Origins and Early Years
The name was first used by Thomas Jefferson's party, later called the Democratic Republican party or, simply, the Democratic party Democratic party, American political party; the oldest continuous political party in the United States.
Origins in Jeffersonian Democracy
When political alignments first emerged in George Washington's administration, opposing factions were led by
..... Click the link for more information. . The name reappeared in the 1850s, when the present-day Republican party was founded. At that time the crucial issue of the extension of slavery into the territories split the Democratic party and the Whig party Whig party, one of the two major political parties of the United States in the second quarter of the 19th cent.
Origins
As a party it did not exist before 1834, but its nucleus was formed in 1824 when the adherents of John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay
..... Click the link for more information. , and opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act Kansas-Nebraska Act, bill that became law on May 30, 1854, by which the U.S. Congress established the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. By 1854 the organization of the vast Platte and Kansas river countries W of Iowa and Missouri was overdue.
..... Click the link for more information. of 1854 organized the new Republican party. Jackson, Mich., is called the birthplace of the party (July 6, 1854) and Joseph Medill Medill, Joseph (mədĭl`), 1823–99, American journalist, b. near St. John, N.B., Canada.
..... Click the link for more information. is credited with having suggested its name, but these distinctions are also claimed for other places and other men.
By 1855 the new party was well launched in the North. Anti-slavery Whigs such as William Seward Seward, William Henry, 1801–72, American statesman, b. Florida, Orange co., N.Y.
Early Career
A graduate (1820) of Union College, he was admitted to the bar in 1822 and established himself as a lawyer in Auburn, N.Y.
..... Click the link for more information. and Thurlow Weed Weed, Thurlow (thûr`lō), 1797–1882, American journalist and political leader, b. Cairo, N.Y.
..... Click the link for more information. were dominant in the new grouping, but elements of the Know-Nothing movement Know-Nothing movement, in U.S. history. The increasing rate of immigration in the 1840s encouraged nativism. In Eastern cities where Roman Catholic immigrants especially had concentrated and were welcomed by the Democrats, local nativistic societies were formed to
..... Click the link for more information. , together with the Free-Soil party Free-Soil party, in U.S. history, political party that came into existence in 1847–48 chiefly because of rising opposition to the extension of slavery into any of the territories newly acquired from Mexico.
..... Click the link for more information. , abolitionists abolitionists, in U.S. history, particularly in the three decades before the Civil War, members of the movement that agitated for the compulsory emancipation of the slaves.
..... Click the link for more information. , and anti-Nebraska Democrats also supplied strength. The party's national organization was perfected at Pittsburgh in Feb., 1856, and its first presidential candidate, John C. Frémont Frémont, John Charles, 1813–90, American explorer, soldier, and political leader, b. Savannah, Ga. He taught mathematics to U.S. naval cadets, then became an assistant on a surveying expedition (1838–39) between the upper Mississippi River and the
..... Click the link for more information. , made a creditable showing against victorious James Buchanan. The party opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the extension of slavery, denounced the Supreme Court's decision in the Dred Scott Case Dred Scott Case, argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1856–57. It involved the then bitterly contested issue of the status of slavery in the federal territories. In 1834, Dred Scott, a black slave, personal servant to Dr. John Emerson, a U.S.
..... Click the link for more information. , and favored the admission of Kansas as a free state.
The Civil War and Reconstruction Years
Generally belligerent toward the South, the Republicans were regarded by Southerners with mingled hatred and fear as sectional tension increased. They were successful in the elections of 1858 and passed over their better-known leaders to nominate Abraham Lincoln Lincoln, Abraham (lĭng`kən), 1809–65, 16th President of the United States (1861–65).
..... Click the link for more information. in 1860. The party platform in 1860 included planks calling for a high protective tariff, free homesteads, and a transcontinental railroad; these were bids for support among Westerners, farmers, and eastern manufacturing interests.
