Albany, New York
Albany is the capital of the U. S. state of New York and the seat of Albany County. Albany is located on the west bank of the Hudson River 10 miles south of its confluence with the Mohawk River and 135 miles north of New York City. Albany is known for its rich history, culture and institutions of higher education. Albany constitutes the economic and cultural core of the Capital District of New York State, which comprises the Albany–Schenectady–Troy, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area, including the nearby cities and suburbs of Troy and Saratoga Springs. With a 2013 Census-estimated population of 1.1 million the Capital District is the third-most populous metropolitan region in the state. As of the 2010 census, the population of Albany was 97,856; the area that became Albany was settled by Dutch colonists who in 1614, built Fort Nassau for fur trading and, in 1624, built Fort Orange. In 1664, the English took over the Dutch settlements, renaming the city as Albany, in honor of the Duke of Albany, the future James II of England and James VII of Scotland.
The city was chartered in 1686 under English rule. It became the capital of New York in 1797 following formation of the United States. Albany is one of the oldest surviving settlements of the original British thirteen colonies, is the longest continuously chartered city in the United States. During the late 18th century and throughout most of the 19th, Albany was a center of trade and transportation; the city lies toward the north end of the navigable Hudson River, was the original eastern terminus of the Erie Canal connecting to the Great Lakes, was home to some of the earliest railroad systems in the world. In the 1920s, a powerful political machine controlled by the Democratic Party arose in Albany. In the latter part of the 20th century, Albany experienced a decline in its population due to urban sprawl and suburbanization. In the early 21st century, Albany has experienced growth in the high-technology industry, with great strides in the nanotechnology sector. Albany is one of the oldest surviving European settlements from the original thirteen colonies and the longest continuously chartered city in the United States.
The Hudson River area was inhabited by Algonquian-speaking Mohican, who called it Pempotowwuthut-Muhhcanneuw, meaning "the fireplace of the Mohican nation." Based to the west along the Mohawk River, the Iroquoian-speaking Mohawk referred to it as Sche-negh-ta-da, or "through the pine woods," referring to the path they took there. The Mohawk were one of the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, or Haudenosaunee, became strong trading partners with the Dutch and English, it is the Albany area was visited by European fur traders as early as 1540, but the extent and duration of those visits has not been determined. Permanent European claims began when Englishman Henry Hudson, exploring for the Dutch East India Company on the Half Moon, reached the area in 1609, claiming it for the United Netherlands. In 1614, Hendrick Christiaensen built Fort Nassau, a fur-trading post and the first documented European structure in present-day Albany. Commencement of the fur trade provoked hostility from the French colony in Canada and among the natives, all of whom vied to control the trade.
In 1618, a flood ruined the fort on Castle Island. Both forts were named in honor of the Dutch royal House of Orange-Nassau. Fort Orange and the surrounding area were incorporated as the village of Beverwijck in 1652. In these early decades of trade, the Dutch and Mohawk developed relations that reflected differences among their three cultures; when New Netherland was captured by the English in 1664, the name was changed from Beverwijck to Albany in honor of the Duke of Albany. Duke of Albany was a Scottish title given since 1398 to a younger son of the King of Scots; the name is derived from Alba, the Gaelic name for Scotland. The Dutch regained Albany in August 1673 and renamed the city Willemstadt. On November 1, 1683, the Province of New York was split into counties, with Albany County being the largest. At that time the county included all of present New York State north of Dutchess and Ulster Counties in addition to present-day Bennington County, theoretically stretching west to the Pacific Ocean.
Albany was formally chartered as a municipality by provincial Governor Thomas Dongan on July 22, 1686. The Dongan Charter was identical in content to the charter awarded to the city of New York three months earlier. Dongan created Albany as a strip of land 16 miles long. Over the years Albany would lose much of the land to the annex land to the north and south. At this point, Albany had a population of about 500 people. In 1754, representatives of seven British North American colonies met in the Stadt Huys, Albany's city hall, for the Albany Congress. Although it was never adopted by Parliament, it was an important precursor to the United States Constitution; the same year, the fourth in a series of wars dating back to 1689, began.
