Jeffersonian Democrats

Examples of Jeffersonian Democrats in the following topics:

• Jefferson's Agrarian Policy

  • The Jeffersonians believed in democracy and equality of political opportunity, especially for the yeoman farmer and the plain folk.
  • The Jeffersonians believed in democracy and equality of political opportunity (for white male citizens), with a priority for the yeoman farmer and the plain folk.
  • The yeoman was the backbone of American society because independent farming, land ownership, and control of one's labor were values that Jeffersonian Democrats hoped to embody in a decentralized system of limited government and maximum individual liberty.
  • Therefore, while the Federalists advocated for a strong central government, Jeffersonian-Democrats argued for strong state and local governments and a weak federal government.
  • Jeffersonian-Democrats welcomed opportunities for the territorial expansion of the United States because it would produce new farm lands for yeomen farmers as well as facilitate western Indian integration into American society.

• The "Reign of Witches"

  • The "Reign of Witches" was a descriptive catchphrase used by Democratic-Republicans to criticize the Federalist Alien and Sedition Acts.
  • "The Reign of Witches" is a termed used by Democrat-Republicans to describe the Federalist party and John Adams after the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts.
  • This legislation, Jeffersonian democrats argued, proved that Federalists were intent on establishing a tyrannical, aristocratic government and would silence the opposition through political persecution.
  • They were signed into law by President John Adams and were intended as a direct political attack on the Democrat-Republicans.
  • The Federalist-dominated Congress believed that Democrat-Republicans, fueled by the French and French-sympathizing immigrants, posed a subversive threat to the United States.

• The Adams Presidency

  • Adams ideologically identified with the Federalists, but he remained quite independent of both the party and his cabinet throughout his term, often making decisions despite strong opposition from both Democratic-Republicans and Federalists.
  • Likewise, his term witnessed numerous upheavals and conflicts—not only with France, but also as a result of the growing breach between Democratic-Republicans and Federalists.
  • Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists supported Britain, while Vice President Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans favored France.
  • After the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, Democratic-Republicans began to use the term "the reign of witches" to describe the Federalist party and John Adams.
  • The acts, Jeffersonian democrats argued, were proof that Federalists were intent on establishing a tyrannical, aristocratic government that would silence the opposition through political persecution.

• The Democratization of the Political Arena

  • The Democratic-Republican Party of the Jeffersonians had become factionalized in the 1820s.
  • Jackson's supporters began to form the modern Democratic Party; they fought the rival Adams and anti-Jacksonian factions, which soon emerged as the Whigs.
  • More broadly, the term "Jacksonian Democracy" refers to the period of the Second Party System (mid-1830s to 1854), when the democratic attitude defined the spirit of that era.
  • It can be contrasted with the characteristics of Jeffersonian democracy.
  • The Whigs were the inheritors of Jeffersonian Democracy, in terms of promoting schools and colleges.

• The Spread of Democracy

  • Similarly, Jacksonian democracy sought greater input to the democratic process for the common man.
  • Unlike Jeffersonians, their emphasis on education was minimal and they demanded elected (not appointed) judges, rewriting many state constitutions to reflect these new values.
  • The Democratic-Republican Party of the Jeffersonians became factionalized in the 1820s.
  • Jackson's supporters began to form the modern Democratic Party and fought the rival Adams and Anti-Jacksonian factions, which soon emerged as the Whigs.
  • The Whigs became the inheritors of Jeffersonian Democracy in terms of promoting schools and colleges.

• The Jackson Presidency

  • Jackson's policies followed the era of Jeffersonian democracy, which had dominated the previous political era.
  • The Democratic-Republican Party of the Jeffersonians had become factionalized in the 1820s, and Jackson's supporters began to form the modern Democratic Party; they fought the rival Adams and anti-Jacksonian factions, which soon emerged as the Whigs.
  • While Jeffersonians favored educated men (though they opposed inherited elites), the Jacksonians gave little weight to education.
  • The Whigs were the inheritors of Jeffersonian Democracy, in terms of promoting schools and colleges.
  • Like the Jeffersonians, who strongly believed in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, Jacksonians initially favored a federal government of limited powers.

• Slavery and Politics

  • Although Jeffersonians extolled the virtues of the independent yeoman, they also were strongly in favor of slavery.
  • Unlike the majority of the northeastern Federalists, many Democratic-Republicans holding federal office during President Jefferson's era were plantation slaveowners.
  • In the minds of Jeffersonians, yeomen only could be white (and male).
  • In the minds of the Democratic-Republicans, this paradoxical cycle of master-slave relations was in no way antithetical to republican principles and individual freedom.
  • Jefferson considered slavery culturally important—as it was in democratic Greece and other societies of antiquity—and viewed it as central to the "Southern way of life."

• The Know-Nothings and Democrats

  • Democrats strongly favored American expansion to new farm lands and the acquisition of new territories.
  • The Democrats were made up of a coalition of farmers, urban immigrant laborers, and Irish Catholics.
  • Furthermore, Democrats claimed that modernization should be designed to promote the agrarian vision inherited from Jeffersonian Democracy (that is, the perpetuation of the independent, autonomous yeoman farmer over the wealthy, urban businessman).
  • While the Democrats survived, many northern Democrats flocked to the Free Soilers coalition and the newly-formed Republican Party, while Southern, proslavery Democrats formed the Southern Democratic Party.
  • President Andrew Jackson was hailed as the founder of the Democratic Party.

• The Republican Alternative

  • The Democratic-Republican Party, was an American political party founded around 1791 by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
  • In 1801, the Democrat-Republicans came to power with Jefferson's election to president.
  • The Jeffersonians mounted a public campaign against the ratification of the Jay Treaty, and encouraged public outcry against John Jay and the Federalists.
  • The election wrought a complete shift in political power and ushered in a generation of Democratic-Republican Party rule.
  • Describe the formation of the Democratic-Republican party and the central grounds of its opposition to the Federalists

• Jackson and the Democratic Party

  • The modern Democratic Party arose in the 1830s out of factions from the largely disbanded Democratic-Republican Party.
  • The modern Democratic Party was formed in the 1830s from former factions of the Democratic-Republican Party, which had largely collapsed by 1824.
  • Both Democrats and Whigs were divided on the issue of slavery.
  • The Democrats later got it back in 1844 with James K.
  • Young America claimed that modernization would perpetuate the agrarian vision of Jeffersonian Democracy by allowing yeomen farmers to sell their products and therefore prosper.