Editing Whig Party (United States) (section)

==Ideology and policies==
[[File:Horace Greeley restored.jpg|thumb|upright|Whig journalist [[Horace Greeley]]]]

===Whig thought===

Historian Frank Towers writes that "Democrats stood for the 'sovereignty of the people' as expressed in popular demonstrations, constitutional conventions, and majority rule as a general principle of governing, whereas Whigs advocated the rule of law, written and unchanging constitutions, and protections for minority interests against majority tyranny."<ref>Frank Towers, "Mobtown's Impact on the Study of Urban Politics in the Early Republic". ''Maryland Historical Magazine'' 107 (Winter 2012) pp. 469–75, p. 472, citing Robert E, Shalhope, ''The Baltimore Bank Riot: Political Upheaval in Antebellum Maryland'' (2009) p. 147.</ref> Historian [[Daniel Walker Howe]] argues the Whigs were modernizers, "who attached a great deal of importance to protecting property, maintaining social order, and preserving a distinct cultural heritage, three characteristic conservative concerns".<ref name="Howe 1979, pp. 183, 210"/> The Whigs themselves adopted the word "conservative", which they associated with "'law and order', social caution, and moral restraint".<ref name=":0">Reichley (2000), p. 80</ref> Political scientists [[John Aldrich (political scientist)|John H. Aldrich]] and John D. Griffin note that the labeling of Whig ideology as [[conservatism in the United States|conservative]] is "somewhat [counterintuitive] for those who associate a small role for government rather than a pro-business orientation with conservatism".<ref>Aldrich & Griffin (2018), p. 60</ref> Others, like historian Joseph W. Pearson, note that the Whigs were "essentially middle class."<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Pearson |first=Joseph W. |title=The Whigs' America: Middle Class Politics in the Age of Jackson |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |year=2019 |location=Lexington |pages=2}}</ref>

Historian John Ashworth writes that the two parties were polarized on essential questions of economic development, describing their competition as a "clash of democracy with capitalism".<ref>John Ashworth, ''Agrarians and Aristocrats: Party Political Ideology in the United States, 1837–1846'' (1987) p. 131.</ref> Whigs held that the government had a duty to promote economic prosperity for the people, especially during economic downturns.<ref name="holt6667"/> The Whigs further believed that individual regions of the country lacked the capital necessary for economic growth; thus, the federal government should subsidize large infrastructure projects and promote policies to facilitate the operations of banks and corporations.<ref name=" Holt 1999, p. 685"/>

Democrats, by contrast, argued that government action would inevitably favor the privileged few; thus, Democrats held that government should intervene in the economy as little as possible, especially at the federal level.<ref name="holt6667">Holt (1999), pp. 66–67</ref> Gregory Bowen notes that the two parties were polar opposite and highly ideological: "At the heart of Democratic ideology was a militant egalitarianism [for white men], which contrasted sharply with the Whigs' support for equality of opportunity to produce a meritocratic society."<ref>Bowen (1988), p. 34</ref> Democrats glorified individualism while Whigs said it was a dangerous impulse that must be subordinated to the greater good of an organic society; they called for individuals to restrain themselves and focus on doing their duty.<ref>Bowen (1988), p. 34.</ref>

Howe characterizes the Whigs' anti-individualism as an "[[Aristotlean]]" desire to perfect human nature by subordinating animal impulses to reason and self-control. Historian John Burt expands on Howe's argument, noting that Whigs "saw unmediated expressions of popular will in roughly the same way as they saw unmediated compulsions of appetite...[a]s a person driven by appetites is not free but the slave of the body, so a polity driven by popular will is not free but the slave of whatever urgencies drive King Numbers". The Whigs opposed President Jackson because they saw him as a [[demagogue]] recklessly exploiting the will of the majority, and they supported a strong Congress as a means of restraining that will within the bounds of a stable, constitutional framework.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burt |first1=John |title=Lincoln's Tragic Pragmatism: Lincoln, Douglas, and Moral Conflict |date=2013 |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=213–215}}</ref>

Despite their differences, both parties sought to portray themselves as the true protectors of an American political tradition of equality and self-government.<ref name="Holt 1999, p. 70"/> Though their Democratic rivals cast them as a continuation of the Federalists, the Whig Party's ideology was rooted in the agenda proposed by Clay and other nationalist Democratic-Republican Party leaders in the aftermath of the [[War of 1812]]. Many of these nationalist ideas were influenced by the economic program of [[Federalism in the United States|Federalist]] leader Alexander Hamilton, but after the War of 1812, they were also supported by President [[James Madison]], one of the founders of the Democratic-Republican Party.<ref name=" Holt 1999, pp. 2–3"/>

Unlike their Democratic rivals, many Whigs held an aversion to party organizations that was rooted in the traditional American wariness of political parties. Whig opposition to parties waned after the 1830s, but many leading Whigs, including Webster and John Quincy Adams, never fully gave up their independence in favor of a party label.<ref>Holt (1999), pp. 30–31</ref> The Whigs were also deeply committed to preventing executive tyranny, which they saw as an existential threat to republican self-government.<ref name="Holt 1999, p. 952"/>

Whig thought was typically rooted in evangelical Christianity, as expressed in the [[Second Great Awakening]]. Many Whigs would argue that the Bible was the best of Western civilization.<ref name=":2" /> Whigs linked moral progress and material progress—each needed the other. They supported Protestant religiosity and missions while being fearful of Catholics. Whigs believed that a higher stage of morality would be achieved when America brought wealth and opportunity to everyone. Whigs would then promote voluntary associations like churches, temperance societies, and schools. Participating in these kinds of societies made the Whigs think that people would become more virtuous. The Whigs believed the rapid business expansion was good with a focus on voluntary associations, not the moral danger Democrats warned about.<ref>Richard Carwardine, ''Evangelicals and Politics in Antebellum America'' (1993) pp. 89, 106–107.</ref> This optimism for the future (when compared with the Democrat's pessimism, seeing the rising middle class as an affront to the traditional working-class man) is what the historian Joseph W. Pearson notes as the starting difference between both the Whigs and the Democrat's economic views.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pearson |first=Joseph W. |title=The Whigs' America: Middle Class Politics in the Age of Jackson |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |year=2019 |location=Lexington |pages=1–8}}</ref>

With this high degree of focus on voluntary associations, the Whigs would place a high degree of emphasis on public schooling. These public schools and Colleges would promote upward social mobility, discouraging immorality and dissipation. One Whig, [[Horace Mann]], played a pivotal role in establishing a public school system in [[Massachusetts]], and most states would emulate that.<ref>Mark Groen, "The Whig Party and the Rise of Common Schools, 1837–1854", ''American Educational History Journal'' Spring/Summer 2008, Vol. 35 Issue 1/2, pp. 251–260</ref>

===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>