Democratic-Republican Party (United States)
The
Democratic-Republican Party was one of the two major
political parties in the
First Party System in the early American Republic, 1792-1820s. It was founded about 1792 by
Thomas Jefferson and
James Madison to oppose
Alexander Hamilton's programs and his
Federalist Party.
The Party came to power in 1800, electing presidents Jefferson, Madison, and
James Monroe.
John Quincy Adams and
Andrew Jackson also identified themselves with the party, although they were not formally chosen as presidential candidates by the
Congressional caucus that had chosen all nominees to 1816. After 1800, the party dominated Congress and most states outside of New England. In foreign policy, it generally favored France (before about 1801) and opposed Britain. The party promoted states' rights and the democratic rights of the
yeoman farmer. Until about 1816, its leadership opposed Federalist policies such as tariffs, a navy, military spending, a national debt, and a national bank.
The name "Democratic-Republican" was most employed after 1816; by that time, the Party had come to include almost all the politics of the United States. The name "Democratic-Republican" was most used by the branch of the Party that later consolidated around the candidacy of
Andrew Jackson, and which became the present-day
Democratic Party.
Founding 1792
The Party evolved from the political factions that opposed
Alexander Hamilton's fiscal policies in the early 1790s; these factions are known variously as the
Anti-Administration "Party" or the
Anti-Federalists. In the mid-
1790s, Thomas Jefferson and
James Madison organized these factions into a party and helped define its ideology in favor of yeomen farmers,
strict construction of the
Constitution, and a weaker federal government.
They named it the "Republican Party" to emphasize their anti-monarchical views and sympathy with the
French Revolution. A related grass roots movement, the
Democratic-Republican Societies, that sprang up across the country in 1793â€"94, was not officially affiliated with the new party, although many local Jeffersonian leaders were also leaders of the societies, and the party came to be called the Democratic-Republican Party by some Federalist opponents. The online
Encyclopedia Britannica notes: "Although the Federalists soon branded Jefferson's followers 'Democratic-Republicans,' attempting to link them with the excesses of the French Revolution, the Republicans officially adopted the derisive label in 1798."
According to Federalist
Noah Webster, the choice of the name "Republican" was "a powerful instrument in the process of making proselytes to the party.... The influence of names on the mass of mankind, was never more distinctly exhibited, than in the increase of the democratic party in the United States. The popularity of the denomination of the Republican Party, was more than a match for the popularity of Washington's character and services, and contributed to overthrow his administration." [Miller p. 320]
According to the
Cyclopædia of Political Science, published in 1899, the party was generally known as the "Republican Party" even though the name "Democratic-Republican" became the party's official name in the 1790s::"(The Party) at first (in 1792-3) took the name of the republican party...and was generally known by that name until about 1828-30. Upon its absorption of the French or democratic faction, in 1793-6, it took the official title of the democratic-republican party, which it still claims. About 1828-30 its nationalizing portion having broken off and taken the name of "national republican," the particularist residue assumed the name of "democrats," which had been accepted since about 1810 as equivalent to "republicans," and by which they have since been known. Some little confusion, therefore, has always been occasioned by the similarity in name between the strict construction republican party of 1793 and the broad construction republican party of 1856."
Presidential Elections of 1792 and 1796
The elections of 1792 were the first ones to be contested on anything resembling a partisan basis. In most states the congressional elections were recognized in some sense, as Jefferson strategist
John Beckley put it, as a "struggle between the Treasury department and the republican interest." In New York, the race for governor was organized along these lines. The candidates were
John Jay, a Hamiltonian, and incumbent
George Clinton, who was allied with Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans. [Elkins and McKitrick, p. 288]
In
1796, the party made its first bid for the
Presidency with Jefferson as its presidential candidate and
Aaron Burr as its vice presidential candidate. Jefferson came in second in the
electoral college and became vice president. He was a consistent and strong opponent of the policies of the
Adams administration. Jefferson and Madison, through the
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, announced the "
Principles of 1798," which became the hallmark of the party. The most important of these principles were states' rights, opposition to a strong national government, skepticism in regard to the federal courts, and opposition to a
Navy and a
National Bank. The party saw itself as a champion of
republicanism and viewed its opponents as supporters of the aristocracy, not the people.