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major political parties in the United States. The GOP was founded in 1854 by opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which had expanded slavery into U. S. territories. The party subscribed to classical liberalism and took ideological stands that were anti-slavery and pro-economic reform. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president in the history of the United States; the Party was dominant over the Democrats during the Third Party System and Fourth Party System. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party after being rejected by the GOP and ran unsuccessfully as a third-party presidential candidate calling for social reforms. After the 1912 election, many Roosevelt supporters left the Party, the Party underwent an ideological shift to the right; the liberal Republican element in the GOP was overwhelmed by a conservative surge begun by Barry Goldwater in 1964 that continued during the Reagan Era in the 1980s. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the party's core base shifted, with the Southern states becoming more reliably Republican in presidential politics and the Northeastern states becoming more reliably Democratic.
White voters identified with the Republican Party after the 1960s. Following the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, the Republican Party made opposition to abortion a key plank of its national party platform and grew its support among evangelicals. By 2000, the Republican Party was aligned with Christian conservatism; the Party's core support since the 1990s comes chiefly from the South, the Great Plains, the Mountain States and rural areas in the North. The 21st century Republican Party ideology is American conservatism, which contrasts with the Democrats' liberal platform and progressive wing; the GOP supports lower taxes, free market capitalism, a strong national defense, gun rights and restrictions on labor unions. The GOP was committed to protectionism and tariffs from its founding until the 1930s when it was based in the industrial Northeast and Midwest, but has grown more supportive of free trade since 1952. In addition to advocating for conservative economic policies, the Republican Party is conservative.
Founded in the Northern states in 1854 by abolitionists, modernizers, ex-Whigs and ex-Free Soilers, the Republican Party became the principal opposition to the dominant Democratic Party and the popular Know Nothing Party. The party grew out of opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and opened Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory to slavery and future admission as slave states; the Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil. The first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement, at which the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery party, was held on March 20, 1854 in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin; the name was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party. The first official party convention was held on July 1854 in Jackson, Michigan. At the 1856 Republican National Convention, the party adopted a national platform emphasizing opposition to the expansion of slavery into U. S. territories. While Republican candidate John C.
Frémont lost the 1856 United States presidential election to James Buchanan, he did win 11 of the 16 northern states. The Republican Party first came to power in the elections of 1860 when it won control of both houses of Congress and its candidate, former congressman Abraham Lincoln, was elected President. In the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket. Under Republican congressional leadership, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution—which banned slavery in the United States—passed the Senate in 1864 and the House in 1865; the party's success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s. Those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished, was continued to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant, ran Horace Greeley for the presidency; the Stalwart faction defended Grant and the spoils system, whereas the Half-Breeds pushed for reform of the civil service. The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act was passed in 1883.
The Republican Party supported hard money, high tariffs to promote economic growth, high wages and high profits, generous pensions for Union veterans, the annexation of Hawaii. The Republicans had strong support from pietistic Protestants, but they resisted demands for Prohibition; as the Northern postwar economy boomed with heavy and light industry, mines, fast-growing cities, prosperous agriculture, the Republicans took credit and promoted policies to sustain the fast growth. The GOP was dominant over the Democrats during the Third Party System. However, by 1890 the Republicans had agreed to the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Interstate Commerce Commission in response to complaints from owners of small businesses and farmers; the high McKinley Tariff of 1890 hurt the party and the Democrats swept to a landslide in the off-year elections defeating McKinley himself. The Democrats elected Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892; the election of William McKinley in 1896 was marked by a resurgence of Republican dominance that lasted until 1932.
McKinley promised that high tariffs would end the severe hardship caused by the Pa
Nativism (politics)
Nativism is the political policy of promoting the interests of native inhabitants against those of immigrants, including by supporting immigration-restriction measures. In scholarly studies nativism is a standard technical term; those who hold this political view, however, do not accept the label. Dindar wrote. For them it is a negative term and they rather consider themselves as'Patriots'". According to Fetzer, opposition to immigration arises in many countries because of issues of national and religious identity; the phenomenon has been studied in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, as well as in continental Europe. Thus nativism has become a general term for "opposition to immigration" based on fears that the immigrants will distort or spoil existing cultural values. In situations where immigrants outnumber the original inhabitants, nativistic movements can allow cultural survival. Immigrants can "swamp" a local population due to birth rate relative to nationals. Contemporary opponents of immigration blame it for such problems as unemployment, harm to the environment, housing shortage, overwhelming social services such as hospitals, police.
