Democrats

The name of one of the two great historic parties in the USA, the Republican Party being the other.

Originally the Democrats stood for states rights and anti-monopoly as against the tendency of the central or federal government to consolidate power. This question of states rights has always been to the fore in the USA, and was one of the first questions to agitate the young republic. George Washington, the first President, with his lieutenant, Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the Treasury, was the leader of the party called the Federalists, which stood for a strong national or centralised government. Opposing him was Thomas Jefferson, the secretary of state, who stood for decentralisation, and whose party was known variously as the Republicans, the Democratic Republicans, and the Democrats. Jefferson was elected president in 1780, inaugurating a period of Democratic Republican dominance. Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams were the Democratic Republican presidents who succeeded Jefferson.

The election of Jackson in 1828 marked the beginning of the modern Democratic party. The party has been in power ten times between 1829 and 2000, Democratic Presidents since Jackson have been Van Buren, Polk, Pierce, Buchanan, Cleveland, Wilson, F D Roosevelt, Truman, J F Kennedy, Johnson, Carter and Clinton.

In pursuance of their general policy of supporting state rights, the Democrats were in the main very sympathetic to Southern demands before the Civil War. The party opposing them took the old name of the Democrats, viz. Republicans, in 1856. In later years, after the passions of the Civil War had cooled, the questions at issue between the Democrats and the Republicans were mainly the currency and the tariff. President Grover Cleveland crystallised the Democratic attitude by speaking of a tariff for revenue only, that is one to raise only such money as the government needed for its expenses, rather than the high protective tariff which the Republicans advocated to aid American industry. Since the days of the Great Depression, however, the Democrats have admitted that a certain amount of protection is necessary for the country, but have on the whole opposed the high tariffs urged by the Republicans.

Under F D Roosevelt, president 1933-45, the Democrats changed radically. The 'New Deal' policies with their emphasis on federal aid, lessened the Democratic connection with states rights, especially in the Northern industrial areas, where the Democrats now found their source of strength. In so doing, they became the party of the working masses, and were increasingly supported by the growing Black vote in the North. In the Southern states, however, states rights and racial segregation remained key features of the Democratic platform, and the party was therefore virtually split by a geographical division, its two halves having little save their name in common.

In 1952 the Democrats were defeated after 20 years in office, by Eisenhower, but this was a personal victory for a respected commander more than a clear cut victory for Republican policies. During Eisenhower's terms, Northern Democrats co-operated with Republicans to enforce the beginning of the end of racial segregation in the South, and this widened the breach between Southern and Northern Democrats. When a democratic president (Kennedy) was returned in 1960, he initiated a programme of civil rights which further alienated the Southern Democrats. This programme continued under Kennedy's successor, Johnson, though Johnson himself was a Southerner. Coupled with greatly increased federal expenditure under the Democrats, this caused an alliance of convenience between many Southern Democrats and the 1964 Republican presidential candidate, Goldwater, which resulted in several Southern states voting Republican for the first time since the Civil War.

Broadly speaking the Democratic Party today is identified with increasing federal participation in social welfare and economic regulation. The Republicans, have tended to become the party now most identified with states rights, and to be more conservative in such matters as taxation and government expenditure.

© JM Dent/Historybookshop.com