Compare and contrast the Democratic Party and the Whig Party of the 1830s and 1840s. Focus on two of the following: the role of federal government in the economy, social reform, westward expansion.

The Whig Party, which eventually transformed in many ways into the Republican Party of Lincoln, was far more in favor of limiting immigration and having a slightly more interventionist central government than the Democrats, who were more focused to maintaining the institution of slavery.