Light

Whig Party

Definition

The Whig Party was a political party active in the middle of the 19th century in the United States. It was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic Party.

Analogy

Think of the Whig Party as a group of students who form their own study group because they disagree with how their teacher is running class discussions. They have different ideas about how things should be done, so they create their own platform to express those ideas.

Related terms

Federalist Party: This was one of the first two political parties in U.S., founded by Alexander Hamilton. It believed in a strong central government, industrialization, and loose interpretation of the Constitution.

Democratic-Republican Party: This early American political party was founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and stood for states' rights and an agrarian economy.

Know Nothing Party: A nativist American political movement during the 1850s that opposed immigrants and Catholics.