Immigration restrictionist sentiment is justified with one or more of the following arguments and claims about immigrants: Government expense: Government expenses may exceed tax revenue relating to new immigrants. Language: Isolate themselves in their own communities and refuse to learn the local language. Employment: Acquire jobs that would have otherwise been available to native citizens, depressing native employment. Patriotism: Damage a sense of community and nationality. Environment: Increase the consumption of scarce resources. Welfare: Make heavy use of social welfare systems. Overpopulation: May overpopulate countries. Culture: Can replace its culture with their own. Housing: Increase in housing costs: migrant families reduce vacancies and cause rent increases. Many Australians opposed the influx of Chinese immigrants at time of the nineteenth-century gold rushes; when the separate Australian colonies formed the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, the new nation adopted "White Australia" as one of its founding principles.
Under the White Australia policy, entry of Chinese and other Asians remained controversial until well after World War II, although the country remained home to many long-established Chinese families dating from before the adoption of White Australia. By contrast, most Pacific Islanders were deported soon after the policy was adopted, while the remainder were forced out of the canefields where they had worked for decades. Hostility of native-born white Australians toward British and Irish immigrants in the late 19th century was manifested in a new party, the Australian Natives' Association. Since early 2000, opposition has mounted to asylum seekers arriving in boats from Indonesia; the Brazilian elite desired the racial whitening of the country to Argentina and Uruguay. The country encouraged European immigration, but non-white immigration always faced considerable backlash. On July 28, 1921, representatives Andrade Bezerra and Cincinato Braga proposed a law whose Article 1 provided: "The immigration of individuals from the black race to Brazil is prohibited."
On October 22, 1923, representative Fidélis Reis produced another bill on the entry of immigrants, whose fifth article was as follows: "The entry of settlers from the black race into Brazil is prohibited. For Asian there will be allowed each year a number equal to 5% of those residing in the country.". In the 19th and 20th centuries, there were negative feelings toward the communities of German, Italian and Jewish immigrants, who conserved their language and culture instead of adopting Portuguese and Brazilian habit, were seen as tendentious to form ghettos, had high rates of endogamy, among other concerns, it affected more harshly the Japanese, because they were Asian, thus seen as an obstacle of the whitening of Brazil. Oliveira Viana, a Brazilian jurist and sociologist described the Japanese immigrants as follows: "They are like sulfur: insoluble"; the Brazilian magazine "O Malho" in its edition of December 5, 1908 issued a charge of Japanese immigrants with the following legend: "The government of São Paulo is stubborn.
After the failure of the first Japanese immigration, it contracted 3,000 yellow people. It insists on giving Brazil a race diametrically opposite to ours". In 1941, the Brazilian Minister of Justice, Francisco Campos, defended the ban on admission of 400 Japanese immigrants in São Paulo and wrote: "their despicable standard of living is a brutal competition with the country's worker; some years before World War II, the government of President Getúlio Vargas initiated a process of forced assimilation of people of immigrant origin in Brazil. The Constitution of 1934 had a legal provision about the subject: "The concentration of immigrants anywhere in the country is prohibited; the assimilationist project affected German, Italian and Jewish immigrants and their descendants. During World War II they were
John Morrissey
John Morrissey known as Old Smoke, was an Irish-born American, whose parents moved to New York State when he was a young child. In the early 1850s he went to San Francisco at the time of the California Gold Rush. In California he became a bare-knuckle boxer and on his return to New York, he challenged and defeated "Yankee Sullivan", recognized as the American boxing champion, he became a professional gambler, owning gambling houses in New York City in the 1860s. He became a U. S. Congressman from New York, between 1867–1871, backed by Tammany Hall. However, he fell out with the Tammany Hall political machine and became Democratic State Senator for New York between 1876 and 1878, running as an anti-Tammany candidate. Morrissey was born in Templemore, County Tipperary, Ireland on February 12, 1831. Around 1833 his parents settled in or near Troy, New York. According to a newspaper obituary, Morrissey's father, worked as a labourer to support his large family, having 7 daughters to support in addition to his only son, John.
