In 1834, Jackson's political opposition formed the Whig Party. The Whigs were unable to settle upon a candidate for the 1836 presidential election, and Democrat Martin Van Buren was elected to the presidency. Whig candidate William Henry Harrison was elected in 1840, but he died soon after taking office and was succeeded by his vice president, John Tyler. Democrat James K. Polk took office in 1845, but two more Whig presidents followed — Zachary Taylorwho took office in 1849, and Millard Fillmorewho took office in 1850, upon Taylor's death. The Democratic/Whig campaign of 1840, featuring slogans, buttons, and mudslinging, was the first example of the type of election process that we know — and have come to expect — today.
The Whigs favored the Second Bank of the United States and protective tariffs, appealed to merchants and manufacturers, and supported reform (prison and educational reform, temperance, the abolition of capital punishment). For close to two decades, they were serious contenders in the competition for office against the Jacksonian Democrats. Henry Clay and Daniel Webster were major Whig leaders.
In 1852, the Whigs lost much of their support, and Democrat Franklin Pierce was elected president, followed by Democrat James Buchanan, elected in 1856. With the demise of the Whig Party, the anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant Know-Nothing, or American, Party arose, as did the modern Republican Party. The Republicans quickly became established as the party favored by the North and by antislavery proponents. Following a campaign devoted to the issue of slavery, Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected over Democrat Stephen A. Douglas in 1860.
For the New England Transcendentalists, interest in political life presented a philosophical difficulty quite apart from a specific platform or ideology. There was very little about contemporary party politics that nurtured or elevated the inner man. Politics was an outward, sometimes raucous process. Its contentious nature required the expression of aspects of human character not particularly compatible with moral and spiritual perfection. Moreover, in focusing on current politics, the individual was sidetracked from devoting attention to his own development.
