Franklin Pierce won the presidency on November 2, 1852, in a devastating landslide with 254 electoral votes to Winfield Scott’s 42, as divisions within the Whig Party over slavery enforcement came to a catastrophic head. Pierce ran as a pro-slavery Northern Democrat—a “doughface” …
Franklin PierceWinfield ScottDemocratic PartyWhig Partyinstitutional-captureslave-powerparty-realignmentdemocratic-erosionelectoral-politics
The Whig congressional caucus expelled President John Tyler from the party on September 13, 1841, after he vetoed national bank legislation for the second time in August, revealing that one of the main political principles guiding him was states’ rights ideology and protection of slavery …
John TylerHenry ClayWhig PartyCabinet Membersinstitutional-capturesystematic-corruptionexecutive-overreachparty-realignmentstates-rights
Thomas Jefferson and other Democratic-Republican leaders spent 1826 denouncing the Adams-Clay arrangement as a fundamental betrayal of democratic principles, helping Jackson’s supporters organize what would become the Democratic Party. Jefferson had privately expressed horror at the …
Thomas JeffersonAndrew JacksonDemocratic-Republican PartyReform Movementsystematic-corruptiondemocratic-erosionpolitical-reforminstitutional-failureparty-realignment