Democratic Party

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY is America's oldest and largest political party and, in terms of history, its most successful. However, the party has been in considerable decline since 1980, perhaps earlier. The party traces its origins to 1792, when Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to Alexander Hamilton outlining the philosophical differences between Jefferson and his followers, who came to be known as the anti-Federalists, and the Federalists, who were led intellectually by Hamilton, and in the political sphere, by George Washington.

Although the 1792 presidential election was a nearly unanimous ratification of George Washington's reelection, when Washington stepped aside four years later, the United States had formed two distinct parties, the Federalists and anti-Federalists. The Federalists narrowly held the presidency in the 1796 election, but it would be their last hurrah. John Adams, the man who had wanted to be king, was a weak president and an even weaker political leader. There was also a distinct geographic pattern in the electoral vote, with Adams sweeping New England, and taking most of the middle Atlantic states, while anti-Federalist Jefferson carried every state in the south and almost every southern elector. This is a geographic pattern that would be key to the Democratic Party's success for 180 more years.

In an 1800 rematch between the two, Jefferson's party, now called the Republican Party (usually referred to in history as the Democratic-Republican Party or the Jeffersonian Republicans to avoid confusion with the modern Republican Party), Jefferson held his southern base and also carried New York, which gave him a majority. The Democratic-Republicans soon expanded well beyond their southern base. Jefferson's reelection in 1804 was a major sweep, the Federalists carrying only Connecticut and Delaware and getting two votes from Maryland electors. The next series of elections were a time of one-party dominance of the presidency. The Democratic-Republicans elected three great presidents (all Virginians, as it happened) to two terms each: Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. Meanwhile, their Federalist opponents are barely footnote characters in history: Charles Pinckney, DeWitt Clinton, and Rufus King. During most of this time, the Federalist Party lacked a substantial caucus in Congress. By 1820, the party had effectively ceased to exist, and Monroe was reelected without opposition. The lone vote against him in the electoral college came from a New Hampshire elector who believed Washington should be the only president ever elected unanimously.

[Page 125]Up until then, presidential candidates were chosen by the congressional party caucus, and state legislatures had shown little difficulty in ratifying their choices. By 1824, however, popular vote for the presidency was gaining favor across the country as the means of selecting presidential electors, rather than legislative vote. The Democratic-Republican caucus in Congress chose William H. Crawford of Georgia as the presidential candidate that year. This choice was not well received by many legislatures or by the many partisans in the larger party who felt they would make a superior candidate. So, the party fractured, and three candidates better known than Crawford ran: John Quincy Adams, son of the former president (who might have had a leg up having come in second in the electoral college in 1820), Andrew Jackson, hero general of the War of 1812, and Henry Clay.

...