The Role of Whig Ideology in American Politics - Case Study Example

The Whig Ideology The Whig was a British political party that had a great influence on American Politics. The Whig of America’s Founding era originated from the original radical Whigs that emerged from the extreme elements of Whig movement that took place in England in 1680s. The ideologies of the early Whigs were founded on their opposition to centralization and absolutism. The American Whigs were the colonists of Thirteen Colonies of America who had the same ideologies as those of the radical Whigs of England. During the American Revolution, the Whigs became Patriots, defending American Territories from their fellow British Colonizers led by the Tory Party. The British authority under the Tories, also known as royalists, was the loyalists who held the philosophy of British traditionalist conservatism. The Whig Patriots are now referred to in America as the Founding Fathers of America. Their ideologies were propagated by Whig party leaders such Henry Hallam, William Atwood and Robert Ferguson, and great writers and philosophers such as John Locke, Thomas Gordon and John Trenchard (Ketcham, 1970). The ideologies held by the Patriot Whigs include virtue, separation of power, and sovereignty (Leslie, 2006). These principles are opposed to those British loyalists who supported centralism and absolutism. Since the emergence of the Whig Party, the Whig ideology started to play a significant role in American political direction. The American ideology of protecting human rights under a contract between the government and the governed originated from the Whig ideology that grew up in the seventeenth century in England (Leslie, 2006). This ideology formed the basis for the democratic system of governance exercised in USA since the American Revolution. The original ideology of the Whig Party of England was viewed as the best solution to keep the government in check from tyranny while at the same time protecting the basic rights of the people. The Whig Party was concerned about property, English constitution and virtue as essential elements of the contract between the government and the governed. The Whig thought was highly motivated by the writings of John Locke, John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon as well as politicians such as William Atwood, Robert Ferguson and Henry Hallam (Leslie, 2006). Whig ideology was encouraged by Whig Party officials who fought for England’s older political system. Whig suggested that the ruling party was deviating from the best political system. The Whig ideology in England was exhibited in the Exclusion Crisis which involved a plan by the Whig Party to exclude James, Duke of York, from getting into the throne in the seventeenth century. Anti-catholic movements were rising in England. The Tories who were on the throne supported the Catholic ideologies. St. Charles II was the current leader at that time and he was planning to make James his heir. When the plan of the Whig Party to exclude James from the throne failed, they decided to use violence to exclude James from taking the throne (Leslie, 2006). This was planned through the Rye House conspiracy. However, the conspiracy failed and some of the Whig members involved were executed. The execution crisis led to the rise of another faction of the Whigs referred to as Whig Radicals. Later, the Whig Party and the Tory Party formed two different political positions, giving birth to a two-party system in England that is similar to the Democrat-Republican party system of the modern United States. The traditional position of the Tory party was the support for the established church, monarchy and land owners. When George III became King of England in 1760, he fought to end the divisive politics between Whig Party and the Tory Party but he did not succeed. George III’s kingship was against the ideals of the Whigs. This made the Whigs to feel marginalized. They were left with two options: to join the Tories or to defend their ideology. They chose the latter option (Marshall, 1967). The Whig Party played a crucial role in supporting the colonists in the parliament. The ideology of the Whigs was varied among different factions of the Whig Party. However, the principles of the Whigs clearly showed that the Whigs supported an ideology based on sovereignty, separation of power and virtue (Marshall, 1967). The Whigs believed in the protection of individual rights of citizens and allowing them to provide their political views. They opposed centralized system because it vests a lot of political power on politicians rather than devolving such power to the people. One of the ideas of the Whig ideology is the Whig’s view on the importance of property. According to the Whigs, property owners should be given the power to contribute in various political and economic decisions made by the government because their properties are often affected by government policies. They believed on the proposition that “property was king” (Leslie, 2006). Property owners paid taxes, contributing to the country’s government revenue. This emphasis on property reflected the position of the Whigs, because most of them were property owner. They were referred to as natural aristocrats. The natural aristocrats believed that they had a significant role to play in the government. They believed that they brought political balance in the government due to their role of defending their property. The Whigs also considered themselves as the guardians of political liberty. The second ideology of the Whigs was based on Locke’s Treaties on Civil Government. In this writing, Locke talks about the role of government and individual rights (Marshall, 1967). The ideology presented in this book was that the government should protect people’s natural rights. According to Basil (1962), Locke was considered as “the evangelist of Whig doctrine” due to his ideology on government role and natural law. Locke argued that a civil government should consider all men equal because it is natural that all men were created equal. The Whig