1828: Jackson’s followers—“The Democrats”—realign the national government
1836: Jackson’s influence continues
1840: A forward-looking election

7. Ominous signs . . . Tariff troubles Nullification
Overspeculation and the Panic of 1837
The Trail of Tears
Messin’ with Texas

8. Long-term causes of the Civil War?
Constant western movement and population growth foreshadowed political stress, especiallly regarding the slavery issue
Reform movements were becoming more acceptable and common, especially in the North
North and South were hardening into distinct regions with uneven industrialization and, consequently, different ways of life

9. The Decline of the Second Party System
Long-term Democratic tensions increase; the Jackson-Calhoun feud hardens into a North-South split within the party (two candidates in 1860)
Prominent Whigs—Clay and Webster—die; the party loses badly in the election of 1852 as Winfield Scott alienates S. Whigs
Factional parties like the Know-Nothings and the Free Soilers exacerbate the fragmentation of the major parties

10. Rise of the Republicans
By 1856, resentment at the Fugitive
Slave Law and the Kansas-Nebraska
Act had spawned like-minded parties
in multiple Northern states
Three distinct factions—Old Whigs (“conservatives”), disaffected Northern Democrats, and abolitionists—and various “moderates” form the new party, linked only by their opposition to slavery’s extension

11. The Election of 1860
Party fracture results in Stephen Douglas, representing Northern Dems, and John Breckenridge, representing Southern Dems
John Bell heads a third party, the “Constitutional Union,” which polls well in the upper South
Lincoln, as the Republican nominee, dominates the North and wins with 180 electoral votes (Douglas 12, Breckenridge 72, Bell 39)

12. Significant adjustment: the Gilded Age . . .
See ch. 20; government bureaucracy grows even as the presidency yields power to Congress . . .
Elections were tightly contested, and participation was high; in big cities, “machines” and “ bosses” exerted great influence those urban areas joined the South as Democratic strongholds, and Republicans become strongly associated with business interests “Silver v. Gold” becomes a symbolic debate

13. Significant adjustment: The New Deal era . . .
The “New Deal Coalition”:
--white Southern Democrats
--big-city political machines
--laborers
--“depressed” farmers
--many first and second-generation Catholics and Jews
(but between 36 and 46% of people continued to vote Republican in this time period; many felt that the New Deal was excessive, or at least that it should be “rolled back” especially by 1980)

14. Significant adjustment: The Reagan era
modern conservatism—The Reagan Era—is built, in part, on rolling back the New Deal
Reagan’s 1980 victory was a shift: except for Jimmy Carter’s Georgia, he swept the South . . .
Reagan had admired FDR’s leadership, but rejected the “welfare state” in favor of a new individualism: limited gov’t assistance, a leaner bureaucracy, lower taxes (down from a max of 70% for the highest bracket) that would provide economic stimulus, and a revitalized military to pursue a revived Cold War
Modern politics is still heavily influenced by FDR and Reagan—do you tend to believe that the national government is an effective problem-solver? Or do you place more trust in the local and the private?