Lincoln's victory over Stephen A. Douglas, John C. Breckinridge, and John Bell was the signal for the secession secession, in political science, formal withdrawal from an association by a group discontented with the actions or decisions of that association. The term is generally used to refer to withdrawal from a political entity; such withdrawal usually occurs when a
..... Click the link for more information. of the Southern states, and the Civil War Civil War, in U.S. history, conflict (1861–65) between the Northern states (the Union) and the Southern states that seceded from the Union and formed the Confederacy .
..... Click the link for more information. followed. Union military failures early in the war and conservative opposition to such measures as the Emancipation Proclamation Emancipation Proclamation, in U.S. history, the executive order abolishing slavery in the Confederate States of America.
Desire for Such a Proclamation
..... Click the link for more information. caused the party to lose ground in the Congressional elections of 1862. But despite mutterings against his leadership, Lincoln, renominated on the Union (Republican) ticket in 1864, defeated Gen. George B. McClellan.
Although a separate ticket headed by the radical Frémont withdrew before the election in 1864, the cleavage within the party between radicals and moderates widened as the war progressed. Radicals such as Benjamin F. Wade Wade, Benjamin Franklin, 1800–1878, U.S. Senator from Ohio (1851–69), b. near Springfield, Mass. He moved (1821) to Ohio and studied law. He was successively prosecuting attorney of Ashtabula co.
..... Click the link for more information. , Henry W. Davis Davis, Henry Winter, 1817–65, American political leader, b. Annapolis, Md. He was elected (1854) to the House of Representatives on the Know-Nothing ticket and was twice reelected (1856, 1858) with the aid of the Republican party.
..... Click the link for more information. , Thaddeus Stevens Stevens, Thaddeus, 1792–1868, U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania (1849–53, 1859–68), b. Danville, Vt. He taught in an academy at York, Pa., studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Maryland.
..... Click the link for more information. , Charles Sumner Sumner, Charles, 1811–74, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (1851–74), b. Boston. He attended (1831–33) and was later a lecturer at Harvard law school, was admitted (1834) to the bar, and practiced in Boston. He spent the years 1837 to 1840 in Europe.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Edwin M. Stanton Stanton, Edwin McMasters, 1814–69, American statesman, b. Steubenville, Ohio. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1836 and began to practice law in Cadiz.
..... Click the link for more information. advocated a punitive policy for the South, while Lincoln and the moderates were inclined to leniency. The division was made complete when, after Lincoln's assassination, his successor, Andrew Johnson Johnson, Andrew, 1808–75, 17th President of the United States (1865–69), b. Raleigh, N.C.
Early Life
His father died when Johnson was 3, and at 14 he was apprenticed to a tailor.
..... Click the link for more information. , adopted a moderate program of Reconstruction Reconstruction, 1865–77, in U.S. history, the period of readjustment following the Civil War. At the end of the Civil War , the defeated South was a ruined land.
..... Click the link for more information. . Johnson, a Jacksonian Democrat from Tennessee, had been added to the ticket in 1864 to strengthen the idea of a Union party. Ultimately his policies and attempts to implement them antagonized his supporters among the moderate Republicans and paved the way for the triumph of the radicals in the congressional elections of 1866. The height of radical power was reached in 1868 with the impeachment of Johnson, which was defeated by only a one-vote margin.
The nomination of the war hero Ulysses S. Grant Grant, Ulysses Simpson, 1822–85, commander in chief of the Union army in the Civil War and 18th President (1869–77) of the United States, b. Point Pleasant, Ohio. He was originally named Hiram Ulysses Grant.
..... Click the link for more information. assured Republican success over the Democrats led by Horatio Seymour in the presidential election of 1868. The radicals were supreme under Grant, but their excesses and the open scandals of the administration created a new schism, leading to the formation of the Liberal Republican party Liberal Republican party, in U.S. history, organization formed in 1872 by Republicans discontented at the political corruption and the policies of President Grant's first administration. Other disaffected elements were drawn into the party.
..... Click the link for more information. . Its candidate, Horace Greeley, although supported by the Democrats, was not popular enough to defeat Grant in 1872, and corruption became even more widespread.