The party itself originally coalesced around Jefferson, who diligently maintained extensive correspondence with like-minded republican leaders throughout the country.
Washington frequently decried the growing sense of "party" emerging from the internal battles between Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Adams and others in his administration. As tensions in Europe increased, the two factions increasingly found themselves on different sides of foreign policy issues, with the republicans favoring France over England. The Democratic-Republicans opposed Hamilton's national bank and his belief that a national debt was good for the country. They strongly distrusted the elitism of Hamilton's circle, denouncing it as "aristocratic"; and they called for state's rights. Above all they disagreed with Hamilton's sense of the Constitution as an elastic, growing document, because that would centralize power in a national government, which, they feared, was prone to corruption.
Organizational strategy
The new party invented many of the campaign and organizational techniques that were later adopted by the Federalists and became standard American practice. It was especially effective in building a network of
newspapers in major cities to broadcast its statements and editorialize in its favor.
Fisher Ames, a leading Federalist, who used the term "
Jacobin" to link members of Jefferson's party to the terrorists of the French Revolution, blamed the newspapers for electing Jefferson; they were, he wrote, "an overmatch for any Government.... The Jacobins owe their triumph to the unceasing use of this engine; not so much to skill in use of it as by repetition."
As one historian explained, "It was the good fortune of the Republicans to have within their ranks a number of highly gifted political manipulators and propagandists. Some of them had the ability... to not only see and analyze the problem at hand but to present it in a succinct fashion; in short, to fabricate the apt phrase, to coin the compelling slogan and appeal to the electorate on any given issue in language it could understand." Outstanding phrasemakers included editor
William Duane and party leaders
Albert Gallatin,
Thomas Cooper and Jefferson himself.
Just as important was effective party organization of the sort that
John J. Beckley pioneered. In 1796, he managed the Jefferson campaign in Pennsylvania, blanketing the state with agents who passed out 30,000 hand-written tickets, naming all 15 electors (printed tickets were not allowed). Thus he told one agent, "In a few days a select republican friend from the City will call upon you with a parcel of tickets to be distributed in your County. Any assistance and advice you can furnish him with, as to suitable districts & characters, will I am sure be rendered. He is one of two republican friends, who have undertaken to ride thro' all the middle & lower counties on this business, and bring with them 6 or 8 thousand tickets." Beckley thus was the first American professional campaign manager, and his techniques were quickly adopted in other states.
The emergence of the new organizational strategies can be seen in the politics of Connecticut around 1806, which have been well-documented by Cunningham. The Federalists dominated Connecticut, so the Republicans had to work harder to win. In 1806, the state leadership sent town leaders instructions for the forthcoming elections. Every town manager was told by state leaders "to appoint a district manager in each district or section of his town, obtaining from each an assurance that he will faithfully do his duty." Then the town manager was instructed to compile lists and total up the number of taxpayers, the number of eligible voters, how many were "decided republicans," "decided federalists," or "doubtful," and finally to count the number of supporters who were not currently eligible to vote but who might qualify (by age or taxes) at the next election. These highly detailed returns were to be sent to the county manager. They in turn were to compile county-wide statistics and send it on to the state manager. Using the newly compiled lists of potential voters, the managers were told to get all the eligibles to the town meetings, and help the young men qualify to vote. At the annual official town meeting the managers were told to, "notice what republicans are present, and see that each stays and votes till the whole business is ended. And each District-Manager shall report to the Town-Manager the names of all republicans absent, and the cause of absence, if known to him." Of utmost importance the managers had to nominate candidates for local elections, and to print and distribute the party ticket. The state manager was responsible for supplying party newspapers to each town for distribution by town and district managers.
