Who did the new Whig party appeal to?
The Whig Party was united only in their hatred for Andrew Jackson. In the North, the Whigs were made up of men of education and wealth. They also supported the Whigs of the West in favoring Clay’s American System and believed that the federal government should take the initiative in shaping economic development. In the South, Whigs tended to be those businessmen who supported high tariffs and even some strict states’ rights advocates. In the 1830s, some Anti-Masons joined the Whig party also. Even New Englanders who were suspicious of any thing attractive to Southerners, like the Democratic Party, also became Whigs. So, you can see that it was a strange gathering of men with various political ideals, but united in opposition to “King Andrew I.
