Tertium quids
|
Old Republicans
|
|
|---|---|
| Leaders |
Thomas McKean, Morgan Lewis, John Randolph, John Taylor, Nathaniel Macon |
| Founded | 1806 |
| Dissolved | 1828 |
| Ideology |
Republicanism Conservatism Anti-Expansionism |
| National affiliation | Democratic-Republican Party |
The tertium quids (sometimes shortened to quids) refers to various factions of the American Democratic-Republican Party during the period 1804–1812. In Latin, tertium quid means "a third something". Quid was a disparaging term that referred to cross-party coalitions of Federalists and moderate Democratic-Republicans.
Between 1801 and 1806 rival factions of Jeffersonian Republicans in Philadelphia engaged in intense public debate and vigorous political competition that pitted radical democrats against moderates who defended the traditional rights of the propertied classes. The radicals, led by William Duane, publisher of the Jeffersonian Aurora, agitated for legislative reforms that would increase popular representation and the power of the poor and laboring classes. Moderates successfully outmaneuvered their radical opponents and kept the Pennsylvania legislature friendly to emergent liberal capitalism. The term was first used in 1804, referring to the moderates, especially a faction of the Republican party calling itself "the Society of Constitutional Republicans." They gathered Federalist support and in 1805 re-elected Governor Thomas McKean, who had been elected by a united Republican party in 1802 but had broken with the majority wing of the party.
In New York state the term was applied to the Republican faction that remained loyal to Governor Morgan Lewis after he was repudiated by the Republican majority led by DeWitt Clinton. The New York and Pennsylvania "quid" factions had no connection with one other at the federal level; both supported President Thomas Jefferson.
When Virginia Congressman John Randolph of Roanoke broke with Jefferson and James Madison in 1806, his Congressional faction was called "quids". Randolph was the leader of the "Old Republican" faction that insisted on strict adherence to the Constitution and opposed any innovations. He summarized Old Republican principles as: "love of peace, hatred of offensive war, jealousy of the state governments toward the general government; a dread of standing armies; a loathing of public debts, taxes, and excises; tenderness for the liberty of the citizen; jealousy, Argus-eyed jealousy of the patronage of the President."
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