The election of 1876 indicated that radical Republicanism had lost much of its popular support. The Democratic candidate, Samuel J. Tilden, received a popular plurality of over 250,000 votes, but the disputed electoral votes of Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana, the only Southern states still under Republican control, were awarded to Rutherford B. Hayes Hayes, Rutherford Birchard, 1822–93, 19th President of the United States (1877–81), b. Delaware, Ohio, grad. Kenyon College, 1843, and Harvard law school, 1845. He became a moderately successful lawyer in Cincinnati and was made (1858) city solicitor.
..... Click the link for more information. , and the Republican was declared President-elect. With the election, however, Republican domination of the South and radical rule of the party were definitely ended.
The Late Nineteenth Century
In the period that followed, the two parties differed little in their programs. Each party had numerous almost irreconcilable factions, and each avoided taking any real stand on controversial issues, which were generally left to lesser political groups such as the Granger movement Granger movement, American agrarian movement taking its name from the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, an organization founded in 1867 by Oliver H. Kelley and six associates. Its local units were called granges and its members grangers.
..... Click the link for more information. and the Greenback party Greenback party, in U.S. history, political organization formed in the years 1874–76 to promote currency expansion. The members were principally farmers of the West and the South; stricken by the Panic of 1873, they saw salvation in an inflated currency that
..... Click the link for more information. . The Republicans favored a protective tariff and the Democrats a tariff for revenue only, but even this traditional distinction was not rigidly kept. However, the Republican tariff policy was the work of leaders of the new industrial capitalism, whose influence in party councils began to be strongly felt under Grant.
The Republican "old guard," led by Roscoe Conkling Conkling, Roscoe, 1829–88, American politician, b. Albany, N.Y. On his admission to the bar in 1850, he was immediately appointed district attorney of Albany. The son of Alfred Conkling, Congressman and federal judge, he became a U.S.
..... Click the link for more information. , while failing to secure a third nomination for Grant in 1880, nevertheless temporarily blocked the presidential aspirations of James G. Blaine Blaine, James Gillespie, 1830–93, American politician, b. West Brownsville, Pa.
Early Career
Blaine taught school and studied law before moving (1854) to Maine, where he became an influential newspaper editor.
..... Click the link for more information. . Another ex-Union general, James A. Garfield Garfield, James Abram, 1831–81, 20th President of the United States (Mar.–Sept., 1881). Born on a frontier farm in Cuyahoga co., Ohio, he spent his early years in poverty. As a youth he worked as farmer, carpenter, and canal boatman.
..... Click the link for more information. , was nominated and was elected over a Democratic general, Winfield S. Hancock. Assassinated shortly after taking office, Garfield was succeeded by Vice President Chester A. Arthur Arthur, Chester Alan, 1829–86, 21st President of the United States (1881–85), b. Fairfield, Vt. He studied law and before the Civil War practiced in New York City. In the war he was (1861–63) quartermaster general of New York State.
..... Click the link for more information. .
In these postwar elections, the party, always supported by the Grand Army of the Republic Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), organization established by Civil War veterans of the Union army and navy. Principal figures in the founding of the GAR were John A. Logan and Richard J. Oglesby. The first post was formed (Apr. 6, 1866) at Decatur, Ill.
..... Click the link for more information. , denounced all Democrats as former Copperheads Copperheads, in the American Civil War, a reproachful term for those Northerners sympathetic to the South, mostly Democrats outspoken in their opposition to the Lincoln administration. They were especially strong in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, where Clement L.
..... Click the link for more information. and claimed to have alone saved the Union. But "waving the bloody shirt," as this type of propaganda was styled, was not enough to elect Blaine in 1884. The reform wing of the party, led by Carl Schurz Schurz, Carl (sh
rts), 1829–1906, American political leader, b. Germany.
..... Click the link for more information. , deserted Blaine for the conservative Democrat Grover Cleveland, who was elected. This defection by the mugwumps mugwumps (mŭg`wŭmps'), slang term in U.S. political history for the Republicans who in 1884 deserted their party nominee, James G.
..... Click the link for more information. illustrated the lack of real issues between the two parties; it was the man and not the party that counted. Benjamin Harrison Harrison, Benjamin, 1833–1901, 23d President of the United States (1889–93), b. North Bend, Ohio, grad. Miami Univ. (Ohio), 1852; grandson of William Henry Harrison .