This highly coordinated "get-out-the-vote" drive would be familiar to modern political campaigners, but was the first of its kind in world history.
Jefferson's platform
Political parties in the 1790s did not issue official platforms, but Jefferson issued a major statement in January 1799 that was widely reprinted and circulated. It became the basis of his party's philosophy: See also }}
1800 Election
The party's electors secured a majority in the
1800 election, but by an oversight, an equal number of electors cast votes for Jefferson and Burr. The tie sent the election to the House, and Federalists there blocked any choice. Finally Hamilton, believing that Burr would be a poor choice for president, arranged for Jefferson to win.
Starting with 1800 in what Jefferson called the "
Revolution of 1800", the Party took control of the presidency and both houses of Congress, beginning a quarter century of control of those institutions. A faction called "Old Republicans" opposed the nationalism that grew popular after 1815; and were stunned when party leaders started a
Second Bank of the United States in 1816.
The opposition Federalist Party, suffering from a lack of leadership after the death of Hamilton and the retirement of Adams, quickly declined; it revived briefly in opposition to the
War of 1812 but the extremism of its
Hartford Convention of 1815 utterly destroyed it as a political force.
In 1804, the party's Congressional caucus for the first time created a sort of national committee, with members from 13 states charged with "promoting the success of the republican nominations."
That committee later was disbanded and did not become permanent. Unlike the Federalists, the party never held a national convention but always relied on its Congressional caucus to select the national ticket. That caucus, however, did not deal with legislative issues, which were handled by the elected Speaker and informal floor leaders. The state legislatures often instructed members of Congress how to vote on specific issues. More exactly, they "instructed" the Senators (who were elected by the legislatures), and "requested" the Representatives (who were elected by the people.) On rare occasions a Senator resigned rather than follow instructions.
Monroe and Adams, 1816-1828
In rapidly expanding western states, the Federalists had few members, as the party's base was in the industrializing states of the Northeast. Every state had a distinct political geography that shaped party membership. In Pennsylvania, the Republicans were weakest around
Philadelphia and strongest in
Scotch-Irish settlements in the west. Members came from all social classes, but came predominantly from the poor, subsistence farmers, mechanics and tradesmen. (Klein p 44). After the stalemate in the
War of 1812, partisanship subsided across the young republic -- people called it the
Era of Good Feeling. Monroe ran unopposed in 1820.
In the early years of the party, the key central organization grew out of caucuses of Congressional leaders in Washington. However, the key battles to choose electors occurred in the states, not in the caucus. In many cases, legislatures still chose electors; in others, the election of electors was heavily influenced by local parties that were heavily controlled by relatively small groups of officials. Without a significant Federalist opposition, the need for party unity was greatly diminished and the party's organization faded away.
James Monroe ran under the party's banner in
1820, building support by consensus. The party's historic domination by the Virginian delegation faded as New York and Pennsylvania became more important. In
1824, most Democratic-Republicans in Congress boycotted the caucus; only a small rump group backed
William Crawford. The Crawford faction included most "Old Republicans," who remained committed to states' rights and the Principles of 1798, and distrustful of the nationalizing program promoted by
Henry Clay and
John C. Calhoun. By the late 1820s the Old Republicans mostly supported
Andrew Jackson and
Martin Van Buren.
In the aftermath of the disputed 1824 election, the separate factions took on many characteristics of parties in their own right. Adams' supporters, in league with Clay, favored modernization, banks, industrial development, and federal spending for roads and other internal improvements, which the Old Republicans and the Jackson men usually opposed. Writing in his personal journal on
December 13,
1826, President Adams noted the difficulty he faced in attempting to be nonpartisan in appointing men to office:}}
After Jackson's victory in 1828,
Henry Clay, longtime party leader in Congress, tried to create a
National Republican Party. Former members of the defunct Federalist Party (including
Daniel Webster) gravitated to Clay's new party. Clay was solidly defeated by Jackson in 1832. His National Republican Party disappeared and was soon superseded by the new, more permanent
Whig Party.
