Whigs

The term “Whig” has several different meanings, depending on the historical context. The term emerged in the second half of the 17th century in Great Britain as a derogatory word to describe those individuals who opposed James, the duke of York, inheriting the Crown of his brother Charles II. Supporters of the Stuart monarchy derived the word from “whigamore,” which had been applied to Scottish coventers (Presbyterians who helped to bring on the English civil wars of the 1640s) as an insult. Whigs supported parliamentary supremacy and the Protestant succession. They thus became the prime movers behind the Glorious Revolution (1688-89) that drove the Catholic James II from the throne and enhanced the role of Parliament in government. The Whigs then coalesced into a political party opposed by the Tories who supported a stronger monarchy. With the Hanoverian succession in 1714, the Whigs emerged as the dominant political force and in one form or another they controlled the government for most of the rest of the 18th century.

H owever, in the 18th century important divisions also emerged among the Whigs. While the political party became entrenched under leaders like Sir Robert Walpole (sometimes this group is referred to as the Whig Oligarchy), another group, referred to as commonwealthmen or the real or true Whigs, began to criticize Walpole and his supporters for abandoning Whig principles and engrossing too much power at the expense of the liberty of the people. The individuals who would later become the leaders of the American Revolution became avid readers of the pamphlets and articles written by the true Whigs. Throughout the 1760s and 1770s, opposition to imperial regulation was often defended in the name of Whig principles. In fact, once the Revolutionary War (1775-83) broke out, the supporters of the resistance movement called themselves Whigs and their opponents Tories.

There are two other important uses of the word Whig. First, an American Whig political party, advocating a more active government, emerged in the 1830s and 1840s. And second, historians sometimes use the phrase “Whig history” to describe an interpretation of either the English or the American past that de-emphasizes conflict among social groups and centers on the inevitable unfolding of the triumph of liberty and democracy. Critics of this interpretation do not see that triumph as inevitable or complete. They also believe that Whig history tends to focus on stories of great white men and ignore the history of race, class, and gender.

See also republicanism.

Further reading: Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1969).