While I generally agree with this, I have to comment on the whole Whigs=Federalist thing. Yes, the Whigs were just the Federalists under another name, which is why one of their most prominent leaders was lifelong Federalist...
Henry Clay.
They had some similar interests, but ultimately, Whigs were Whigs...
Simply because some Whigs did not come from the Federalists did not mean the Whig Party was not essentially the Federalist Party. I can name drop Daniel Webster. Some Federalists joined the Jacksonian Democrats instead. So what? All political parties are coalitions of various interest groups. Sometimes those coalitions changes as the interests of those groups change and the political enviroment changes.
The Federalists declined and disappeared because of various political mistakes and bad luck. But there were a core to their policies and we can compare them to the Whigs.
The Federalists are best known for being defined as 1) supporting a strong central government, 2) supporting internal improvements to boost industry and commerce, 3) favored a national bank, 4) was aligned with the nation's financial interests, and 5) while not anti-slavery, was suspicious of slavepower.
The Whigs are best known for being defined as 1) supporting a strong central government, 2) supporting internal improvements to boost industry and commerce, 3) favored a national bank, 4) was aligned with the nation's financial interests, and 5) while not anti-slavery, was suspicious of slavepower.
There were differences of course, reflecting the general change in the country as a whole from the 1790s to 1820s and beyond. And some Whig policies would have been considered Jeffersonian Democrats policies in the times of the 1790s. But those issues had been decided in the interim (just as Jefferson accepted a lot of Federalist policies).
The only major difference is that the Whigs were strongly against the "tyrannical" presidency of Andrew Jackson who was the first executive to strongly wield the veto and expanded the power of the executive branch. This was not an issue that existed before Andrew Jackson, and neither the Federalists nor Democratic-Republicans argued about it.
In contrast, we can line up the defining core ideas of the Jeffersonian Democrats with the Jacksonian Democrats, and we are going to see a lot of similarities there. They supported states' rights, were against internal improvements, were against a national bank, were suspicious of commerce and industry, and were much more supportive of slavery.
Anyone who studies American history from 1790-1860 will basically see these two forces fighting it out under various names and personalities.