Locofoco Party

Locofoco Party

Radical wing of the Democratic Party organized in New York City in 1835. Made up largely of workingmen and reformers, the party opposed state banks, monopolies, tariffs, and special interests. Its name derives from the friction matches, known as locofocos, that radicals used to light candles when Democratic Party regulars tried to oust them from a Tammany Hall meeting by turning out the gas lights. Never a national party, the Locofocos reached the height of their influence when Congress passed the Independent Treasury Act (1840), which effected the primary Locofoco aim of complete separation of government and banking. The party was reabsorbed into the Democratic Party in the 1840s.