Whig Party

From Turtledove

The Whig Party was a conservative political party in the Confederate States. From the formation of the country to the presidential election of November 1933, the Whig Party was the dominating party of C.S.A. For most of this period it had only minor opposition from the Radical Liberal Party. The party's base was made up of southern aristocrats. They mostly based the economy on agriculture rather than industry in contrast to the Freedom Party, which favored industrial needs. It was resistant to change and that is one of the main reasons why it lost power to the Freedom Party.

[edit] The Whig Party in the United States

Before the brief rise of the Republican Party, the Whigs were the main opposition to the Democrats. They opposed slavery and were popular in the North, making the name an odd choice for a major Confederate party. A possible explanation is that the name was inspired more by the British Whigs than the American ones, with the Liberal-Whig Lord Palmerston, Prime Minster of Britain in 1862, having a major share in the achievement of Confederate independence - which would give him and his party a considerable popularity. Also, the British Whigs had been (at least until the Reform in 1832) a party dominated by big landlords, as was the Confederate Party of the same name. (So were the British Tories, but this name had very negative connotations in America, North and South alike, after 1776, and would not have been suitable.)