Party Name
Political parties were new in the United States, and people were not accustomed to having formal names for them. There was no single, official name for the party. Party members generally called themselves "Republicans" and voted for what they called the "Republican Party," "republican ticket," or the "republican interest". Jefferson and Madison often used the terms "republican" and "Republican party" in their letters. The 1804 Convention of Republican members of Congress that renominated Jefferson described itself as a, "regular republican caucus."
This name was used by contemporaries only occasionally.
The term "republican" was in widespread usage from the 1770s to describe the political values of the nation, especially the emphasis on civic duty and the opposition to corruption, elitism, aristocracy and monarchy. The word is used in the U.S. Constitution.
Read more about this topic: Democratic-Republican Party
Famous quotes containing the word party:
“I recommend to you, in my last, an innocent piece of art: that of flattering people behind their backs, in presence of those who, to make their own court, much more than for your sake, will not fail to repeat, and even amplify, the praise to the party concerned. This is of all flattery the most pleasing, and consequently the most effectual.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“He said, truly, that the reason why such greatly superior numbers quailed before him was, as one of his prisoners confessed, because they lacked a cause,—a kind of armor which he and his party never lacked. When the time came, few men were found willing to lay down their lives in defense of what they knew to be wrong; they did not like that this should be their last act in this world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)