Presidential electors were now all chosen by direct election, except in South Carolina, where the state legislatures chose them. White manhood suffrage was the norm throughout the West and in most of the East as well. The voters thus were much more powerful, and to win their votes required complex party organization. The Jacksonians, under the leadership of
Martin Van Buren, built strong state and local organizations throughout the country. In 1832 they held their first national convention under the old name "Republican Party," [Gammon] but historians always refer to it as the Democratic party and note it has survived into the 21st century.
Terminology had not yet crystallized. In the 1828 election, both Adams and Jackson still thought of themselves as "Republicans," but ran under the names of their factions. Adams thought of himself as a "National Republican" while Jackson's supporters called themselves "Jackson Men" or "Jacksonians." The name "Democratic Party" was adopted in the mid 1830s. This was the beginning of the modern-day Democratic Party.
At least since
William Jennings Bryan the core of the modern
Democratic Party identifies with the anti-elitism, the distrust of business and banks, and the democratic strivings of the early party. Since 1936 the party has disavowed the
States' Rights policies of the original party, and in the 1980s it broke with the southern base. In recent years, the modern
Republican Party (founded 1854) has identified with Jefferson's commitment to states' rights, his distrust of the judiciary, and his commitment to a limited federal government.
The Democratic Party traces its lineage directly to the party of Jefferson by way of
Andrew Jackson,
Martin Van Buren, and other Democratic-Republicans. The Democratic Party's official website states that their party was organized in 1792 by
Thomas Jefferson, and the largest annual fundraisers for state Democratic Party organizations are their annual
Jefferson-Jackson Dinners.
Many Presidents nominated from the Democratic Party have emphasized their party's link to the party of Jefferson throughout their political careers or during their time spent while President.
Martin Van Buren stated in the posthumously published
Inquiry Into the Origin and Course of Political Parties in the United States that the party's name had changed from Republican to Democratic and that Jefferson was the founder of the party.
Thomas Jefferson Randolph, eldest grandson to Jefferson, gave a speech on
July 9,
1872, at the
Democratic National Convention and said that he had spent eighty years of his life in the Democratic-Republican Party.
On
November 25,
1991, the United States Senate passed by voice vote "A bill to establish a commission to commemorate the bicentennial of the establishment of the Democratic Party of the United States." It was introduced by Democratic Senator
Terry Sanford and cosponsored by 56 Senators.
The coining of the name "Republican Party" in 1854 for the
new anti-slavery party, was intended to harken back to Jeffersonian ideals of liberty and equality, ideals that
Abraham Lincoln and many members of the new party sought to revive together with the Hamiltonian Federalist-Adams National Republican-Clay Whig program of active government in economic affairs.
Thus, the modern Republican Party was formed in opposition to the principals of states' rights endorsed by the Democrats of the period.
The Democratic Party is often called "the party of Jefferson"; the Republican Party is often called "the party of Lincoln," notwithstanding the ideological shifts that all parties undergo over the years.
The following
United States Presidents were elected following a process that selected them as a national nominee of the Democratic-Republican party:
*
Thomas Jefferson (1801â€"1809)
*
James Madison (1809â€"1817)
*
James Monroe (1817â€"1825)
In addition,
John Quincy Adams and
Andrew Jackson identified themselves and their administrations as Democratic-Republican, but ran in elections where opponents did as well.
*
(a) Jefferson did not win the Presidency, and Burr did not win the Vice Presidency. However, under the pre-12th Amendment election rules, Jefferson won the Vice Presidency due to lack of discipline among Federalist electors.*
(b) There was no organized opposition to the Republican Party; however, the Party splintered, and four major candidates ran as Republicans, though they avoided any party label. While Jackson won clear pluralities in the electoral college and popular vote, he did not win enough electoral votes for the presidency (The Constitution stipulates a majority of all electoral votes is needed). The contest was thrown to the House of Representatives, where Henry Clay used his influence to help Adams win the election. Calhoun won the Vice Presidency.*
List of political parties in the United States* Banning, Lance.
