Whig Party (United States)

The Whig Party was a major political party in the United States during the 1830s, 1840s and early 1850s. Alongside the Democratic Party, it formed the Second Party System. The party coalesced in opposition to President Andrew Jackson beginning in 1833 and had ceased to function as an effective national organization by 1856.

The Whigs drew support from diverse regions and social classes, including merchants, manufacturers, professionals, farmers and Southern planters. They generally performed strongly among native-born Protestants, especially voters influenced by evangelical reform movements, but the party's coalition and priorities varied considerably by state and region. Whigs criticized what they regarded as Jackson's abuse of executive power and favored a greater policymaking role for Congress. Compared with Democrats, they were generally more skeptical of territorial expansion and more likely to oppose the Mexican–American War, although neither position was unanimous within the party.

Whigs favored an economic program commonly associated with Clay's American System: a protective tariff, federal support for internal improvements and a national bank capable of providing a uniform currency and stable credit. The party competed nationally but never developed a common antislavery position. Its leaders usually tried to contain disputes over slavery in order to preserve a coalition that included both enslavers and antislavery Northerners. Northern Whigs were generally less supportive of slavery's territorial expansion than Northern Democrats, while Southern Whigs defended slavery but were often less supportive of secession than Southern Democrats during the party's final years.

The Whigs brought together former National Republicans, many Anti-Masons, states' rights opponents of Jackson and disaffected Democrats. Some former Federalists joined the new coalition, but the Whigs were not simply a continuation of the Federalist Party; prominent leaders such as Clay had come from the Democratic-Republican Party. Several regional Whig candidates received electoral votes in the 1836 United States presidential election, but none defeated Jackson's chosen successor, Martin Van Buren. William Henry Harrison defeated Van Buren in 1840 but died one month after taking office. Vice President John Tyler succeeded him and was expelled from the Whig Party later in 1841 after vetoing measures to establish a new national bank.

Clay won the Whig nomination in 1844 but lost narrowly to Democrat James K. Polk, whose presidency included the Mexican–American War. Whig nominee Zachary Taylor won the 1848 United States presidential election but died in 1850 and was succeeded by Millard Fillmore. Fillmore supported the separate measures collectively known as the Compromise of 1850, including the controversial Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The compromise temporarily reduced the immediate threat of disunion but deepened divisions between pro-compromise and antislavery Whigs. Those divisions contributed to the party's decisive defeat in the 1852 United States presidential election.

The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 accelerated the party's collapse by reopening the question of slavery's expansion. Many former Northern Whigs joined the new Republican Party, alongside antislavery former Democrats and Free Soilers. Other former Whigs joined the nativist American Party, the Opposition Party or, later, the Constitutional Union Party. These transitions varied by state and did not amount to a simple division in which every Northern Whig became a Republican and every Southern Whig followed one successor party.

Although the Whig organization disappeared, many of its leaders and policies influenced later parties. Former Whigs were important in the early Republican coalition and helped enact measures resembling parts of the American System during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, but the Republican Party also incorporated former Democrats, Free Soilers, abolitionists and other antislavery voters. It is therefore more accurate to describe the Whigs as one major predecessor of the Republicans rather than their sole or straightforward ancestor.