ideology is that the government should protect the wellbeing of all citizens, and citizens should be ready to give up some of their freedoms. John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon also publicized some of the famous ideologies of the Whigs in Cato’s Letters in 1720s. According to them, sovereignty, patriotism, virtue and natural liberties should be the fundamental political ideas of governments (Ketcham, 1970). The Whig Party advocated for these ideologies. One of the essential beliefs of the Whigs was that too much power should not be left to one individual. The Whigs challenged and rebuked the fact that a ruler in the Great Britain could rise to power with bad intentions. They considered that power and virtue had indirect correlation in Britain (Ketcham, 1970). This was one of the major flaws of the political system of the Great Britain. The Whig ideology relied on virtue and its role in the government. They opposed corruption as a means of accessing power and opposed selfishness of leaders. They also opposed abuse of power by the rulers because it led to loss of liberty and increased tyranny. The Whigs also believed in the constitution as a means protecting the citizens against abuse of power by an individual or a group of individuals. They also advocated for a parliamentary system which encouraged the balance of power between the king, the lords and the citizens. This was highlighted by politician Henry Hallam, a strong member of the Whig Party. This formed the basis of Whig ideology on mixed government that was considered important in preventing abuse of power (Bailyn, 1992). A mixed government acted as a means checking different branches of the government and protects the freedom of each individual. On sovereignty, the Whigs believed that the only reason why a ruler would reign was because they received acceptance and consent from the people. This formed the basis for democracy in USA. Between 1763 and 1777, The Whig ideologies conflicted with the British actions. The British abused power through its monarchy and aristocratic form of government. For example, Sugar Act was formed in 1764 to impose custom duties on commodities. The British Parliament also imposed a lot of direct taxes on the people to raise revenue Colonists fought for their underrepresentation in the parliament. Various mechanisms were used to resist the British actions. They used boycotts, public demonstrations, threats of violence, and real violence. The Patriots started to revolt against the British government and the Whigs supported them and acted on their behalf in parliament because their political views were similar. The ideologies of having a constitution reflected the desires of the American Patriots, leading to the drafting of the American constitution that started a gradual process of creating a political system that governed the United States until today. The Thirteen Colonies that supported the American Revolution borrowed their political ideologies from the Whigs, or at least had similar ideologies with them. The American Revolution took place between 1765 and 1783 as a struggle between the political ideologies of Patriots and those of Loyalists (Leslie, 2006). Thirteen Colonies of America rejected the British Monarchy and aristocracy in the same manner as the Whigs when they opposed the British Monarchy under the Tory in 17th and 18th centuries (Leslie, 2006). Because the Whigs had the same ideologies as the Thirteen Colonies, they supported them in the American Revolution. The struggle led to independence and the foundation of United States of America. The American Revolution was built upon the unanimous belief among the Whigs and American Patriots of different economic and social classes regarding the rights of Americans. The Whig relied on its ideology of protected people’s individual rights to support the Americans in their revolutionary war against the abuse of power by the British Government (Bailyn, 1992). They helped and motivated Americans to uphold their principles of republicans which relied heavily on ideologies similar to those of the Whigs, including sovereignty of the people, virtues of leaders, and protection of the individual rights of citizens through a constitution. The colonists believed that through the American Revolution Britain was preserving its constitution, but it emerged that the founding fathers created America’s own form of government, leading to a separate political identity from that of Britain. During the Philadelphia Convention, a mixed government was formed, influenced by the Whig ideology of mixed government that is intended to create a balance of power between political leaders and the people (Bailyn, 1992). In this case, the Whig ideology played a crucial role in forming America’s political identity and form of government. Indeed, Whig ideologies influenced American politics during the American Revolution and declaration of independence. America used British politics to propagate their own political ideologies of the revolution and independence era. Whig ideas such as mixed government, protection of people’s rights and constitutional leadership led to the development of American political ideas. From this perspective, it is clear that the Whig ideology was important in America’s revolution and independence. This is proved by the similarity between the Whig ideology and America’s post-independence political ideology. America’s leadership is still based on some fundamental ideologies of the Whigs (Founding Fathers) until today. References list Basil, W. (1962). The Whig Supremacy, 1714-1760. London: Oxford University Press. Bailyn, B. (1992). The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Ketcham, R. (1970). Whig-Loyalism: An Aspect of Political Ideology in the American Revolutionary Era by William Allen Benton. The New England Quarterly, 43(2), 320- 322. Leslie, M. (2006). The Whig World: 1760-1837. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. Marshall, L. (1967). The Strange Stillbirth of the Whig Party. American Historical Review, 72 (2), 445–68. Read More