The Jeffersonian Persuasion: Evolution of a Party Ideology (1980)
* Beeman, Richard R.
The Old Dominion and the New Nation, 1788-1801 (1972)
* Beard; Charles A.
Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy (1915)
* Brown; Stuart Gerry.
The First Republicans: Political Philosophy and Public Policy in the Party of Jefferson and Madison Syracuse University Press. 1954.
* Cunningham, Noble E., Jr.
Jeffersonian Republicans: The formation of Party Organization: 1789-1801 (1957)
* Cunningham, Noble E., Jr., ed. '"The Making of the American Party System 1789 to 1809
(1965) excerpts from primary sources
* Cunningham, Noble E., Jr. The Jeffersonian Republicans in Power: Party Operations 1801-1809
(1963)
* Cunningham, Noble E., Jr. The Process of Government Under Jefferson
(1978)
* Dawson, Matthew Q. Partisanship and the Birth of America's Second Party, 1796-1800: Stop the Wheels of Government.
Greenwood, 2000.
* Elkins, Stanley M. and Eric McKitrick. The Age of Federalism
(1995), detailed political history of 1790s
* Gilpatrick, Delbert Harold. Jeffersonian Democracy in North Carolina, 1789-1816
(1931)
* Goodman, Paul. The Democratic-Republicans of Massachusetts (1964)
* Humphrey, Carol Sue The Press of the Young Republic, 1783-1833
(1996)
* Kelley, Robert. The Cultural Pattern in American Politics: The First Century
(1979)
* Philip Shriver Klein; Pennsylvania Politics, 1817-1832: A Game without Rules
1940.
* Jerry W. Knudson. Jefferson And the Press: Crucible of Liberty
(2006) how 4 Republican and 4 Federalist papers covered election of 1800; Thomas Paine; Louisiana Purchase; Hamilton-Burr duel; impeachment of Chase; and the embargo
* John C. Miller; Alexander Hamilton: Portrait in Paradox
(1959)* Pasley, Jeffrey L. et al eds. Beyond the Founders: New Approaches to the Political History of the Early American Republic
(2004)
* Peterson, Merrill D. The Jefferson Image in the American Mind
(1960)
* Peterson; Merrill D. Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation: A Biography
Oxford University Press (1975)
* Prince, Carl E. New Jersey's Jeffersonian Republicans: The Genesis of an Early Party Machine, 1789-1817
(1967)
* Rutland, Robert A., ed. James Madison and the American Nation, 1751-1836: An Encyclopedia.
(1994)
* Schachner, Nathan. Aaron Burr: A Biography
(1961)
* Sharp, James Roger. American Politics in the Early Republic: The New Nation in Crisis
(1993)
* Smelser, Marshall. The Democratic Republic 1801-1815
(1968)
* Stewart, Donald H. The Opposition Press of the Federalist Era
(1968)
* Tinkcom, Harry M. The Republicans and Federalists in Pennsylvania, 1790â€"1801
(1950)
* Wiltse, Charles Maurice. The Jeffersonian Tradition in American Democracy
(1935)
* Wilentz, Sean. The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln'' (2005)
*
Democratic-Republican Party,
Encyclopædia Britannica Profile on the American Presidency.
*Lalor, John J.
Democratic-Republican Party,
Cyclopædia of Political Science, Political Economy, and the Political History of the United States by the Best American and European Writers. New York: Maynard, Merrill, and Co., 1899.
*
Democratic Party.
Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition. 1911. Covers the history of both the Democratic-Republican and Democratic Parties.
*
American Patriot Party. Jeffersonian Democratic Republican Party.
