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What Are The Similarities Between The Democrats And The Whigs

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President Jackson’s presidential campaigns of 1828 and 1832 were both successful and won him the presidency. One large factor of its success was the way Democrats campaigned on behalf of Jackson. The Whig party viewed how successful the strategies that the Democrats employed were to winning the presidency. The Whigs as a result employed the same strategies during the campaigns of William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor. Although the Democrats and the Whigs were rivals in the 1840 and 1848 elections. The Whigs employed similar strategies to the ones employed during Jackson’s two successful campaigns, but there were a few key differences that separated the Democrats and Whigs in their form of campaigning. William Henry Harrison was the …show more content…

Harrison became an active participant in his campaign by giving public speeches. He through such an act was the first person to do such a thing ever when running for president. He campaigned and delivered 23 speeches, he even went as far as to drink cider while campaigning in order to prove his cider and log cabin image (M Pg.40). Jackson in contrast did campaign behind the scenes but never actively campaigned for himself (Wilentz Pg.160). Harrison in his 1840 campaign won and so during the 1848 campaign for Zachary Taylor they once again used tactics once used by Democrats and the Jackson …show more content…

The Whigs once again choose a decorated war hero just like Jackson. At the time Zachary Taylor was the most celebrated man in America due to him being part of the Mexican-American War (Wilentz Pg.331 &M Pg45). Making him a perfect candidate for the Whigs. Once again they built an image for their nominee of being a man for the people. Unlike Jackson, Taylor running for president was his first time being involved in any politics. However, both ran on a vague platform to an extent. Jackson in his 1828 election ran on a platform of reform, but when it came to major issue he was quite vague, this vagueness helped him because it allowed him to mold to the image the people wanted (M Pg.34). For Jackson, it overall hurt his opponent, Adam, because since he was a former president his actions as president revealed his stance on major issues. Vagueness was also employed by Zachary Taylor, but to an even greater extent. Taylor was given to platform at all by the Whigs, in order to keep him out of political controversy (M Pg.45). Once again this helped him because in such vagueness it was difficult to criticize him on his stance on major

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