The same source states that after little formal education, Morrissey started work at the age of 12 in a wall-paper factory. He subsequently worked at a stove foundry. By 1848, Morrissey was taking a leading part in factional fighting in Troy between the "Down-Town" and "Up-Town" gangs. Morrissey became the "king-pin" of the faction "hailing from the lower part of the city" and was involved in fighting the rival group's leader, Jack O'Rourke as well as "most of the up-town" mob. Morrissey moved to New York City in 1848, becoming a deck-hand on a steamer running between Albany and New York, he married the daughter of a ship's captain, Sarah Smith, around 1849. It was during his time in New York that he is said to acquired his nickname, "Old Smoke" as a result of a fight. According to one story, during a fight with Thomas McCann, a noted rough-and-tumble fighter, Morrissey was said to have been pinned on his back atop burning coals from a stove, overturned. Morrissey endured the pain as his flesh burned, fought off McCann, got back on his feet.
Enraged, Morrissey beat. The event earned him the nickname "Old Smoke". In 1851 Morrissey sailed to San Francisco. While he didn't have any luck in that endeavor, Morrissey became a renowned gambler and made a fortune winning gold from prospectors, it was during this time that Morrissey appeared for the first time in a professional prizefighting ring. On 31 August 1852 he defeated George Thompson at Mare Island, California in the 11th round, earning $5,000; this success encouraged him to return to New York to fight Yankee Sullivan. Morrissey returned to New York and challenged Sullivan until the latter agreed. Due to the violent nature of the sport, boxing was illegal in most places during the 1850s; the first boxing rules, which were developed in the 19th century into the London Prize Ring Rules, were introduced by heavyweight champion Jack Broughton in 1743 to protect fighters in the ring where deaths sometimes occurred. Under these rules, if a man went down and could not continue after a count of 30 seconds, the fight was over.
Hitting a downed fighter and grasping below the waist were prohibited. Fights lasted for 20-30 rounds. Rounds continued until one fighter touched the ground with his knee, or fell down; the fight between Morrissey and Sullivan was scheduled for October 12, 1853, in the hamlet of Boston Corners, in Massachusetts, but out of reach of its authorities, thus a good location for the illegal match. The fight took place in a field viewed by over 3,000 spectators. Sullivan dominated the match for most of the fight. In the 37th round, more than an hour after the start of the fight, Sullivan lost after he was adjudged to have struck Morrissey with a "foul blow". There was a dispute over the rules. Sullivan had left thinking he was disqualified. Morrissey became involved in Democratic politics in New York City and developed a rivalry with William Poole known as "Bill the Butcher". Poole was an enforcer for the Know-Nothing Party, leader of the Bowery Boys, a boxer. Two of Morrissey's friends, Lew Baker and Jim Turner and fatally wounded Bill the Butcher at Stanwix Hall, a saloon on Broadway, in February 1855, following Morrissey's loss to Poole in a boxing match eight months earlier.
Morrissey and Baker were indicted for the murder, but the charges were dropped after three trials resulting in hung juries. Morrissey retired from boxing and returned to Troy, New York, he returned to boxing in 1858 to defend his championship in Long Point, Canada against fellow Troy, New York native John C. Heenan; the fight lasted 11 rounds, with Morrissey knocking out Heenan to defend his title. Heenan claimed the title on Morrissey's retirement from boxing in 1859. After his retirement from boxing, Morrissey focused his attention on gambling establishments owning stakes in 16 casinos at one point. In 1862, a police raid on one of his gambling establishments in New York revealed that the house had made over £2000 in December 1861. After establishing a successful gaming house in Saratoga Springs, New York, Morrissey created the Saratoga Race Course with the help of William R. Travers, John R. Hunter and Leonard Jerome; the first races were held in August 1863. He established "The Club House", a casino in Saratoga that attracted such notable guests as Chester A. Arthur, Rutherford B.
