DEMOCRATIC PARTY 316 DEMOCRATIC PARTY ancient Greece, the first country perhaps where it was ever allowed scope for de- velopment. Aristotle also treated of the subject. DEMOCRATIC PARTY, one of the two chief divisions into which the voters of the United States are politically as- sociated, first opposed to the Whigs, then to the Republicans. The complete evolution of the Demo- cratic party may be said to date from the accession of Andrev/ Jackson to the presidency, though its fundamental principles were enunciated by Thomas Jefferson. The political features of Jack- son's administration were the opposition to the United States Bank, the denial of the right of any State to nullify the laws of Congress, and the excitement over the tariff question. In 1836 through the influence of Jackson, Martin Van Buren was elected President, and during his administration the prestige of the Democratic party began to wane. In 1837 the country went through a severe commercial panic. Credit, specu- lation and banking had been carried to extreme limits and disaster followed. For this state of affairs the administra- tion was held responsible. The election of 1840 was a revolution and in the choice of General Harrison by the elec- toral vote of 234 to 60 the Democratic party, after an ascendency of its princi- ples entailing 40 years of power, was forced to retire. But the Whig triumph was short-lived. General Harrison died one month after his inauguration and John Tyler, who had been nominated for Vice-President to conciliate Virginia, succeeded to the presidential chair. All his life he had held and advocated Demo- cratic d ■'ctrines, especially the opposition to the United States Bank, a protective tariff, and internal improvements by the general government. On his accession he continued the cabinet of his predeces- sor, Daniel Webster being Secretary of State; but after two successive vetoes of the "Fiscal Bank of the United States" bill, his cabinet left him, Mr. Webster remaining only till the conclusion of the Webster-Ashburton treaty, and his ad- ministration became essentially Demo- cratic. In 1844 James K. Polk was elected President, after a bitter and exciting contest, over Henry Clay. The annexa- tion of Texas, which was urged by the Democratic party, was the great question in determining this election, and was ac- complished March 1, 1845, three days before the inauguration of Mr. Polk. This led to a war with Mexico which was declared May 12, 1846. At its successful conclusion not orly was the Rio Grande established as the boundary of Texas, but all New Mexico and Upper California were relinquished to the United States. In March, 1820, an act known as the Missouri Compromise, had been passed, foi'bidding the introduction of slavery in any of the States formed from the Louisiana Cession N. of 36° 30'. On Aug. 8, 1846, the rejection of the so- called Wilmot Proviso by the Senate, which provided "That as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico by the United States. . . .neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory," became the starting point of the Free Soil party in 1848. Mr. Wilmot, the mover, was a Democrat. The popularity of General Taylor caused the defeat of Lewis Cass in the election of 1848, and the Democratic party went out of power till 1853, when Franklin Pierce became President. In 1856 it elected James Buchanan President and John C. Breck- enridge Vice-President. At the conven- tion held in Charleston, S. C, April, 1860, the slavery issue caused a disrup- tion of the party, the slave section nomi- nating John C. Breckenridge, and the free, Stephen A. Douglas, and, on Mr. Lincoln's election, it lost the supremacy which it had held with little interruption for 60 years. It had, however, a vigorous life, and contested hotly every presi- dential election, its unsuccessful candi- dates being George B. McClellan, 1864; Horatio Seymour, 1868; Horace Greeley, 1872; Samuel J. Tilden, 1876; and Win- field S. Hancock, 1880. In 1884 the party elected its candidate for the presidency, Grover Cleveland. In 1888, Mr. Cleve- land, having been renominated, the party was defeated. In 1892 Mr. Cleveland again became the nominee of the party against the sharp and critical opposition of the Democratic organization of his own State (New York). In the first year of his second adminis- tration, Mr. Cleveland called a special session of Congress for the purpose of repealing the law compelling the monthly purchase of silver by the government; and this was accomplished against the determined opposition of many prom- inent Democrats. Dissension soon there- fore arose in the party over the tariff, centering around the so-called Wilson Bill. The opponents of the administra- tion, led by Gorman of Maryland, Brice of Ohio, and others, succeeded in amend- ing the bill to an extent deemed so un- democratic that the President could give it but a qualified approval, and it became a law without his signature. The necessity of issuing bonds for the pur- pose of" maintaining the gold reserve,