..... Click the link for more information. defeated Cleveland in 1888 but lost to him in 1892. The growing Populist party Populist party, in U.S. history, political party formed primarily to express the agrarian protest of the late 19th cent. In some states the party was known as the People's party.
..... Click the link for more information. , with its radical program, had a peculiar position in those elections, receiving in each section of the country the support of the party not in power.
McKinley through Coolidge
When, in 1896, the Democratic party was captured by the radicals under William Jennings Bryan Bryan, William Jennings (brī`ən), 1860–1925, American political leader, b. Salem, Ill.
..... Click the link for more information. , its presidential candidate in 1896, 1900, and 1908, the Republican party became openly the champion of the gold standard and conservative economic doctrines. The conservatives, skillfully guided by national chairman Marcus A. Hanna Hanna, Marcus Alonzo (Mark Hanna), 1837–1904, American capitalist and politician, b. New Lisbon (now Lisbon), Ohio. He attended Western Reserve College for a short time, then entered his father's wholesale grocery and commission business at Cleveland in 1858.
..... Click the link for more information. , won with William McKinley McKinley, William, 1843–1901, 25th president of the United States (1897–1901), b. Niles, Ohio. He was educated at Poland (Ohio) Seminary and Allegheny College.
..... Click the link for more information. in 1896 and 1900, and under such leaders as Nelson W. Aldrich Aldrich, Nelson Wilmarth, 1841–1915, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island, b. Foster, R.I. He rose in local politics as state assemblyman (1875–76) and U.S. Representative (1879–81) before he served as Senator (1881–1911).
..... Click the link for more information. , Thomas B. Reed Reed, Thomas Brackett, 1839–1902, American legislator, b. Portland, Maine. A lawyer, he served in the state assembly (1868–69) and state senate (1870) and became (1870–73) state attorney general before he was elected (1876) as a Republican to the U.
..... Click the link for more information. , Joseph G. Cannon Cannon, Joseph Gurney, 1836–1926, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (1903–11), b. Guilford co., N.C. A lawyer in Illinois, Cannon served as a Republican in Congress from 1873 to 1923, except for the years 1891–93 and 1913–15, when
..... Click the link for more information. , Thomas C. Platt Platt, Thomas Collier, 1833–1910, American legislator and political boss, b. Owego, N.Y. He was president of the Tioga County National Bank and had acquired considerable commercial interests by the time he served in the U.S.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Matthew S. Quay Quay, Matthew Stanley (kwā), 1833–1904, American political leader, b. Dillsburg, Pa.
..... Click the link for more information. , the party prospered. Theodore Roosevelt Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858–1919, 26th President of the United States (1901–9), b. New York City.
Early Life and Political Posts
Of a prosperous and distinguished family, Theodore Roosevelt was educated by private tutors and traveled widely.
..... Click the link for more information. , successor to the assassinated McKinley, easily defeated the conservative Democrat Alton B. Parker in 1904, and the vigorous foreign policy of his administration fostered the belief that the Republicans stood for the imperialism represented by the recent Spanish-American War.
Under Roosevelt's Republican successor and friend, William Howard Taft Taft, William Howard, 1857–1930, 27th President of the United States (1909–13) and 10th Chief Justice of the United States (1921–30), b. Cincinnati.
Early Career
After graduating (1878) from Yale, he attended Cincinnati Law School.
..... Click the link for more information. , "dollar diplomacy" flourished, but a new rift appeared in the party. Insurgents Insurgents, in U.S. history, the Republican Senators and Representatives who in 1909–10 rose against the Republican standpatters controlling Congress, to oppose the Payne-Aldrich tariff and the dictatorial power of House speaker Joseph G. Cannon .
..... Click the link for more information. led by Senator Robert M. La Follette Belle Case La Follette, 1859–1931, b. Juneau co., Wis., obtained a law degree, worked for woman suffrage, engaged in journalism, and ably advised her husband throughout his life. Their older son,
Robert Marion La Follette, Jr., 1895–1953, b. Madison, Wis.
