History of the Democrats:
The American political party system first began with Thomas Jefferson in the late 18th century. In the late 1700s, Jefferson began the first political party which was called the Democratic-Republicans at that time. The first official candidate for the Democratic party as we know it was Andrew Jackson. When he was elected President in 1828, he quickly became known as a man of the people. Jackson took the original Democratic party that Jefferson and his assistants created and turned it over to the United States citizens. The Democratic Party held its first convention in the year of 1832 and Jackson was easily elected for a second term. As a result of the Democratic National Convention, the Democratic National Committee formed in 1848. Since then, it has become the longest running political organization in the world.
Slavery was an important topic in the 1860s. At the 1860 Democratic National Convention, Democrats declared that each state held the power to recognize or decline slavery. This position caused the Northern Democrats to withdraw from the convention; ultimately leading to the nomination of two new candidates for election that year. In 1861, the Democrats suffered a large defeat to the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln.
In October of 1929, the stock market crash and the Great Depression gave way to a new type of government. The Democrats once again took control when Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the election in 1932. Roosevelt had been campaigning with the slogan “relief, recovery, and reform.” Roosevelt focused in on issues such as social welfare projects and job creation through new public works projects.
The donkey symbol has become the widely known Democratic mascot. Developed by a political cartoonist named Thomas Nast, the donkey was first used in 1870 as an editorial cartoon to represent an anti-war faction that he did not agree with. After that, Nast continued portraying the donkey for Democratic press and reporters. Nowadays, the Democratic donkey is just as well known as the Republican elephant is.
Over time, the Democrats became known as liberals and rapidly were being referred to as the left-wing party. The Democrats generally beg to differ with the Republicans on issues such as abortions, gay marriages, and environmental decisions. Being more liberal, the Democrats are currently more lenient on gay marriage and support the pro-choice theory of abortion. From 1832 through 1968, sixteen Democratic candidates have been elected president. These include men such as James Polk, Grover Cleveland, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy.
