Democratic Party
one of the two chief divisions into which the voters of the United States are politically associated, first opposed to the Whigs, then to the Re Republicans.
The complete evolution of the Democratic party may be said to date from the accession of Andrew Jackson to the presidency, though its fundamental principles were enunciated by Thomas Jefferson. The political features of Jackson's administration were the opposition to the United States Bank, the denial of the right of any State to nullify the laws of Congress, and the excitement over the tariff question. In 1836 through the influence of Jackson, Martin Van Buren was elected President, and during his administration the prestige of the Democratic party began to wane.
In 1837 the country went through a severe commercial panic. Credit, speculation and banking had been carried to extreme limits and disaster followed.
For this state of affairs the administration was held responsible. The election of 1840 was a revolution and in the choice of General Harrison by the electoral vote of 234 to 60 the Democratic party, after an ascendency of its principles entailing 40 years of power, was forced to retire. But the Whig triumph was short-lived. General Harrison died one month after his inauguration and John Tyler, who had been nominated for Vice-President to conciliate Virginia, succeeded to the presidential chair. All his life he had held and advocated Democratic doctrines, especially the opposition to the United States Bank, a protective tariff, and internal improvements by the general government. On his accession he continued the cabinet of his predecessor, Daniel Webster being Secretary of State; but after two successive vetoes of the "Fiscal Bank of the United States" bill, his cabinet left him, Mr. Webster remaining only till the conclusion of the Webster-Ashburton treaty, and his administration became essentially Democratic. In 1844 James K. Polk was elected President, after a bitter and exciting contest, over Henry Clay. The annexation of Texas, which was urged by the Democratic party, was the great question in determining this election, and was accomplished March 1, 184 1, 1845, three days before the inauguration of Mr. Polk.
This led to a war with Mexico which was declared May 12, 1846. At its successful conclusion not only was the Rio Grande DEMOCRATIC PARTY On established as the boundary of Texas, but all New Mexico and Upper California were relinquished to the United States.
In March, 1820, an act known as the Missouri Compromise, had been passed, forbidding the introduction of slavery in any of the States formed from the Louisiana Cession N. of 36° 30'. On Aug. 8, 1846, the rejection of the socalled Wilmot Proviso by the Senate, which provided "That as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico by the United States....neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory," became the starting point of the Free Soil party in 1848. Mr. Wilmot, the mover, was a Democrat. The popularity of General Taylor caused the defeat of Lewis Cass in the election of 1848, and the Democratic party went out of power till 1853, when Franklin Pierce became President. In 1856 it elected James Buchanan President and John C. Breckenridge Vice-President. At the convention held in Charleston, S. C., April, 1860, the slavery issue caused a disruption of the party, the slave section nominating John C. Breckenridge, and the free, Stephen A. Douglas, and, on Mr.
Lincoln's election, it lost the supremacy which it had held with little interruption for 60 years. It had, however, a vigorous life, and contested hotly every presidential election, its unsuccessful candidates being George B. McClellan, 1864; Horatio Seymour, 1868; Horace Greeley, 1872; Samuel J. Tilden, 1876; and Winfield S. Hancock, 1880. In 1884 the party elected its candidate for the presidency, Grover Cleveland. In 1888, Mr. Cleveland, having been renominated, the party was defeated. In 1892 Mr. Cleveland again became the nominee of the party against the sharp and critical opposition of the Democratic organization of his own State (New York).
In the first year of his second administration, Mr. Cleveland called a special session of Congress for the purpose of repealing the law compelling the monthly purchase of silver by the government; and this was accomplished against the determined opposition of many prominent Democrats. Dissension soon therefore arose in the party over the tariff, centering around the so-called Wilson Bill. The opponents of the administration, led by Gorman of Maryland, Brice of Ohio, and others, succeeded in amending the bill to an extent deemed so undemocratic that the President could give it but a qualified approval, and it became a law without without his signature. signature. The necessity of issuing bonds for the purpose of maintaining the gold reserve, DEMOCRITUS thus increasing the public debt, and the adoption of silver free coinage in the platform of 1896 overthrew the party, its presidential candidate, William J. Bryan, being defeated by William McKinley, for whom many Democrats in favor of sound money and the gold standard voted.
In 1904 Alton B. Parker, a conservative democrat, was nominated. Theodore Roosevelt was chosen by the Republicans and elected, having obtained 336 electoral votes to Judge Parker's 140. In 1908 William J. Bryan and William H.
Taft were the contestants. Taft won, receiving 321 Electoral votes to Bryan's 162. Taft was again chosen by the Re- 1912. The Democratic convention held at Baltimore, June 25, after several days ' balloting nominated Woodrow Wilson, Governor of New Jersey.
The new Progressive party, in convention assembled at Chicago, August 5, nominated Theodore Roosevelt. The result of the election showed, Wilson 435, Roosevelt 88, and Taft 8. At the Democratic convention cratic convention held at St. Louis, June, Wilson and Thomas Marshall were nominated by acclamation. Charles E.
Hughes of New York and C. W.
Fairbanks of Indiana were nominated by the Republicans. The result of the sult of the election was a plurality vote of 581,941. In 1920 the Democrats nominated J. M. Cox, Governor of Ohio , who was defeated by Warren G.
Harding, the Republican nominee, by a vote of 16 132,914 to 9,142,438. a DEMOCRITU (dē-mok'ri-tus), Greek philosopher of the new Eleatic school, a native of Abdera, who was born between 470 and 460 B. C. He traveled to Egypt, where he studied geometry.
Among the Greek philosophers he eninstruction of Leucippus. He afterward returned to his native city, where he was placed at the head of public affairs.
Indignant at the follies of the the Abderites, he resigned his office and himself exclusively to philosophical studies.
He explained the origin of the world by the eternal motion of an infinite numthe eternal motion of an infinite number of invisible and indivisible bodies or atoms, which differ from one another in form, position, and arrangement, and which have a primary motion, which brings them into contact, and forms incombinations, the result of which is seen in the productions and phenomena of nature.
In this way the universe was formed, fortuitously, without the interposition of a First Cause . He applied his atomical theory, also, to natural philosophy and astronomy. Even the gods he considered to have arisen from atoms, DEMONOLOGY and to be perishable like the rest of things existing. written a great deal; but nothing has things existing. He is said to have come to us except a few fragments. He died 370 в. C., at an advanced age. His school was supplanted by that of Epicurus.