Editing Democratic Party (United States) (section)

=== Background ===
[[File:Andrew jackson head.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Andrew Jackson]] was the seventh president (1829–1837) and the first Democratic president.]]
The Democratic Party evolved from the [[Jeffersonian Republican]] or [[Democratic-Republican Party]] organized by Jefferson and Madison in opposition to the Federalist Party.<ref>{{cite book|last=Berman|first=Jay|title=The Democratic Party: Evolution and America's Longing for a Lasting Majority|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2012|page=8}}</ref> The Democratic-Republican Party favored [[Republicanism in the United States|republicanism]]; a weak [[Federal government of the United States|federal government]]; [[states' rights]]; agrarian interests (especially Southern planters); and strict adherence to the Constitution. The party opposed a national bank and [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]].<ref>James Roger Sharp, ''American Politics in the Early Republic: The New Nation in Crisis'' (1993).</ref> After the [[War of 1812]], the Federalists virtually disappeared and the only national political party left was the Democratic-Republicans, which was prone to splinter along regional lines.<ref>{{cite book|title=The American Republic Since 1877, Student Edition|publisher=McGraw-Hill Education|year=2006|page=193}}</ref> The era of one-party rule in the United States, known as the [[Era of Good Feelings]], lasted from 1816 until 1828, when Andrew Jackson became president. Jackson and Martin Van Buren worked with allies in each state to form a new Democratic Party on a national basis. In the 1830s, the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]] coalesced into the main rival to the Democrats.

Before 1860, the Democratic Party supported [[Unitary executive theory|expansive presidential power]],<ref name="Holt-1992">{{Cite book |last=Holt |first=Michael F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VEhYhbouR3QC&pg=PA27 |title=Political Parties and American Political Development: From the Age of Jackson to the Age of Lincoln |publisher=[[Louisiana State University Press]] |year=1992 |isbn=978-0807126097 |pages=27–28 |access-date=March 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405015907/https://books.google.com/books?id=VEhYhbouR3QC&pg=PA27 |archive-date=April 5, 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Slave Power|the interests]] of [[Slave states and free states|slave states]],<ref name="Bates-2015">{{Cite book |last=Bates |first=Christopher |title=The Early Republic and Antebellum America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |year=2015 |isbn=9781317457404 |pages=293 |quote=The expansion engineered by Polk rendered the Democratic Party increasingly beholden to Southern slave interests, which dominated the party from 1848 to the Civil War.}}</ref> [[agrarianism]],<ref name="EB-2023">{{Cite web |last=Staff |title=Jacksonian Democracy: The Democratization of Politics |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States/Jacksonian-democracy |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220712100142/https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States/Jacksonian-democracy |archive-date=July 12, 2022 |access-date=October 6, 2022 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |quote=By the 1840s, Whig and Democratic congressmen voted as rival blocs. Whigs supported and Democrats opposed a weak executive, a new Bank of the United States, a high tariff, distribution of land revenues to the states, relief legislation to mitigate the effects of the depression, and federal reapportionment of House seats. Whigs voted against and Democrats approved an independent treasury, an aggressive foreign policy, and expansionism. These were important issues, capable of dividing the electorate just as they divided the major parties in Congress.}}</ref> and [[expansionism]],<ref name="EB-2023" /> while opposing [[Bank War|a national bank]] and high [[tariff]]s.<ref name="EB-2023" />