# What happened to the Whig party? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 14, 2000, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-whig-party/29303 "2000-08-14T15:39:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![smw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac8455/32.png) [@smw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smw)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-whig-party/29303/1 "2000-08-14T15:39:07Z")
What was their raisson d’etres? Where did they go? What was their basic platform? Steve ---
**Author:** ![Outrider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9d8465/32.png) [@Outrider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Outrider)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-whig-party/29303/2 "2000-08-14T15:41:45Z")
IIRC, their only platform was that they detested Andrew Jackson. I believe they later joined the Republican party. Didn’t Lincoln have some sort of Whig connections? Someone help me out, I took AP US History last year and already forgot everything 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Outrider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9d8465/32.png) [@Outrider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Outrider)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-whig-party/29303/3 "2000-08-14T15:48:36Z")
If my virtuoso summation of the Whig party wasn’t enough for you, try this link: [More than you ever wanted to know about the Whig Party](http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/ea/side/whig.html) By the way, this is the kind of question that’s easily answered by a 5 minute visit to your local neighborhood search engine. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-whig-party/29303/4 "2000-08-14T15:54:15Z")
After 1852 they all whigged out and became Republicans … ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-whig-party/29303/5 "2000-08-14T18:20:54Z")
For those are in to this sort of stuff, the symbol of the Whig Party was the raccoon. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-whig-party/29303/6 "2000-08-14T23:25:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Outrider \* > \*\*IIRC, their only platform was that they detested Andrew Jackson. I believe they later joined the Republican party. Didn’t Lincoln have some sort of Whig connections? Someone help me out, I took AP US History last year and already forgot everything 🙂 \*\* Lincoln was a Whig at first; the Republican Party didn’t exist until 1856. I think Whigs were basically republicans; Lincoln’s views were fiscally conservative, but socially more or less libertarian. He didn’t drink alcohol but wasn’t in favor of prohibition. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-whig-party/29303/7 "2000-08-14T23:45:37Z")
The Whigs were originally known as National Republicans back when their first candidate, Henry Clay, ran for president. Their big issues were the Bank of the United States and the use of high tariffs to finance what Clay called “The American System”, which was a plan to build a series of roads and canals with the aim of unifying the country. The Democrats of the time (aka Andrew Jackson) didn’t like that idea, especially the Bank of the United States. In 1834, Clay proposed using the name “Whig” for the party, to show that his party was the party of “patriots” back in Revolutionary Days. Jackson’s supporters were “Tories” to him. Needless to say, the Democrats wisely decided not to adopt that name. The only Whigs to get elected president were military leaders, Harrison and Taylor, and they both died. When Tyler ascended to the Presidency after Harrison’s death, the Whigs hated him so much, that he was formally booted out of the party. Lincoln was a big fan of Clay. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-whig-party/29303/8 "2000-08-15T00:00:19Z")
The way I always heard it was that originally, there was the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans…The DRs then split… Basically, I was told, the Feds were the same as the GOP ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-whig-party/29303/9 "2000-08-15T00:09:58Z")
The Federalists and the GOP (at any stage) pretty much had nothing in common unless you consider them to be both Americans. The Federalists really only had a need to exist during the early years of the Constitution. Their goal was to create a strong centralized Federal government. Hamilton achieved this through the Federal government’s assumption of the states’ Revolutionary War debts. This made the states financially dependent upon the Federal Government. The Republicans (GOP type) wanted a strong centralized government, but for different reasons (to prevent the spread of slavery principally at the outset). Now the GOP wants a decentralized Federal government and grant the states more power, which was what the Democrats believed in during the 19th Century. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-whig-party/29303/10 "2000-08-15T00:19:48Z")
Ah, yeah, that’s right! It was like, today’s Republicans are yesterday’s Democrats, or something like that… ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-whig-party/29303/11 "2000-08-15T01:05:58Z")
You are correct. Jefferson wouldn’t care much for today’s Democrats. He probably wouldn’t like the Republicans either. His biggest beef probably wouldn’t be with the size of the government, but with the size of the military.