..... Click the link for more information. balked at the party's conservatism and when the regulars renominated Taft in 1912, most of the dissidents withdrew and in the Bull Moose convention chose Roosevelt to lead the new Progressive party Progressive party, in U.S. history, the name of three political organizations, active, respectively, in the presidential elections of 1912, 1924, and 1948.
Election of 1912
..... Click the link for more information. ticket. Because of this division, the Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson, was elected President and, narrowly reelected in 1916 over Charles Evans Hughes Hughes, Charles Evans (hy
..... Click the link for more information. , he served through World War I. The party, however, won the Congressional elections of 1918, and Republican opposition was a large factor in defeating Wilson's peace program. By straddling the issue of the League of Nations League of Nations, former international organization, established by the peace treaties that ended World War I. Like its successor, the United Nations , its purpose was the promotion of international peace and security.
..... Click the link for more information. and calling for a return to "normalcy," the party easily elected Warren G. Harding Harding, Warren Gamaliel (gəmā`lēəl), 1865–1923, 29th President of the United States (1921–23), b.
..... Click the link for more information. in 1920. His administration rivaled Grant's for corruption, but after Harding died in office, his successor, Calvin Coolidge Coolidge, Calvin, 1872–1933, 30th President of the United States (1923–29), b. Plymouth, Vt. John Calvin Coolidge was a graduate of Amherst College and was admitted to the bar in 1897. He practiced (1897–1919) law in Northampton, Mass.
..... Click the link for more information. , was returned over John W. Davis and La Follette.
Depression and World War II
The Republican victory with Herbert C. Hoover Hoover, Herbert Clark, 1874–1964, 31st President of the United States (1929–33), b. West Branch, Iowa.
Wartime Relief Efforts
After graduating (1895) from Stanford, he worked as a mining engineer in many parts of the world.
..... Click the link for more information. in 1928 marked the first time since the end of Reconstruction that the party had carried states of the old Confederacy; this came about chiefly because the Democratic candidate, Alfred E. Smith, was a Roman Catholic and an opponent of prohibition. Hoover and the Republicans were blamed for the disastrous economic depression that soon enveloped the country, and the Democrats, under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, were swept into office in 1932. The frustrated Republicans were never able to break the remarkable hold of Roosevelt and the New Deal on the electorate and regularly went down to defeat every four years, with Alfred M. Landon Landon, Alfred Mossman, 1887–1987, U.S. politician, b. West Middlesex, Pa. He was a banker and oil operator before he ran for public office. Landon served (1933–37) as governor of Kansas and gained a national reputation by his economic administration.
..... Click the link for more information. (1936), Wendell Willkie Willkie, Wendell Lewis, 1892–1944, American industrialist and political leader, b. Elwood, Ind. He practiced law in Ohio (1914–23) and in New York (1923–33) before he became president (1933) of the Commonwealth and Southern Corp.
..... Click the link for more information. (1940), and Thomas E. Dewey Dewey, Thomas Edmund, 1902–71, American political figure, governor (1943–55) of New York, b. Owosso, Mich. Admitted (1925) to the bar, Dewey practiced law and in 1931 became chief assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
..... Click the link for more information. (1944).
Isolationists held the upper hand in the party before World War II, and in 1940 two Republicans, Henry L. Stimson Stimson, Henry Lewis, 1867–1950, American statesman, b. New York City. A graduate of Yale and of Harvard, he became associated with Elihu Root in law practice in New York City. Stimson was (1906–9) U.S.
..... Click the link for more information. and Frank Knox Knox, Frank (William Franklin Knox), 1874–1944, U.S. Secretary of the Navy (1940–44), b. Boston. He joined the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War and also served in World War I.
..... Click the link for more information. , were virtually read out of the party for accepting posts in Roosevelt's cabinet. But the party supported the nation's war effort and after the war, led by Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg Vandenberg, Arthur Hendrick, 1884–1951, American politician, b. Grand Rapids, Mich. He was editor and publisher of the Grand Rapids Herald from 1906 to 1928, when he was appointed to fill a U.S. Senate vacancy.
