Editing Whig Party (United States) (section)

===Whig policies===
{{Further|American System (economic plan)}}
[[File:John Jordan Crittenden - Brady 1855.jpg|thumb|upright|[[John J. Crittenden]], an influential Whig leader who later established the short-lived [[Constitutional Union Party (United States)|Constitutional Union Party]] to contest the election of 1860]]

The Whigs celebrated Clay's vision of the [[American System (economic plan)|American System]], which promoted rapid economic and industrial growth in the United States through support for a national bank, high tariffs, a distribution policy, and federal funding for infrastructure projects.<ref>{{cite book|author=Donald T. Critchlow and Philip R. VanderMeer|title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Political and Legal History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FeVMAgAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA359|year=2012|publisher=Oxford UP|pages=280, 358–59, 381–83|isbn=978-0199754618}}</ref> After the Second Bank of the United States lost its federal charter in 1836, the Whigs favored the restoration of a national bank that could provide a uniform currency, ensure a consistent supply of credit, and attract private investors.<ref>Holt (1999), p. 131</ref> Through high tariffs, Clay and other Whigs hoped to generate revenue and encourage the establishment of domestic manufacturing, thereby freeing the United States from dependence on foreign imports.{{sfn|Klotter|2018|pp=85–87}}

High tariffs were also designed to prevent a negative [[balance of trade]] and stop the flow of currency and credit from the country.<ref name=" Holt 1999, p. 685"/> Whigs generally opposed Democratic efforts to reduce federal land prices, implement a "preemption" policy that would allow [[squatter]]s the right to purchase land before it came to auction, and transfer ownership of western lands to the states. Instead, Whigs favored a "distribution" policy that would distribute revenues from federal land sales to the states;<ref>Holt (1999), pp. 135–136</ref> states could then invest that money in education, infrastructure projects, and other priorities.{{sfn|Klotter|2018|pp=220–221}} The Whigs supported federally-financed internal improvements on the belief that only the federal government could construct the transportation system necessary for uniting the country commercially and culturally.{{sfn|Klotter|2018|pp=89–91}}

Aside from the Whig economic program, various other issues confronted the Whig Party. [[Temperance movement in the United States|Temperance]] never became a purely partisan issue between Whigs and Democrats, but Whigs tended to be more favorable to state prohibition laws than were Democrats.<ref>Holt (1999), pp. 689–690</ref> Similarly, opinions on [[immigration to the United States|immigration]] did not break down strictly on party lines, but Whigs tended to have less favorable views towards immigration, partly because most recent immigrants aligned with the Democratic Party.<ref>Holt (1999), pp. 691–692</ref>

In the mid-1840s, a group of Whigs unsuccessfully pushed a bill that would have implemented new paperwork requirements for naturalization and monitored the movements of immigrants in the United States more closely. The unwillingness of Whig leaders to push for more far-reaching changes, such as an extension of the five-year naturalization period, encouraged some Whigs to join nativist third parties.<ref>Holt (1999), pp. 228–229</ref>

Whigs were less in favor of expansionism than their Democratic counterparts, and Whigs tended to oppose the Mexican–American War and the acquisition of new territories like [[Cuba]].<ref>Holt (1999), p. 739</ref> [[John Mack Faragher]] writes that Democrats sought to balance the rising power of industrialization in the United States by following "Thomas Jefferson's vision of establishing agriculture in the new territories", while Whigs were content to develop the country within its present borders and feared that expansion would cause a divisive debate over slavery in the territories.<ref>, John Mack Faragher et al. ''Out of Many: A History of the American People'', (2nd ed. 1997) page 413</ref>