The Whig Party was a mid-19th century political party in the United States. Alongside the Democratic Party, it was one of two major parties between the late 1830s and the early 1850s and part of the Second Party System. As well as four Whig presidents, other prominent members included Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Rufus Choate, William Seward, John J. Crittenden, and John Quincy Adams. The Whig base of support was amongst entrepreneurs, professionals, Protestant Christians, the urban middle class, and nativists. It had much less backing from poor farmers and unskilled workers.
Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 2, 1852. Democratic nominee Franklin Pierce defeated Whig nominee General Winfield Scott.
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that temporarily defused tensions between slave and free states in the years leading up to the American Civil War. Designed by Whig senator Henry Clay and Democratic senator Stephen A. Douglas, with the support of President Millard Fillmore, the compromise centered on how to handle slavery in recently acquired territories from the Mexican–American War (1846–48).
Daniel Webster was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the 14th and 19th U.S. secretary of state under presidents William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Millard Fillmore. Webster was one of the most prominent American lawyers of the 19th century, arguing over 200 cases before the United States Supreme Court in his career. During his life, Webster had been a member of the Federalist Party, the National Republican Party, and the Whig Party. He was among the three members of the Great Triumvirate along with Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun.
The history of the United States from 1849 to 1865 was dominated by the tensions that led to the American Civil War between North and South, and the bloody fighting in 1861–1865 that produced Northern victory in the war and ended slavery. At the same time industrialization and the transportation revolution changed the economics of the Northern United States and the Western United States. Heavy immigration from Western Europe shifted the center of population further to the North.
Washington's Farewell Address is a letter written by President George Washington as a valedictory to "friends and fellow-citizens" after 20 years of public service to the United States. He wrote it near the end of the second term of his presidency before retiring to his home at Mount Vernon in Virginia.
The Johnson Doctrine, enunciated by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson after the United States' intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1965, declared that domestic revolution in the Western Hemisphere would no longer be a local matter when the object is the establishment of a "Communist dictatorship". During Johnson's presidency, the United States again began interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign nations, particularly Latin America. The Johnson Doctrine is the formal declaration of the intention of the United States to intervene in such affairs. It is an extension of the Eisenhower and Kennedy Doctrines.
Dollar diplomacy of the United States, particularly during the presidency of William Howard Taft (1909–1913) was a form of American foreign policy to minimize the use or threat of military force and instead further its aims in Latin America and East Asia through the use of its economic power by guaranteeing loans made to foreign countries. In his message to Congress on 3 December 1912, Taft summarized the policy of Dollar diplomacy:
The Nashville Convention was a political meeting held in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 3–11, 1850. Delegates from nine slave states met to consider secession, if the United States Congress decided to ban slavery in the new territories being added to the country as a result of the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican–American War. The compromises worked out in Nashville paved the way for the Compromise of 1850, including the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and for a time, preserved the union of the United States.
The presidency of Millard Fillmore began on July 9, 1850, when Millard Fillmore became the 13th President of the United States upon the death of President Zachary Taylor, and ended on March 4, 1853. Fillmore had been Vice President of the United States for 1 year, 4 months prior to succeeding the presidency. Fillmore was the second president to succeed to the office without being elected to it, after John Tyler. He was the last Whig president. His presidency ended after losing the Whig nomination at the 1852 Whig National Convention. Fillmore was succeeded by Democrat Franklin Pierce.
The presidency of Franklin Pierce began on March 4, 1853, when Franklin Pierce was inaugurated as the 14th President of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1857. Pierce, a Democrat from New Hampshire, took office after defeating Whig Party nominee Winfield Scott in the 1852 presidential election. Seen by fellow Democrats as pleasant and accommodating to all the party's factions, Pierce, then a little-known politician, won the presidential nomination on the 49th ballot of the 1852 Democratic National Convention. His hopes for reelection ended after losing the Democratic nomination at the 1856 Democratic National Convention, and was succeeded by Democrat James Buchanan.
The presidency of James Buchanan began on March 4, 1857, when James Buchanan was inaugurated as the 15th President of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1861. Buchanan, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, took office after defeating John C. Frémont of the Republican Party and former President Millard Fillmore of the American Party in the 1856 presidential election. He declined to seek re-election and was succeeded by Republican Abraham Lincoln.
Millard Fillmore was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853, and was the last president to have been a member of the Whig Party while in office. A former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Fillmore was elected the 12th vice president in 1848, and succeeded to the presidency when Zachary Taylor died in July 1850. Fillmore was instrumental in passing the Compromise of 1850, which led to a brief truce in the battle over the expansion of slavery.
Panama is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America.
The history of U.S. foreign policy from 1829 to 1861 concerns the foreign policy of the United States during the presidential administrations of Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan. During this era, the United States annexed the Republic of Texas, acquired the Mexican Cession by defeating Mexico in the Mexican–American War and partitioned Oregon Country with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The period began with the inauguration of Jackson in 1829, while the onset of the American Civil War in 1861 marked the start of the next period in U.S. foreign policy.
The history of the United States Whig Party lasted from the establishment of the Whig Party early in President Andrew Jackson's second term (1833–1837) to the collapse of the party during the term of President Franklin Pierce (1853–1857). This article covers the party in national politics. For state politics see Whig Party.
The California Statehood Act, officially An Act for the Admission of the State of California into the Union and also known as the California Admission Act, is the federal legislation that admitted California to the United States as the thirty-first state. Passed in 1850 by the 31st United States Congress, the law made California one of only a few states to become a state without first being an organized territory.
The 1849 State of the Union Address was delivered by the 12th president of the United States Zachary Taylor to the 31st United States Congress on December 4, 1849. Presiding over this joint session was Howell Cobb, the House Speaker, with Millard Fillmore, the vice president, in his role as President of the Senate.
The 1851 State of the Union address was delivered by the 13th president of the United States Millard Fillmore to the United States Congress on December 2, 1851. This address, Fillmore's second annual message to Congress, focused on maintaining neutrality in foreign conflicts, enforcing laws regarding fugitive slaves, and preserving the Union.
The 1869 State of the Union address was delivered by the 18th President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant on December 6, 1869, to the 41st United States Congress. It was Grant's first annual address, focusing on post-Civil War recovery, economic policy, and civil rights.