..... Click the link for more information. , joined the Democratic administration in a bipartisan foreign policy. In 1948 the Republican party was supremely confident of defeating Roosevelt's successor, Harry S. Truman. However, Dewey, the party's first unsuccessful candidate ever to be renominated, was defeated by a close margin.
Eisenhower and Nixon
In 1952, the more liberal element among the Republicans was able to deny the conservatives' choice, Robert A. Taft Taft, Robert Alphonso, 1889–1953, American politician, b. Cincinnati, Ohio; son of William Howard Taft . He practiced law in Ohio and served (1921–26, 1931–32) in the state legislature. Elected to the U.S.
..... Click the link for more information. , choosing instead the popular war hero, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower Eisenhower, Dwight David (ī`zənhou'ər), 1890–1969, American general and 34th President of the United States, b.
..... Click the link for more information. as their presidential nominee. Campaigning against the domestic policy of the Truman administration and its prosecution of the war in Korea, Eisenhower swept to a landslide victory over the Democratic candidate, Adlai E. Stevenson Adlai Ewing Stevenson 3d, 1930–, b. Chicago, served as U.S. senator from Illinois (1970–81). He ran unsuccessfully for governor of Illinois in 1982 and 1986.
Bibliography
See biographies of the elder Stevenson by K. S. Davis (1957, repr. 1967), S. G.
..... Click the link for more information. . The domestic program of the Eisenhower adminstration was moderately conservative, and in foreign policy the internationalist approach of the previous Democratic administration was continued. Despite the President's overwhelming personal popularity and his landslide reelection over Stevenson in 1956, a feat that included carrying several Southern states for the second consecutive time, the Democrats retained control of Congress through the 1960 elections.
In 1960, an incumbent Vice President, Richard M. Nixon Nixon, Richard Milhous, 1913–94, 37th President of the United States (1969–74), b. Yorba Linda, Calif.
Political Career to 1968
A graduate of Whittier College and Duke Univ. law school, he practiced law in Whittier, Calif.
..... Click the link for more information. was nominated for president for the first time since 1836. Although the Republican party had become a minority in registration, Nixon failed by fewer than 200,000 votes to defeat John F. Kennedy. In 1964 the conservative wing of the party engineered the nomination of Senator Barry Goldwater Barry Morris Goldwater, Jr., 1938–, b. Los Angeles, was a U.S. congressman from California (1968–83).
Bibliography
See biographies by L. Edwards (1995) and R. A. Goldberg (1995); studies by K. Hess (1967), J. H. Kessel (1968), and R. Perlstein (2001).
..... Click the link for more information. , who was, however, defeated in a landslide by Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1968 the party rebounded and won a narrow victory with party stalwart Richard Nixon over Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey, who was handicapped by disaffection over the Vietnam War. In 1972, President Nixon was triumphantly reelected, defeating George McGovern on a record of favoring a strong defense with a limited détente with the Soviet Union and China, and a conservative domestic program featuring a decentralization of political power.
The party, however, suffered a series of massive setbacks with the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew Agnew, Spiro Theodore (spēr`ō), 1918–96, 39th Vice President of the United States (1969–73), b. Baltimore, Md.
..... Click the link for more information. upon his conviction for tax evasion and revelations of major White House involvement in the Watergate affair Watergate affair, in U.S. history, series of scandals involving the administration of President Richard M. Nixon ; more specifically, the burglarizing of the Democratic party national headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, D.C.
..... Click the link for more information. , which led finally to the resignation of President Nixon. Nixon's successor, Gerald R. Ford Ford, Gerald Rudolph, 1913–2006, 38th president of the United States (1974–77), b. Omaha, Nebr. He was originally named Leslie Lynch King, Jr., but his parents were divorced when he was two, and when his mother remarried he assumed the name of his
..... Click the link for more information. , attempted to disassociate the party from the scandals, but Watergate appeared to be a major factor in the substantial Republican losses in the 1974 elections and in the subsequent defeat of Ford by the Democrat Jimmy Carter Carter, Jimmy (James Earl Carter, Jr.), 1924–, 39th President of the United States (1977–81), b. Plains, Ga, grad. Annapolis, 1946.
