Book Description

Excerpt from The Democratic Party: A History HE Democratic party has had an uninterrupted exist ence of nearly one hundred and thirty years. Founded in 1791 with Thomas Jefferson as its chief spon sor, it attracted immediately the enthusiastic and affection ate support of the masses of the people, who were determined that the institutions and government of the United States should have the character of a democracy and not an aristocratic system based upon the superior presump tions and pretensions of a few. Its development was so rapid that at the national elections of 1792 it secured control of the popular branch of Congress and cast 55 of the total 132 Electoral votes for President and vice-president. In 1796 it lacked but two votesxof the number required to decide the result in the 'electoral College; and in 1800 it won a triumphant victory, electing the President and Vice President and also a marked majority of the members of each house of Congress. Thus established as the ruling power of the nation, it was so maintained by the people, nearly always by overwhelming majorities, for an unbroken period of forty years, when it experienced a temporary reverse without, however, any abatement of its vitality or deviation from its original principles or character. Those principles and that character, distinguishing it as the party of the masses of the people in composition, instincts, action, and general acceptation, it has since preserved through all the vicissitudes of its fortunes. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.