Hayes, Ulysses S. Grant, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D
Fernando Wood
Fernando Wood was an American politician of the Democratic Party and the 73rd and 75th mayor of New York City. A successful shipping merchant who became Grand Sachem of the political machine known as Tammany Hall, Wood first served in Congress in 1841. In 1854 he was elected Mayor of New York City. Reelected in 1860 after an electoral loss in 1857 by a narrow majority of 3,000 votes, Wood opposed the Thirteenth Amendment and evinced support for the Confederate States during the American Civil War, suggesting to the New York City Council that New York City secede from the U. S. and declare itself a free city in order to continue its profitable cotton trade with the Confederacy. Wood's Democratic machine was concerned with maintaining the revenues that fed the system of patronage. Following his service as mayor, Wood returned to the United States Congress. Wood, the son of Benjamin and Rebecca Wood, brother of United States Congressman Benjamin Wood was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, his Spanish forename was chosen by his mother, who found it in an English gothic novel written by George Walker, The Three Spaniards.
His parents were Quakers. The family moved to New York in 1821. Shortly after, his father died. Wood left school at age 13 and unsuccessfully attempted many occupations throughout the eastern states. In the 1830s he attempted several failed businesses in Manhattan, he first opened a tobacco store which made little profit. He opened a ship chandler firm in 1835 which failed during the Panic of 1837, he opened a grocery and bar in 1838 which he was forced to close in 1840 because business was so poor. At the age of 24, Wood became a member of the Tammany Society and was chairman of the chief young men's political organization in 1839, he helped to resolve the inner dispute between the Loco-Focos and the conservative members of Tammany, won approval of the Hall, which awarded him nomination as a candidate to U. S. Congress, which he won in election, he lost a subsequent election for U. S. Congress and, reestablished his ship chandler business in the mid-1840s; this business became successful and Wood gained additional wealth in a real estate deal in 1848.
William Tweed said of Wood, "I never yet went to get a corner lot that I didn't find Wood had got in ahead of me." During the early years of the California Gold Rush and four other partners chartered a ship, the John C. Cater, with goods and equipment to San Francisco, it appeared. It was discovered that Wood obtained start-up capital from his brother-in-law, Edward E. Marvine, via a fraudelent letter from California, that Wood falsified many of the documents. Marvine alleged that Wood cheated the investors of $20,000. Wood was indicted by a grand jury, but the case was not brought to trial because the court found that the statute of limitations expired a day before the court was to rule on the matter; the New York Supreme Court ordered Wood to pay Marvine $8,000. In late 1854 Wood was elected mayor of New York City; the state legislature created the New York Municipal Police in 1845. At the beginning of his first term, Wood used the press to show that he was making efforts to continue the fight of his predecessor Mayor Jacob A. Westervelt against the massive corruption of the force.
However, Wood ensured the police force was responsive to his needs, convinced commissioners to allow him to fire officers not performing their duties. He was accused of only hiring Democrats to replace those fired officers, he was re-elected to a two-year term in 1856. On election day, he gave his police forces time off to vote, during that time an affiliated gang, the Dead Rabbits, protected the polling places from unwanted voters. Wood was denied a third successive term in 1857 by a narrow majority of 3,000 votes, he garnered bad press involving a scandal with his brother, Tammany did not support him, his police forces were battling the Metropolitan police forces, the Dead Rabbits were battling the Bowery Boys. In the 1856-57 session, Republicans in control of the New York State Legislature at Albany shortened Wood's second term of office from two years to one and created a Metropolitan Police Force, with Frederick A. Tallmadge as superintendent, to replace Wood's corrupt Municipal Police.
Talmadge demanded for Wood to disband the Municipal Police, but Wood refused in the face of a May 1857 decision by the Supreme Court. Superintendent George Washington Matsell, 15 captains and 800 patrolmen of the Municipal Police backed Wood. Captain George W. Walling pledged his loyalty to the new Metropolitan Police and was ordered to arrest Wood. Wood refused to submit and when Captain Walling attempted force, New York City Hall was occupied by 300 municipal policemen, who promptly tossed Captain Walling into the street. Fifty Metropolitans in frock coats and plug hats marched on City Hall with night sticks in hand; the Municipals routed the Metropolitans. Fifty-two policemen were injured in the New York City Police Riot; the Metropolitan Police Board called out the National Guard, the Seventh Regiment surrounded City Hall. A platoon of infantry with fixed bayonets marched into City Hall and surrounded Mayor Wood who submitted to arrest. Mayor Wood was released on nominal bail and returned to his office.