Carter served in the navy, where he worked with Admiral Hyman G.
..... Click the link for more information. .
The Reagan-Bush Years to the Present
In 1980, the conservative Ronald Reagan Reagan, Ronald Wilson (rā`gən), 1911–2004, 40th president of the United States (1981–89), b. Tampico, Ill.
..... Click the link for more information. , a former supporter of Barry Goldwater, regained the presidency for the Republicans and reversed long-standing political trends by instituting a supply-side economic program of budget and tax cuts. He also advocated increased military spending and presided over the largest military buildup during peacetime in American history. The Iran-contra affair Iran-contra affair, in U.S. history, secret arrangement in the 1980s to provide funds to the Nicaraguan contra rebels from profits gained by selling arms to Iran.
..... Click the link for more information. , which broke in late 1986, marred the last years of his tenure, though his vice-president, George H. W. Bush Bush, George Herbert Walker, 1924–, 41st President of the United States (1989–93), b. Milton, Mass., B.A., Yale Univ., 1948.
Career in Business and Government
..... Click the link for more information. , was nonetheless able to defeat the Democratic nominee, Michael Dukakis Dukakis, Michael Stanley (d
..... Click the link for more information. , in the 1988 election.
Bush was generally recognized as strong on foreign policy. He was widely lauded for his role in orchestrating the coalition of forces against Iraq in the Persian Gulf War First Persian Gulf War, Jan.–Feb., 1991, was an armed conflict between Iraq and a coalition of 32 nations including the United States, Britain, Egypt, France, and Saudi Arabia. It was a result of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on Aug.
..... Click the link for more information. . He also largely continued Reagan's policy toward the Soviet Union. On the domestic side, however, Bush's administration was perceived as being slow to respond to such problems as stagnant economic growth, rising unemployment, and the unaffordability of health care for many Americans. Bush's high popularity after the Persian Gulf War dropped rapidly, and he lost the 1992 presidential election to the Democrat, Arkansas's Governor Bill Clinton Clinton, Bill (William Jefferson Clinton), 1946–, 42d President of the United States (1993–2001), b. Hope, Ark. His father died before he was born, and he was originally named William Jefferson Blythe 4th, but after his mother remarried, he assumed the
..... Click the link for more information. .
In the 1994 congressional and state elections, however, the Republican party scored major victories and increased its hold in the South. Republicans unseated long-time Democratic incumbents, winning control of both houses of Congress (for the first time since the 1950s) and claiming several governorships. Newt Gingrich Gingrich, Newt (Newton Leroy Gingrich) (gĭng`grĭch), 1943–, U.S. congressman, Speaker of the U.S.
..... Click the link for more information. , who spearheaded the Republicans' congressional election campaign with his conservative "Contract with America" program, became speaker of the House. While bills were passed on the key program components, many items were thwarted or defeated in Congress or by the president.
The 1996 elections saw incumbents generally retain their offices. Former Senate majority leader Bob Dole Dole, Bob (Robert Joseph Dole), 1923–, American political leader, b. Russell, Kan.; husband of Elizabeth Hanford Dole . While serving in World War II, he was seriously wounded and required several years of convalescence.
..... Click the link for more information. won the Republican nomination for the presidency, but he and his running mate, Jack Kemp Kemp, Jack French, 1935–, American politician and government official, b. Los Angeles. He played football while at Occidental College (grad. 1957) and thereafter was a professional quarterback for 13 seasons (1957–69), primarily with the San Diego
..... Click the link for more information. , were never able to reduce significantly President Clinton's substantial lead. In the House and Senate, Republicans retained their majorities, slightly diminished in the former and slightly increased in the latter. The 1998 mid-term elections saw the Republican margin in the House reduced, despite expectations that they would benefit from the effects of the Lewinsky scandal Lewinsky scandal (ləwĭn`skē)
..... Click the link for more information. ; the results led to Gingrich's resignation from office.
In the 2000 elections, the party's presidential nominee, George W. Bush Bush, George Walker, 1946–, 43d president of the United States (2001–), b. New Haven, Conn. The eldest son of President George H. W. Bush , he was was raised in Texas and, like his father, attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass.
