The Whig Party was a political party active in the middle of the 19th century in the United States of America. Many of the early Presidents of the United States were members of the Whig Party. Along with the rival Democratic Party, it was central to the Second Party System from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s. It formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson (in office 1829–37) and his Democratic Party. In particular, the Whigs supported the supremacy of Congress over the Presidency and favored a program of modernization, banking and economic protectionism to stimulate manufacturing. It appealed to entrepreneurs and planters, but had little appeal to farmers or unskilled workers. It included many active Protestants, and voiced a moralistic opposition to the Jacksonian Indian removal policies. The "Whig" name was chosen to echo the American Whigs of 1776, who fought for independence. "Whig" meant opposing tyranny. Historian Frank Towers has specified a deep ideological divide:

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.