<Ul> <Li> Politics of United States </Li> <Li> Political parties </Li> <Li> Elections </Li> </Ul> <Li> Politics of United States </Li> <P> The Whig Party was a political party active in the middle of the 19th century in the United States . Four United States Presidents belonged to the party while in office . It emerged in the 1830s as the leading opponent of Jacksonians, pulling together former members of the National Republican (one of the successors of the Democratic - Republican Party) and the Anti-Masonic Party . It had distant links to the upscale traditions of the Federalist Party . Along with the rival Democratic Party, it was central to the Second Party System from the early 1840s to the mid-1860s . It originally formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson (in office 1829--1837) and his Democratic Party . In particular, the Whigs supported the supremacy of the United States Congress over the Presidency and favored a program of modernization, banking and economic protectionism to stimulate manufacturing . It appealed to entrepreneurs, planters, reformers and the emerging urban middle class, but had little appeal to farmers or unskilled workers . It included many active Protestants and voiced a moralistic opposition to the Jacksonian Indian removal . Party founders chose the "Whig" name to echo the American Whigs of the 18th century who fought for independence . The underlying political philosophy of the American Whig Party was not directly related to the British Whig party . Historian Frank Towers has specified a deep ideological divide: </P> <P> Democrats stood for the' sovereignty of the people' as expressed in popular demonstrations, constitutional conventions, and majority rule as a general principle of governing, whereas Whigs advocated the rule of law, written and unchanging constitutions, and protections for minority interests against majority tyranny . </P>

Where did the whig party get its name