Period Politics

[Tartan Jack]

In the period, what were the issues and sides taken by the Whig and Tory parties?

What I've read on the 17-teens is VERY different from what I've read of the terms from the American Revolution just over 50 years later.

Did the parties change in between or is the impression of one period or the other (incompatible) wrong?

What made a Whig, a Whig?

What made a Tory, a Tory?

[Daniel]

In the period, what were the issues and sides taken by the Whig and Tory parties?

What I've read on the 17-teens is VERY different from what I've read of the terms from the American Revolution just over 50 years later.

Did the parties change in between or is the impression of one period or the other (incompatible) wrong?

What made a Whig, a Whig?

What made a Tory, a Tory?

You're right; Whig-Tory politics in late 17th and early 18th century England have basically nothing to do with those terms as used int he American Revolution.

Speaking broadly . . .

Whigs: Supremacy of Parliament. "Court ideology," which includes an aggressive commitment to alliances and wars to maintain the balance of power in Europe, a strong Navy, and strengthening the State (especially with the Bank of England). They don't actually like Jews or Dissenters, but want them tolerated to make sure they stay on the Whigs' side if it comes to another struggle with the King. Strongly anti-Jacobite, and often accuse the Tories of being Jacobites.

Tories: Supremacy of the King (which leads to all kinds of embarrassment and wriggling about how to justify kicking James II out). "Country ideology," idealizing the rustic life of the gentry, limited parliamentary power, low taxes, and low spending. Strong supporters of the Anglican Church, opposed to any form of toleration for Dissenters or Jews. Contrary to Whig propaganda, most Tories are not Jacobites (their strong support for Anglicanism leads them to dread a Catholic monarchy), but almost all Jacobites are Tories.

As in any party system, the objective of both parties is to win power, and ideology can be distorted or discarded to achieve that goal. You win power chiefly by buttering up the monarch in the hope that he or she will give your party the plum jobs, so the Whigs naturally don't present themselves as hostile to the monarchy; they just try to convince the King or Queen that a strong Parliament is the best way to get the monarch what he or she wants (especially, giving the monarch lotsa free cash to play with). This, and the Whigs' success in portraying the Tories as Jacobites, caused the Whigs to dominate government for much of the Golden Age of Piracy.

Feelings between the Whigs and Tories were pretty bitter; they didn't socialize and children from one party were not normally allowed to marry children of the other.

[Capt. Sterling]

Oh we need one of those quizes... answer the questions and by your responses you would most likely be a Whig or if you answered the questions the other way you would most likely be a Tory...

From Daniel's explanation (thank ye Daniel)... I am certainly a little bit of both

Edited April 23, 2010 by Capt. Sterling

[Capt. Sterling]

Oi Daniel... do you know enough to "pigeon hole" some of us...if we were to write down what we would support given your definition? It would help with some of the living history...

[Daniel]

Oi Daniel... do you know enough to "pigeon hole" some of us...if we were to write down what we would support given your definition? It would help with some of the living history...

I could try, Captain. But I think for most people at that time, the party they belonged to would be dictated by the allegiances of their parents or lords, not their own personal values. That was still a time when people attached their loyalty to a person, not to abstract concepts like liberty, democracy, the Constitution, or stuff like that. You see that especially with the Scottish clans: the Campbells were Whigs, the MacDonalds were Tories, and the individual clansmen weren't free to pick their own party based on their individual beliefs.