AND THE WHIG COALITION 325 



opposition to the National Republicans at length 

 accepted the name of Democrats, which had formerly 

 been applied to Jefferson's followers by their oppo- 

 nents as a term of disparagement. In the days when 

 Jefferson led the opposition, and the guillotine was 

 at work in Paris, the word democracy seemed to 

 smack of Jacobinism ; but in the days when Andrew 

 Jackson stood for government by the people, it had 

 a pleasant sound. The Democrats were right in 

 thinking themselves the genuine followers of Jef- 

 ferson, and they saw clearly the weak side of the 

 National Republicans, whose doctrines of tariff, bank, 

 and improvements opened the door for limitless job- 

 bery and iniquitous class legislation, and might easily 

 become fraught with serious danger to government 

 by the people and for the people. 



The new division between parties in Jackson's first 

 term was not accomplished in a moment. People 

 did not at once array themselves in opposite ranks. 

 There was doubt and hesitation. General principles 

 were then, as now, complicated and obscured by 

 real or fancied local interests. But by 1832 the 

 Democrats had become solidly welded together into 

 a party with a rational and well-defined policy, and 

 with leaders of great ability and influence, as variously 

 exemplified in Jackson, Benton, Van Buren, and 

 Blair. They were opposed to the theory of paternal 

 government which formulated itself in internal im- 

 provements, tariff, and bank ; and in order to sustain 

 their position, they were inclined to construe the 

 Constitution strictly, and maintain that its implied 

 powers did not extend so far as to justify such a 

 theory. 



