The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in    the United States, along with the younger Republican Party.    Tracing its origins back to the Democratic-Republican Party,    the modern Democratic Party was founded around 1828.[9] There    have been 15 Democratic presidents, the first being Andrew    Jackson, who served from 1829 to 1837; the most recent is    the current president, Barack Obama, who has served since 2009.  
    Since the 1930s, the party has promoted a social liberal    platform.[2][10][11]    Until the late 20th century the party had a powerful    conservative wing based in the rural South, which over time has    greatly diminished. Today its Congressional caucus is composed    mostly of progressives and    centrists.[12]  
    As of the 113th Congress, following the 2012 elections, the    Democratic Party holds a minority of seats in the House of    Representatives and a majority of seats in the United States Senate, as well as a    minority of state governorships and control    of a minority of state    legislatures.  
    The Democratic Party evolved from the Jeffersonian Republican    or Democratic-Republican Party    organized by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in opposition    to the Federalist party of    Alexander Hamilton and John Adams. The party favored republicanism, a weak    federal government, states' rights, agrarian interests    (especially Southern planters) and strict adherence to the    Constitution; it opposed a national bank,    close ties to Great Britain, and business and banking    interests. The Party came to power in the election of    1800.  
    After the War    of 1812, the Federalists virtually disappeared and the    Jeffersonian party split into factions. They split over the    choice of a successor to President James Monroe, and the party faction    that supported many of the old Jeffersonian principles, led by    Andrew    Jackson and Martin Van Buren, became the Democratic    Party. Other factions led by Henry Clay helped form the    Whig Party. The Democratic    Party had a small advantage over the Whigs until the 1850s,    when the Whigs fell apart over the issue of slavery. In 1854,    angry with the KansasNebraska Act,    anti-slavery Democrats left the party and joined Northern Whigs    to form the Republican Party.[13][14]  
    The Democrats split over the choice of a successor to President    James    Buchanan along Northern and Southern lines; factions of the    party provided two separate candidacies for President in the    election of    1860, in which the Republican Party gained ascendancy.    Southern    Democrats, after some delegates followed the lead of the    Fire-Eaters    by walking out of the Democratic convention    at Charleston's Institute Hall in    April 1860, and were subsequently joined by those who, once    again led by the Fire-Eaters, left the Baltimore    Convention the following June when the convention would not    adopt a resolution supporting extending slavery into    territories whose voters did not want it, nominated the    pro-slavery incumbent Vice-President,    John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, for President    and General Joseph Lane, former Governor of Oregon, for Vice President.    The Northern    Democrats proceeded to nominate Senator Stephen    A. Douglas of Illinois for President and former Governor of    Georgia Herschel V. Johnson for    Vice-President, while some southern Democrats joined the    Constitutional    Union Party, backing its nominees (who had both been    prominent Whig leaders), former Senator, Speaker    of the House, and Secretary of War John Bell of Tennessee for President    and the politician, statesman, and educator Edward    Everett of Massachusetts for Vice-President. This    fracturing of the Democrats led to a Republican victory, and    Abraham    Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United    States.  