..... Click the link for more information. appeared generally to lead in the polls in what ultimately became a popular-vote loss to Democrat Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore, Sr., 1907–98, a politician and Democratic senator from Tennessee (1953–71).
Bibliography
See biography of the son by B. Turque (2000); H.
..... Click the link for more information. . Despite not winning the popular vote. Bush secured the presidency with a victory in the electoral college electoral college, in U.S. government, the body of electors that chooses the president and vice president. The Constitution, in Article 2, Section 1, provides: "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors,
..... Click the link for more information. when he won Florida by an extremely narrow margin and outlasted Gore's unsuccessful court challenge of the Florida vote-counting process. The party did not fair as well in other races for national office, and the Democrats made gains in Congress, although the Republicans retained control there.
The party lost control of the Senate as a result of a defection in mid-2001, but regained it after the Nov., 2002, elections. In 2004, Bush was renominated without opposition, and he subsequently soundly defeated the Democratic nominee, John Kerry Kerry, John Forbes, 1943–, U.S. politician, b. Denver, grad. Yale, 1966, Boston College law school, 1976. A decorated navy veteran who served two tours in Vietnam after graduating from Yale, Kerry won national notice as an outspoken opponent of the war when he
..... Click the link for more information. . The Republicans also increased their majorities in both houses of Congress, as retiring Senate Democrats from the South were replaced by Republicans. Public discontent with congressional scandals and the war in Iraq led to reversals in the congressional elections of 2006, however, and the party lost control of both houses of Congress, albeit narrowly in the Senate.
Bibliography
See H. L. Trefousse, The Radical Republicans (1968); E. Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men (1970); F. L. Burdette, The Republican Party (2d ed. 1972); E. Lindop, All about Republicans (1985); W. Gienapp, The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852–56 (1988); F. Schwengel, The Republican Party (1988); L. L. Gould, Grand Old Party: A History of the Republicans (2003).
Republican Party
or GOP (Grand Old Party)One of two major U.S. political parties. It was formed in 1854 by former members of the Whig, Democratic, and Free Soil parties who chose the party's name to recall the Jeffersonian Republicans' concern with the national interest above sectional interests and states' rights. The new party opposed slavery and its extension into the territories, as provided by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Its first presidential candidate, John C. Frémont, won 11 states in 1856; its second, Abraham Lincoln, won the 1860 election by carrying 18 states. Its association with the Union victory in the American Civil War allowed it a long period of dominance nationally, though it was uncompetitive in the South for more than a century after the war. Republican candidates won 14 of 18 presidential elections between 1860 and 1932, through support from an alliance of Northern and Midwestern farmers and big-business interests. In 1912 the party split between a progressive wing led by Theodore Roosevelt and a conservative wing led by Pres. William Howard Taft; the rift enabled the Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson, to win that year's election. The Republican Party's inability to counter the impact of the Great Depression led to its ouster from power in 1933; in 1953 the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower brought a moderate wing of the party to prominence. The party's platform remained conservative, emphasizing anticommunism, reduced government regulation of the economy, and lower taxes; many members also opposed civil rights legislation. In the 1950s the GOP gained new support from middle-class suburbanites and white Southerners disturbed by the integrationist policies of the national Democratic Party. Richard Nixon, who narrowly lost the 1960 presidential race, won narrowly in 1968 and by a landslide in 1972, but he was forced to resign in 1974 as a result of the Watergate scandal. Ronald Reagan, who had assumed the leadership of the conservative wing of the Republican Party after Barry Goldwater's defeat in the presidential election of 1964, won the presidency in 1980 and 1984; he introduced deep tax cuts and launched a massive buildup of U.S. military forces. Reagan's vice president, George Bush, was elected in 1988 and enjoyed enormous popularity after success in the Persian Gulf War, but an anemic economy led to his defeat in 1992 by Democrat Bill Clinton. The defeat was offset in 1994, when the Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. In 2000 George W. Bush narrowly won the presidency in one of the closest and most controversial elections in U.S. history. In 2004 he won reelection. The party continues to emphasize tax cuts, traditional social values, and strong national defense.
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