Like most Tories, Behn was distrustful of Parliament and Whigs since the Revolution and wrote propaganda in support of the restored monarchy ( 248 ).

He, however, separated himself from the Whigs on the exclusion question, probably on account of his dislike of the Duke of Monmouth and the Earl of Shaftesbury, was absent from the great debate in the Lords on 15 November 1680, and was restored to the king's favour in 1684.

He was next employed in January 1690 as chairman of the select committee of the House of Commons on the Corporation Bill, by which those corporations which had surrendered their charters to the Crown during the last two reigns were restored to their rights ; but he refused to associate himself with the violent measures of retaliation which the Whigs on that occasion endeavoured to include in the bill.

The Whigs had gained control of the Tennessee legislature, and redrew Johnson's First District so as to ensure that House seat for their party, under the leadership of Gustavus Adolphus Henry, Sr .; the Nashville Union termed this " Henry-mandering ".

The campaign was sure to be a struggle ; the Whigs nominated their " Eagle Orator " Gustavus Henry, and Johnson wasted no time in calling him to task for his " Henry-mandering " of the First District, as their debates made their way across the state from one county seat to the next.

This was primarily a political strategy designed to give the Conservative party control of the reform process and the subsequent long-term benefits in the Commons, similar to those derived by the Whigs after their 1832 Reform Act.

Although their motives in this were originally to gain more power for themselves, the more idealistic Whigs gradually came to support an expansion of democracy for its own sake.

The low church Whigs had failed in their attempt to pass the Exclusion Bill to exclude James from the throne between 1679 and 1681, and James's supporters were the high church Anglican Tories.

Accordingly, each of these groups suddenly forgot their differences with the Whig Party and voted with the Whigs against the proposed budget.

From this point until the end of the century, the Whigs and ( after 1859 ) their successors the Liberal Party, managed to gain a majority of the Westminster Parliamentary seats for Scotland, although these were often outnumbered by the much larger number of English and Welsh Conservatives.

However, in 1708, when the Whigs obtained a majority, Anne did not call on them to form a government, refusing to accept the idea that politicians could force themselves on her merely because their party had a majority.

Though Peel's supporters subsequently split from their colleagues over the issue of free trade in 1846, ultimately joining the Whigs and the Radicals to form what would become the Liberal Party, Peel's version of the party's underlying outlook was retained by the remaining Tories, who adopted his label of Conservative as the official name of their party.

The Whigs suffered greatly from factionalism throughout their existence, as well as weak party loyalty that stood in contrast to the strong party discipline that was the hallmark of a tight Democratic Party organization.

One strength of the Whigs, however, was a superb network of newspapers ; their leading editor was Horace Greeley of the powerful New York Tribune.

In general, commercial and manufacturing towns and cities voted Whig, save for strongly Democratic precincts in Irish Catholic and German immigrant communities ; the Democrats often sharpened their appeal to the poor by ridiculing the Whigs ' aristocratic pretensions.

In general the Democrats enacted their policies at the national level, while the Whigs succeeded in passing modernization projects in most states.

Whigs hoped that their three candidates would amass enough Electoral College votes among them to deny a majority to Martin Van Buren.

That would move the election to the House of Representatives, allowing the ascendant Whigs to select their most popular man as president.

The Whigs came only a few thousand votes short of victory in Pennsylvania, vindicating their strategy but failed nonetheless.

In late 1839, the Whigs held their first national convention and nominated William Henry Harrison as their presidential candidate.

By 1844, the Whigs began their recovery by nominating Henry Clay, who lost to Democrat James K. Polk in a closely contested race, with Polk's policy of western expansion ( particularly the annexation of Texas ) and free trade triumphing over Clay's protectionism and caution over the Texas question.

Attempting to repeat their earlier successes, the Whigs nominated popular General Winfield Scott, who lost decisively to the Democrats ' Franklin Pierce.

Soon the Democrats and Whigs recognized the convention's value in building a party, and held their own conventions.

The Whigs ran four different candidates in different regions of the country, hoping that each would be popular enough to defeat Democratic standard-bearer Martin Van Buren in their respective areas.

The northeastern Whigs, led by Daniel Webster, represented businessmen who loved national unity and a national market but cared little about slavery one way or another.

In The Publick Spirit of the Whigs, it may be noted, Swift himself contemptuously dismissed Steele's reference to his friend at court: `` I suppose by the Style of old Friend, and the like, it must be some Body there of his own Level ; ;

The Whigs had been irreparably split by the Kansas – Nebraska Act.

The 1841 – 42 legislative session, with Whigs having a majority in the House chamber and the Democrats a smaller majority in the Senate, was marked by an impasse over the election of Tennessee's two United States senators.

The Whigs in the House sought, by use of a joint session majority, to dictate the choice of the two U. S. senators.

When his district was redrawn by the Whigs, that party had won the past two gubernatorial elections, in addition to gaining control of the legislature.

The Whigs thought Andrew Johnson a dangerous prospect as a United States Senator, and made it a priority to prevent his election by the state legislature.

An alliance of pro free-trade Conservatives ( the " Peelites "), Radicals, and Whigs carried repeal, and the Conservative Party split: the Peelites moved towards the Whigs, while a " new " Conservative Party formed around the protectionists, led by Disraeli, Bentinck, and Lord Stanley ( later Lord Derby ).

The budget as viewed by many Whigs as " compensation to the landlords ;" and viewed by some as " a compensation with a revenge " against those who had obtained repeal of the Corn Laws.

Gladstone personally supported Home Rule, but a strong Liberal Unionist faction led by Joseph Chamberlain, along with the last of the Whigs, Hartington, opposed it.

Share of the vote received by Conservatives ( blue ), Whigs / Liberals / Liberal Democrats ( orange ), Labour ( red ) and others ( grey ) in general elections since 1832.

These rights, which some Whigs considered to include freedom of the press and freedom of speech, were justified by custom rather than by natural rights.

Although these writings were considered too radical at the time for Britain's new rulers, they later came to be cited by Whigs, radicals and supporters of the American Revolution.

The new Tory ministry hoped to use Kidd as a tool to discredit the Whigs who had backed him, but Kidd refused to name names, naively confident his patrons would reward his loyalty by interceding on his behalf.

Some of the most influential leaders of the Tories united with members of the opposition Whigs and set out to resolve the crisis by inviting William of Orange to England, which the stadtholder, who feared an Anglo-French alliance, had indicated as a condition for a military intervention.

Furthermore, 63 members of Parliament elected in 1852, were members of the " Irish Brigade ," who voted with the Peelites and the Whigs for the repeal of the Corn Laws because they sought an end the Great Irish Famine by means of cheaper wheat and bread prices for the poor and middle classes in Ireland.

Scottish politics in the late 18th century was dominated by the Whigs, with the benign management of Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll ( 1682 – 1761 ), who was in effect the " viceroy of Scotland " from the 1720s until his death in 1761.

Many Whigs feared that opposition would cost them politically by casting themselves as unpatriotic for not supporting the war effort.

In the House, antislavery Whigs led by John Quincy Adams voted against the war ; among Democrats, Senator John C. Calhoun was the most notable opponent of the declaration.

Although his time there was marked by variable health from asthma attacks, he nevertheless became an intellectual hero of the Whigs.

The Southern Whigs hoped that by seizing the initiative on this issue that they would be identified as strong defenders of slavery.