    As the American Civil War broke out, Northern    Democrats were divided into War Democrats and Peace Democrats. The Confederate States of    America, whose political leadership, mindful of the welter    prevalent in antebellum American politics and with a pressing    need for unity, largely viewed political parties as inimical to    good governance; consequently the Confederacy had none, or at    least none with the wide organization inherent to other    American parties. Most War Democrats rallied to Republican    President Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans' National Union Party    in the election of    1864, which featured Andrew Johnson on the Republican ticket    even though he was a Democrat from the South. Johnson replaced    Lincoln in 1865 but stayed independent of both parties. The    Democrats benefited from white Southerners' resentment of    Reconstruction after the war and consequent    hostility to the Republican Party. After Redeemers ended    Reconstruction in the 1870s, and following the often extremely    violent disenfranchisement of African Americans led    by such white supremacist Democratic politicians    as Benjamin Tillman of South    Carolina in the 1880s and 1890s, the South, voting    Democratic, became known as the "Solid South." Though Republicans won    all but two presidential elections, the Democrats remained    competitive. The party was dominated by pro-business Bourbon    Democrats led by Samuel J. Tilden and Grover    Cleveland, who represented mercantile, banking, and    railroad interests; opposed imperialism and overseas expansion; fought    for the gold standard; opposed bimetallism; and    crusaded against corruption, high taxes, and tariffs. Cleveland    was elected to non-consecutive presidential terms in 1884 and    1892.[15]  
    Agrarian Democrats demanding Free Silver overthrew the    Bourbon Democrats in 1896 and nominated William Jennings Bryan for the    presidency (a nomination repeated by Democrats in 1900 and    1908). Bryan waged a vigorous campaign attacking Eastern    moneyed interests, but he lost to Republican William    McKinley. The Democrats took control of the House in 1910    and elected Woodrow Wilson as president in 1912 and    1916. Wilson effectively led Congress to put to rest the issues    of tariffs, money, and antitrust that had dominated politics    for 40 years with new progressive laws. The Great    Depression in 1929 that occurred under Republican President    Herbert    Hoover and the Republican Congress set the stage for a more    liberal government; the Democrats controlled the House of    Representatives nearly uninterrupted from 1931 until 1995 and    won most presidential elections until 1968. Franklin D. Roosevelt, elected to    the presidency in 1932, came forth with government programs    called the New    Deal. New Deal liberalism meant the promotion of social    welfare, labor unions, civil rights, and regulation of    business. The opponents, who stressed long-term growth, support    for business, and low taxes, started calling themselves    "conservatives."[16]  
    Issues facing parties and the United States after World War II    included the Cold    War and the Civil Rights Movement. Republicans    attracted conservatives and white Southerners from the    Democratic coalition with their use of the Southern    strategy and resistance to New Deal and Great Society    liberalism. African Americans had traditionally supported the    Republican Party because of the anti-slavery agenda of Abraham    Lincoln and successors such as Ulysses Grant. But they began    supporting Democrats following the ascent of the Franklin    Roosevelt administration, the New Deal, the integration of the    military and embrace of proposed civil rights legislation by    President Harry Truman in 194748, and the postwar Civil Rights    movement. The Democratic Party's main base of support shifted    to the Northeast, marking a dramatic    reversal of history. Bill Clinton was elected to the presidency    in 1992, governing as a New Democrat. The Democratic Party lost    control of Congress in the election of 1994 to the Republican    Party. Re-elected in 1996, Clinton was the first Democratic    President since Franklin Roosevelt to be elected to two terms.    Following twelve years of Republican rule, the Democratic Party    regained majority control of both the House and the Senate in    the 2006 elections. Some of the party's key    issues in the early 21st century in their last national    platform have included the methods of how to combat terrorism, homeland    security, expanding access to health care, labor rights,    environmentalism, and the preservation of liberal government    programs.[17] In the    2010 elections, the    Democratic Party lost control of the House, but kept a small    majority in the Senate (reduced from the 111th Congress). It    also lost its majority in state legislatures and state    governorships. However, the 2012 elections    which re-elected President Obama represented a partial reversal    of the results of the 2010 midterm vote, increasing the    Democratic majority in the Senate and reducing the Republican    majority in the House.  
    The Democratic Party traces its origins to the inspiration of    the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson,    James Madison, and other influential opponents of the Federalists in 1792. That party also inspired    the Whigs and modern Republicans. Organizationally, the modern    Democratic Party truly arose in the 1830s, with the election of    Andrew    Jackson. Since the division of the Republican Party in the    election of    1912, it has gradually positioned itself to the left    of the Republican Party on economic and social issues.  
The rest is here: 
Democratic Party (United States) - Wikipedia, the free ...