What is the Whig Party and Why don't we have it anymore?

Answer 1

The Whig Party was an old political party from the early 1800s that only managed to put a few presidents in office during its brief existence. The Whig Party, opposed by the Democratic Party, ran on a campaign of expanding American industry and economic prowess. As a result, they tended to favor high import tariffs (in order to make foreign goods more expensive and stimulate American industry as a result). Unlike the Democrats they believed that this modernization could be brought about by government assistance and reform of educational systems. Tariff raises were typically favored by Northern industry but not by Southern agricultural interests, which made it difficult to have a unified economic policy.

The Whig Party died because ultimately it was not able to address the most pressing issue of its day, slavery. The Whigs had a broad appeal and drew its voter base from both the North and the South. This meant that Whig politicians constantly had to sidestep the slavery issue for fear of upsetting either Northern or Southern interests. When it became clear that voters were no longer going to accept Whig dilly-dallying on the slavey issue their party waned in popularity. They were eclipsed by, and eventually replaced by a new party, the Republican Party, a Northern party staunchly opposed to the institution of slavery.

The Whigs left behind a mediocre legacy from their passing, though they had achieved a great legislative and national victory with the passage of the Compromise of 1850 (which essentially diffused the tensions that would eventually lead to the Civil War for a time), they had not won the presidency very often and the presidents they did were mediocre, inefficient leaders who left no significant achievements in office.