The feud continued on through the summer of 1857, with constant confrontations between the rival police forces. When a Munici
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party; the Democrats' dominant worldview was once social conservatism and economic liberalism, while populism was its leading characteristic in the rural South. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt ran as a third-party candidate in the Progressive Party, beginning a switch of political platforms between the Democratic and Republican Party over the coming decades, leading to Woodrow Wilson being elected as the first fiscally progressive Democrat. Since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, the Democratic Party has promoted a social liberal platform, supporting social justice. Well into the 20th century, the party had conservative pro-business and Southern conservative-populist anti-business wings.
The New Deal Coalition of 1932–1964 attracted strong support from voters of recent European extraction—many of whom were Catholics based in the cities. After Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal of the 1930s, the pro-business wing withered outside the South. After the racial turmoil of the 1960s, most Southern whites and many Northern Catholics moved into the Republican Party at the presidential level; the once-powerful labor union element became less supportive after the 1970s. White Evangelicals and Southerners became Republican at the state and local level since the 1990s. People living in metropolitan areas, women and gender minorities, college graduates, racial and ethnic minorities in the United States, such as Jewish Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Arab Americans and African Americans, tend to support the Democratic Party much more than they support the rival Republican Party; the Democratic Party's philosophy of modern liberalism advocates social and economic equality, along with the welfare state.
It seeks to provide government regulation in the economy. These interventions, such as the introduction of social programs, support for labor unions, affordable college tuitions, moves toward universal health care and equal opportunity, consumer protection and environmental protection form the core of the party's economic policy. Fifteen Democrats have served as President of the United States; the first was President Andrew Jackson, the seventh president and served from 1829 to 1837. The most recent was President Barack Obama, the 44th president and held office from 2009 to 2017. Following the 2018 midterm elections, the Democrats held a majority in the House of Representatives, "trifectas" in 14 states, the mayoralty of numerous major American cities, such as Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Portland and Washington, D. C. Twenty-three state governors were Democrats, the Party was the minority party in the Senate and in most state legislatures; as of March 2019, four of the nine Justices of the Supreme Court had been appointed by Democratic presidents.
Democratic Party officials trace its origins to the inspiration of the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and other influential opponents of the Federalists in 1792. That party inspired the Whigs and modern Republicans. Organizationally, the modern Democratic Party arose in the 1830s with the election of Andrew Jackson. Since the nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896, the party has positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party on economic issues, they have been more liberal on civil rights issues since 1948. On foreign policy, both parties have changed position several times; the Democratic Party evolved from the Jeffersonian Republican or Democratic-Republican Party organized by Jefferson and Madison in opposition to the Federalist Party of Alexander Hamilton and John Adams. The party favored republicanism; the Democratic-Republican Party came to power in the election of 1800. After the War of 1812, the Federalists disappeared and the only national political party left was the Democratic-Republicans.
The era of one-party rule in the United States, known as the Era of Good Feelings, lasted from 1816 until the early 1830s, when the Whig Party became a national political group to rival the Democratic-Republicans. However, the Democratic-Republican Party still had its own internal factions, they split over the choice of a successor to President James Monroe and the party faction that supported many of the old Jeffersonian principles, led by Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, became the modern Democratic Party. As Norton explains the transformation in 1828: Jacksonians believed the people's will had prevailed. Through a lavishly financed coalition of state parties, political leaders, newspaper editors, a popular movement had elected the president; the Democrats became the nation's first well-organized national party and tight party organization became the hallmark of nineteenth-century American politics. Opposing factions led by Henry Clay helped form the Whig Party; the Democratic Party had a small yet decisive advantage over the Whigs until the 1850s, when the Whigs fell apart over the issue of slavery.
In 1854, angry with the Kansas–Nebraska Act, anti-slavery Dem
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